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121 " What I’m saying here is that first impressions based on the qualities of enthusiasm, passion, and confidence might actually be quite sound—precisely because they’re so hard to fake. When you are not present, people can tell. When you are, people respond. "
― Amy Cuddy , Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
122 " you deserve to adopt open, comfortable postures and to take up your fair share of space regardless of your gender. "
123 " The decisiveness of power is rooted in knowing that we will always have access to the resources we need. "
124 " Your authentic best self — your boldest self — is not about psyching yourself up or saying, “I am the best at this task” or “I’m a winner.” Your boldest self emerges through the experience of having full access to your values, traits, and strengths and knowing that you can autonomously and sincerely express them through your actions and interactions. "
125 " the authentic self is an experience — a state, not a trait. "
126 " On the other hand, the source of secure high self-esteem is internal. It doesn’t need external validation to thrive, "
127 " Research conducted over many years has shown that in terms of brain activity and behavioral effects, mental imagery of movement closely resembles actual physical movement. "
128 " many of the negative effects of social power diminish when people are motivated by their perception of themselves as fair and decent, their desire to be accurate, and their sense of accountability for others or responsibility to meet their organization’s goals — "
129 " Presence isn’t about pretending to be competent; it’s about believing in and revealing the abilities you truly have. It’s about shedding whatever is blocking you from expressing who you are. It’s about tricking yourself into accepting that you are indeed capable. Sometimes you have to get out of the way of yourself so you can be yourself. "
130 " because personal power is infinite and does not require us to in any way control someone else, we don’t have a sense of scarcity about it. "
131 " And so I believe that personal power, unlike social power, becomes contagious "
132 " personal power brings us closer to our best selves, while the lack of it distorts and obscures our selves. "
133 " When we stop looking after our own posture, we are abandoning ourselves. "
134 " meticulously analyzing videos of 185 venture capital presentations — looking at both verbal and nonverbal behavior — Lakshmi ended up with results that surprised her: the strongest predictor of who got the money was not the person’s credentials or the content of the pitch. The strongest predictors of who got the money were these traits: confidence, comfort level, and passionate enthusiasm. Those who succeeded did not spend their precious moments in the spotlight worrying about how they were doing or what others thought of them. No spirit under the stairs awaited them, because they knew they were doing their best. In other words, those who succeeded were fully present, and their presence was palpable. It came through mostly in nonverbal ways — vocal qualities, gestures, facial expressions, and so on.6 "
135 " expanding our bodies changes the way we feel about ourselves, creating a virtuous cycle. So what matters to me is that you find the techniques that best suit you. If you don’t, you’re squandering a precious opportunity. "
136 " Both chronic and acute anxiety impair some of our most important cognitive functions in part by interfering with activity in the prefrontal cortex (among other areas), which plays an essential role in aligning our actions and thoughts with our internal goals and feelings.11 "
137 " By finding, believing, expressing, and then engaging our authentic best selves, especially if we do it right before our biggest challenges, we reduce our anxiety about social rejection and increase our openness to others. "
138 " The same threats exist for us all, but powerlessness heightens our sense of the potential danger, setting off a chain reaction that, paradoxically, disables us all the more. "
139 " while our trustworthiness and warmth benefit other people, we believe that our competence and strength directly benefit us.4 So we want others to be warm and trustworthy, but we want them to see us as competent and strong. "
140 " powerlessness induces something called goal neglect — the general phenomenon of failing to remain focused on a goal, which prevents you from executing the necessary task. "