Thinking Aloud: Self-Confidence 2

So, last time, I sketched an idea of self-confidence as functionally similar to other forms of confidence in being something that requires "putting in the hours." I didn't, however, sketch out what that means, and it's also the case that it's a little bit more complicated than that. What follows is my attempt to figure out what "putting in the hours" means.

Old Leaf 2: I Paint Its Passage

I cannot fix my object; it is always tottering and reeling by a natural giddiness; I take it as it is at the instant I consider it; I do not paint its being, I paint its passage; not a passing from one age to another, or, as the people say, from seven to seven years, but from day to day, from minute to minute, I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention. It is a counterpart of various and changeable accidents, and of irresolute imaginations, and, as it falls out, sometimes contrary: whether it be that I am then another self, or that I take subjects by other circumstances and considerations: so it is that I may peradventure contradict myself, but, as Demades said, I never contradict the truth. Could my soul once take footing, I would not essay, but resolve: but it is always learning and making trial.

Michel de Montaigne, "On Repentance."