I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time.

The remark contrasts external validation with inner resources. It suggests that confidence and resilience are often mislocated—sought in approval, authority figures, or circumstances—when they are better understood as capacities that can be recognized and cultivated internally. In a psychoanalytic frame associated with Anna Freud, the line can be read as emphasizing ego-strength: the ability to tolerate anxiety, reality-test, and maintain self-cohesion without constant external props. The final sentence (“It is there all the time”) underscores a latent, enduring potential rather than a trait granted by others, implying that growth involves uncovering and trusting what already exists within the self.