The chapter starts with the body, so start there. Tiptoe buys you about two inches for about a minute, and the long stride gets you there more tired. The rest of the list is the same stretch done socially, and in the next line the chapter compares all of it to leftover food and a tumor, so it wasn't in a gentle mood. Most of your tiptoeing probably happens away from work, sounding surer than you are with the in-laws, or more on top of things than you are at the school gate. In one of those conversations today, come down onto your heels and say it at its actual size.
He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him.
Tao Te Ching, ch. 24 (trans. James Legge)