Thursday, February 19, 2009

When confidence means esteem...

Let me ask you one simple question. What is confidence? Is it the way you trust yourself on doing what you do? Is it the way you are certain that you are doing the right thing no matter what people might think? While you still have time to think about your definition of confidence, later on we'll discover that confident is always related to self-confidence. Thus, we can say that self-confidence is having confidence in yourself. When we do things we are not sure that it is correct or not, it is very normal for human to have such thoughts. It is said that worries is human nature. But we're not gonna stress about the worry-feeling in here, but more into the feeling of being able to turn your confidence into a positive thoughts. Try not to mix your confidence with your arrogance. Because one might be arrogant is the confidence is way too high that one might not be able to respect what others think about what he/she is doing. having self confidence is the trigger which pulls off every positive aspect of life

Probably now you might think about what the relationship between self-confidence and self-esteem is? Closely related I believe. One stated that self esteem is not gained through positive thinking. Self esteem can be gained by setting goals and being able to achieve those goals. Here's a simple example. Say that you have to present a really important work presentation. Therefore, I believe that your goal here is to make the best presentation that will satisfy your co-workers and your boss. You keep in mind the goal and you strive your best to make the best possible presentation. By doing this, you have within you a self-confidence. But don't forget, you have to prepare first! Once the time has come for you to do the presentation, you convince yourself that you can do it and you can make yourself proud. This is a positive thought within you that can boost your self-confidence. So you came to the office, you did the presentation and you conquer the task. It's a success. You have made yourself proud and able to walk with your chin up. This is the other way of saying that your self-confidence shape your self-esteem. From then on, you have a self-esteem because you're able to achieve your goal. However, there's a possibility that you'd fail. And if you may fail, it is OK to feel sad (for only a short moment), but remember there's always a new day to begin again. Remember to try again tomorrow and to succeed! And if you fail enough times, you might want to re-evaluate the goals. Here's an article I've found regarding these two terms.

Self Esteem And Self Confidence
In a world full of languages and in a language with a wide expanse of vocabulary, you can only imagine multifarious words getting interchanged or mistaken for each other's meaning. The same is true of the words self-esteem and self-confidence. There have been countless times that these words have been used yet how many really know what each means? What are actually the differences between these two concepts? Read on to find out what beliefs you have which are waiting to be corrected.
One of the most common discrepancies of self-esteem and self-confidence is that the first one is your overall look of yourself, how you give respect to yourself. The second one is your trust or faith in your own abilities. If direction is to be applied on these definitions, it is safe to say that self-esteem is about looking inwards, while self-confidence is how you see outwards. If mental affirmations are involved, self-esteem is saying, "I am good" while self-confidence is saying to yourself, "I can do this."

Deconstructing your esteem and confidence
Then again, it's not as simple as it may seem. Self-esteem has its underlying factors contributing to the sum respect you give yourself. The same can be said about self-confidence.
Some of the elements contributing to whether you have low or high self-esteem are your conscience, guilt, and security. This means that it would be awfully challenging for you to have a good self-esteem if your conscience is nagging you that you are a person with distorted values.
As for self-confidence, a person may not fully depend his level of confidence on the abilities he has. He may find confidence in such external factors as power, money, and social status. A fine example of this is your confidence rooted in the fact that you are more financially challenged than most people you know.

It's all in the mind
Since these concepts are both founded on psychology, the levels of your self-esteem and self-confidence are not entirely dependent on your environment, your experiences and/or your schema or stored knowledge.You have the power to control these levels, especially if you'll keep in mind the following definitions: self-esteem is also the value you place on yourself while self-confidence is the expectation of success. This just goes to show that no matter how ignominious your past may be, it does not serve as an alibi for you to have a low self-esteem. It is up to you to put value on yourself, on your own worth as a person, irrespective of your past failures. The same is true of your self-confidence since even if you are surrounded by utterly intelligent or successful people, it is up to you whether to translate this situation as a reason to sulk and whine about your incompetence or to treat it as a challenge that you can also reach such heights. (source from here)

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” — Mark Victor Hansen

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