From aiding people in meeting personal and professional goals to refining their mental health, self-confidence is a word that is used in many contexts.
Self-confidence is more than a trending topic; it’s a foundational concept connected to optimal mental health, higher quality of life, and strategy of moving positively through our world. The term includes emotion followed by action.
The term self-confidence should be viewed as an entire process and not like a stand-alone idea. The reason being is because the individual undergoes processes when thinking about self and others.
These processes also include the level of personal resiliency individuals possess when facing obstacles, difficulties and unknowns.
Let’s keep in mind that self-confidence refers to an individual's well-referenced internal and external world within their life.
As an overarching definition of self-confidence, what does it actually mean in basic terms?
Definition: Self-confidence (What is self-confidence?)
Self-confidence refers to “people’s sense of competence and skill, their perceived capability to deal effectively with various situations (Shrauger & Schohn, 1995, p. 256).
An extremely well-referenced source refers to it as “simply believing in oneself (Benanou & Tirole, 2002).
Lastly, the Psychology Dictionary Online defines the term self-confidence as an individual’s trust in his or her own abilities, capacities and judgements or beliefs that he or she can successfully face day to day challenges and demands (Psychology Dictionary Online).
Self-confidence can then be described as the strength of knowing yourself, by trusting and believing in you while acting on those beliefs.
We could then define self-confidence as positively believing in yourself and your external world while taking bold steps inspired by self-efficacy.
The abovementioned definition explains what self-confidence actually is but let’s list some real-life examples.
So, self-confidence means:
· Accepting your flaws and all while valuing yourself and accomplishments or lack thereof (etc.…)
· Filtering only good vibes about yourself; knowing that you are enough despite flaws
· Using assertiveness to stand up for yourself using courage
· Understanding that friendship and respect are two-way streets, and you are worthy of both
· Authentically accepting your strengths and weaknesses to fully accept yourself
Definition: Self-confidence (Self-confidence is not…)
To grasp the understanding of self-confidence, it’s helpful to include ideas what the term does not include:
· Striving for, thinking and believing in perfection
· Selfishness (confident people are eager to reach out and connect with others than to be selfish and disconnected
· Living life with rose-coloured glasses (thinking you’re immune to life’s hardships, pains and loss)
· Holding yourself accountable for reaching unrealistic standards, ideas, goals and expectations
Self-confidence vs. Self-esteem (The same or nah?)
People like to use self-confidence and self-esteem interchangeably, but they don’t have the same meaning.
Self-confidence is defined as positively believing in yourself and your external world while taking bold steps inspired by self-efficacy.
Self-esteem is the depth of how much someone values him/herself.
Self-efficacy is also a similar concept that can be defined as someone’s beliefs in their abilities to accomplish something (a task or goal).
We can see how these terms may be closely related but far from the same meanings.
To clarify further:
Self-esteem highlights a person’s feelings about themselves. Then self-efficacy covers the intentional behaviours a person does when they believe they can do something.
We can now say that self-confidence was birthed from the combination of self-esteem and self-efficacy.
Since self-confidence means accepting your true and authentic self and navigating your internal and external worlds proudly because of it.
Self-confidence (Its importance in life)
To ask yourself if self-confidence is important is to question your quality of life. They are deeply connected.
The level of your self-confidence has a strong influence over the quality of life someone creates for themselves.
Having low self-confidence has a negative impact on how well someone can live their life.
Feelings that are connected with having low-self confidence are:
· Inferior to others
· Negative self-talk
· Depression (Loss of enjoyment)
· Difficulty making your own choices
· Saying “I’m sorry” and/or feeling guilty for everyday actions
· Other mental health challenges like anxiety
To increase the chances of success in life build your self-confidence because it creates:
· A skill of creating and experiencing happiness
· Realistic view of your personal strengths and weaknesses
· Lessen inner turmoil
· A feeling of wholesomeness
· Knowing your limitations and natural abilities and living life with both in mind
· Accepting your flaws, faults and weaknesses; the understanding that perfection is unattainable and undesirable
Self-confidence (Conclusion)
In all of your days here on this earth, it’s important to understand that experiencing self-confidence genuinely produces sustainable positivity about yourself.
The point here is to love yourself fully by accepting your flaws and everything in between.
The raw definition of self-confidence is assertively acting on things believing you could do it because of your high self-worth.
In essence, self-confidence means to walk throughout this world and creating your happiness by accepting your flaws and embracing your strengths as you accomplish your tasks, goals, etc.…
Self-confidence is a feeling followed by an action.
Let’s remind ourselves not to shame ourselves for failures as this is a natural balance in life and should be accepted and moved on.
Self-confidence means realistically viewing your whole self and understanding that falling short of perfection is exactly where you want to be!
- I hope you read and understand how these words will change your life's perspective for the betterment of you :)
Check out the IG video of this blog post below:
As always take care of your crown...
Articulate Tee
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