Confidence generally refers to a belief or trust in oneself or one’s abilities. It is a subjective state of mind characterized by a sense of self-assurance, self-reliance, and belief in one’s own capabilities, skills, or judgment.
Confidence can manifest in various aspects of life, including personal, social, academic, and professional areas. It is often associated with positive qualities such as assertiveness, resilience, optimism, and a willingness to take risks.
As a built skills, confidence can be built and developed over time through various means, such as gaining knowledge and skills, setting, and achieving goals, overcoming challenges and obstacles, receiving positive feedback and validation from others, and cultivating a positive self-image.
However, confidence can also be influenced by factors such as upbringing, past experiences, cultural and societal norms, and individual personality traits.
It’s important to mind that confidence is not to be confused with arrogance, which involves an exaggerated or inflated sense of self-importance and superiority. Confidence is typically grounded in a realistic assessment of one’s abilities and limitations, while arrogance often involves an unjustified sense of superiority over others.
Confidence is also different from self-esteem, which relates to one’s overall sense of self-worth and self-acceptance, whereas confidence is more specific to belief in one’s abilities in a particular context or situation, therefore, we can be confident in some areas of our life and not so much in some.
Confidence can have many positive benefits, such as helping individuals to take on challenges, pursue opportunities, and achieve their goals. It can also impact how others perceive and respond to an individual, as confident individuals often exude a sense of competence and trustworthiness. However, it is important to note that confidence is not a fixed trait and can fluctuate depending on circumstances and situations. It is a subjective experience that can be developed, nurtured, and maintained through self-awareness, self-care, and ongoing personal growth.
As confidence is linked to being able to quickly assess, learn from and move past failures, to leaning into mastery rather than perfectionism, and to fostering a positive self-concept of our capabilities even when challenged. Here are ten ways to be more confident:
- Envision your success: what vision do you hold for yourself? Confident people have an optimistic outlook, are clear on the outcomes they are looking for and envision and believe in their success.
- Know yourself; self-awareness is a power, allowing you to take care of yourself. When you know and live your core values, you exude confidence.
- Play to your strengths confident people know and love their strengths! They believe in their capacity of being resourceful facing any situation.
- Accept failure as part of life. Are you willing to let failure be part of life journey? Or willing to make mistakes? Confident people see failure as essential learning opportunities.
- Learn how to disarm your inner critic. As it can be harsh at times, a confident person know how to listen to what is of value and discards the rest. It is powerful skill that can be learned.
- Know how to engage your inner wisdom. We all has a wise self that we can connect to and get support from. A confident person regularly engages this part of themselves.
- Love learning and be open to change. A growth mindset is essential for confidence. Be open to learning and change in all areas of your life. And remember mastery is important than perfection.
- Take decisive action … confident people take decisive action to achieve things. They act boldly when needed and just get things done the rest of time.
- Take calculated risks. A confident person takes calculated risks knowing they can handle failure. They plan for success and have a backup plan if needed.
- Give yourself full permission to be you. Everyone has flaws. Confident people choose to fully accept themselves – warts and all.
Finally, research points confidence to being strongly linked to doing, and the best doing is being in action, then learning from the outcomes. Research also shows that whatever you put your attention on grows, so it’s important to consider how you can shift focus your thinking on your values, your strengths, your wins no matter how small it is, your learnings while envisioning successes, thinking of self as capable.
I am curious, please comment below, what is your favorite confidence tip? Do you have one I haven’t included in the list above?
To your success,
Cecile