What Is Confidence?

(Video: What Is Confidence?)

What is confidence? Can you describe what confidence is? Or how about describing the absence of it?

How about this: when you are planning to do something, yet have doubt about whether you’ll be successful in doing it? That is certainly the absence of confidence.

Confidence is a basic necessity in every human-being, and without it, you can find life less than desirable.

Confidence is the power to improve both your individual and professional life. Some people seem to have an endless supply of it in the world, whilst the rest of us have a hard time of mustering it, that is if we a reason to be confident at all in the first place.

Now if somebody sounds confident, acts confident, or is perceived as confident, this must be what confidence truly is? Not necessary. Such superficial confidence is usually a state many people just put up for show.

To fully understand confidence, let’s dig a little deeper.

People lose confidence everyday when they are faced with adversity, which is where true character is tested. Some folks truly thrive during such difficult times while others want to crawl up in a shell. It is how we tackle such predicament that determines how we come out of it with our head held high or tail between our legs.

Confidence can make all that difference in whether we succeed or not…but not solely as a result of how confident we are in our abilities but of our actual abilities themselves. In other words, confidence is a byproduct of competence.

Surely, you have heard about “fake it til you make it.” You can be confident, but does that mean you’re competent. Not necessary.

Why do these go hand in hand?

If you were to take an exam, would confidence be enough? Can you perform well relying solely on confidence without competence? Better question, will not having competence cause your lack of confidence?

How about if you have studied like a mad-scientist and have complete competence, would that make you ridiculously confident in doing well?

Unbreakable confidence comes from your competence through your persistence to move past your fears and doubts. When you fail and get back up, pressing on having learned from those lessons, confidence grows with experience through performing better at whatever it is that requires confidence.

Confidence is built upon a foundation of competence or anchored to something at the core. Without it, if just one simple setback that can bring your confidence down.

So having a clear idea of your talents and abilities will allow you to understand the value you possess.

Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and how you can make improvements. Knowing these will improve the confidence, self-esteem, and trust in yourself to do well.