Confidence vs. Self Esteem

Everyone desires to be confident, yet very few have been able to develop it in all facets of their life. A lack of self-confidence can ultimately become the most significant hindrance to finding happiness, success, and fulfillment.

Unfortunately, too many people often are unable to see the effects low self-confidence has on their lives, blaming their failures on outside factors instead. They blame a tough dating scene for not finding the right partner.

They are desperate to find a better job but don't know where to start because the job market is so competitive. They wish they could follow their dreams but can't afford to fail. On the surface, these kinds of excuses seem like they are legitimate outside barriers, keeping us from finding true happiness.

However, when further examined, the justifications are all rooted in a lack of self-confidence. Past experiences have helped to develop your current mindset, and the past unknowingly plagues us as we grow into adults.

As adult, we often waste a ton of energy attempting to appear confident rather than developing real confidence society puts on outside appearances only reinforces the pressure to show false confidence.

This is just intensified with the popularity of reality television and social media. It has become the norm for our society to appear one way to everyone else, rather than focusing on making the changes internally that will allow us to alter our sense of self.

For example, many people will post photo-shopped images to their social media profiles in the hope of garnering a ton of likes to help increase their shaky self-esteem. Hence, the facade of confidence trumps genuine, unwavering confidence.

So, many people are afraid to admit they lack confidence because it is seen as a personal weakness, while others wish they could have more confidence, but don’t know where to start.

if you suffer from a lack of confidence, it will continue to hold you back, even if you become adept at faking it. The great news is, you can be one of the few people that learn how to build an undeniable, persistent, and genuine level of self-confidence that won’t be affected by outside circumstances.

Confidence vs. Self Esteem

Self-esteem and confidence are often used interchangeably to describe an individual’s level of assurance, poise, self-respect, and security. While these two concepts are often related, they are not the same. T

The main difference is that self-esteem is a constant, while confidence is something that fluctuates. It is vital that you are able to foster a strong sense of both. To do this, you must first understand the origins of both and how each can be affected and changed.

Confidence is a huge part of your overall well-being. Being confident will help with your career, relationships, self-image, interactions, and other aspects of your life.

It isn’t uncommon for someone to be extremely confident in one area of their life, yet insecure in another. Being fully confident and comfortable with yourself in every situation is truly invaluable.

When you foster a strong sense of self-esteem, it will help you become more confident in all areas of your life. While confidence varies between circumstances, your self-esteem is a continuous part of your self-concept.

The higher your self-esteem, the more likely you will be comfortable facing a variety of situations in your life.

Self-esteem is an underlying trait that directly affects how you perceive yourself in all circumstances. Self-esteem can be tricky because a lack of self-esteem will manifest in a variety of ways.

Generalized self-doubt is one way that low self-esteem can manifest. If you have low self-esteem, you may automatically assume that you won't be good at a task and will either give up or subconsciously sabotage yourself into failing. This is your self-concept trying to prove why it has low self-esteem.

If you repeatedly fail in a variety of circumstances, your subconscious says, "I told you this would happen." During every situation that you face, negative self-talk will rear its ugly head, telling you that you will fail, you'll look stupid, you'll embarrass yourself, and that others will harshly judge you. This negative self-talk is not accurate, but instead it originates from low self-esteem.

The best why to face these negative saying is to turn yourself into a growth mindset that will help you to persevere when you are frustrated and take fail as a learning process.

Humans are social creatures, which gives us the ability to pick up on indicators of high or low self-esteem. It is these indicators that often affect how we respond to one another. Those who have high self-esteem are more likely to get a job, create social connections, strike up conversations, etc. For example, one of my favorite actors, Will Smith

inspires many people because he reflects a very high self-esteem not only in most of his movies but in real life shown in social media.

It isn't that most people are looking to hurt those with low self-esteem intentionally, it is just a natural tendency for us to be attracted to those who exhibit confidence. We are all self-serving beings, innately trying to get ahead and when someone exudes confidence, it indicates they can help us get ahead in life.

those around us of our levels of confidence and self-esteem. Physical cues like slouching, talking sheepishly, or a constant downcast gaze, all indicate low self-esteem.

During conversations, expressing doubt, frequent verbalization for a need for reassurance, or indecisiveness, are also clear signs of low self-esteem. It is relatively easy to see these kinds of signs in young children and teenagers; however, many adults have learned to hide their insecurities.

Many of us have all adopted the fake-it-until-you-make-it attitude. Unfortunately, we are so focused on faking it that we never work toward fixing the underlying issues.

Another way in which low self-esteem manifests itself is a confidence-contingent outlook. It displays itself when a person relies entirely on their accomplishments to feed their self-esteem.

This is far harder to spot in ourselves and other people.

This kind of low self-esteem makes us have the need to succeed at everything so that we can feel good about ourselves.

They may also feel the urge to put others down to feel superior, which feeds their confidence temporarily. The critical factor in these cases is always contingent on outside factors and is always temporary.

It results in the continuing need to feed the self-esteem monster in an attempt to escape your true feelings. It is a vicious and draining cycle that is incompatible with peace, happiness, and real self-esteem.

If you know how to build your confidence in any situation, it will help you to develop your overall self-esteem. Confidence in separate situations is a necessary building block to retrain your mind to think more confidently.

As your confidence becomes more natural, self-esteem grows and becomes a part of your self-concept.

Alexander Khal is a Blogger and the founder of The Masked Coach