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People often confuse self-esteem and self-confidence, but are these just different names for the same concept?
Understanding the nuances between self-esteem and self-confidence is crucial for personal development and success. While often used interchangeably, these concepts differ in their focus and impact on our lives. Let’s explore how they influence our beliefs, emotions, and behaviors, and how cultivating both can lead to a more fulfilling and confident existence.
That’s a really good question. The simple answer is, no, they are not the same but they are closely related. Let’s see how they differ.
Self-esteem
The accepted definition in psychology is as follows: Self-esteem reflects a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth.
Self esteem is based on your beliefs about you own value as a person and your emotional view of those beliefs. For example, do you believe that you’re a competent or incompetent person?
If you said competent then the corresponding emotions are probably related to feelings of triumph or pride. Conversely, if you believe that you are incompetent then your emotional anchors might be despair or shame.
Self esteem can be limited to one specific dimension of your life. An example of this would be, “I believe I am a good writer, and feel proud of that.” Self esteem can also have a more all encompassing dimension. For example, “I believe I am a good person, and feel proud of myself in general.”
Terms that are closely related include: self-worth, self-regard, self-respect, self-love, self-integrity and self-acceptance.
Self-confidence
Self-confidence is a measure of your beliefs about your own judgment, skills and abilities. This includes the level of future performance you expect from yourself.
Self-confidence relates closely to your level of self-assuredness about what you think you can do or accomplish.
Fear of failure is one of the greatest threats to your personal success. Self-confident people are keenly aware of what they can do well, and they succeed by focusing their efforts in those directions
How they work together?
Even though they are not the same thing, self-confidence and self esteem are very closely related.
Is one more important than the other? Not really because they go hand in hand. To be a happy, healthy, fully functional person you need both.
Confident behavior and demeanor are a reflection of a healthy self esteem and will be evident in your level of assertiveness or confidence.
If you lack confidence and thus produce less than encouraging results, it will adversely affect your sense of self-worth. Confidence is gained by taking actions that lead to successful outcomes. Your successes give you reasons to approve of yourself, which builds your self esteem. One feeds the other.
If you want some practical guidelines in this area, sing up for our free newsletter Sharing Life Skills and I’ll send you a copy of the Premier Double Edition to get you started. It will help you develop a successful mindset so you can produce the kind of results that build self-confidence and self esteem.
