What is Self-Confidence? (video)

To truly believe in yourself, a healthy sense of self-confidence is essential. One of the most cited sources about self-confidence refers to it as simply believing in yourself (Bénabou & Tirole, 2002).

Self-confidence means you accept and trust yourself and experience control in your life. You know your strengths and weaknesses well and have a generally positive view of yourself. On the other hand, low self-confidence might make you feel full of self-doubt. You may feel inferior to others or be particularly sensitive to criticism. 

However, building self-confidence is not linear. It fluctuates throughout your life and can be circumstantial. For instance, you may feel confident in some areas, such as your work performance, but lack confidence in others, like personal relationships. For some people, a healthy sense of self-confidence might come quite naturally and for others, it may feel more difficult to attain. 

If you resonate with having low self-confidence, the good news is that you can change it. Having high or low self-confidence is rarely related to your actual abilities, it’s mostly based on your self-perception. Self-perception is the way you think about yourself and these thoughts can be flawed.