by: Greg Frost
Confidence refers to a strong sense of belief and trust in your abilities to achieve what you want in life. The benefits of having greater self-confidence are numerous, allowing you to have more faith in your decisions in life. Having a lack of confidence can prove to be an obstacle to achieving more from your life, but having overconfidence should also be avoided.
Whether you feel that you have sufficient self confidence, or that you have room for improvement, do keep in mind that the key is in striking a balance between your level of confidence, and the life path that you are charting. If these two are not complementary, you may find that a lack of confidence will hinder you from staying on track, whilst overconfidence may prove to be your downfall.
Self confident people are able to determine what they are doing in life, and reach for it with enthusiasm, knowing and placing faith in their strengths and skills to achieve it. Many people seek to improve their self confidence, but it is necessary to draw a line between being confident and over confident. Overconfidence can work against what you are aiming for, blinding you to your own comparative advantages or preventing you from accurately determining if the position you are in is where you desire to be.
Overconfidence also works against you, when you are faced with failures or obstacles when you feel strongly that it should have been straightforward and easily achievable. This results in anger and impulsive behavior, and you may end up souring relationships with your colleagues and close friends. Often, people who are overconfident are unaware that they are, or that they have overreacted. This makes it even more difficult for them to identify if they are overconfident.
A few likely signs that you are overconfident is if you tend to be overly assertive and feel that you are superior to others. You will also find that your friends are keeping their distance, or are somewhat cool towards you, and most people keep a distance from you. If you suspect that you might be overconfident, well done, this is a signal that you are humble enough to deal with your confidence problems.
Constantly keep your pride and confidence in tasks or opinions come in second to logic and analysis. Do not let your confidence cause you to lose your guard, or put in less effort than you should be putting into your work.
Thus, while being confident is desirable, be careful not to over rely on your self confidence or use it as a reason to procrastinate or to cut down on your preparation work.
