Self Confidence

Self Confidence - believe in yourself, have confidence in your ability.

"Self confidence gives you the freedom to make mistakes and cope with failure without feeling that your world has come to an end or that you are a worthless person." - author unknown

The freedom from doubt and having a belief in yourself and your abilities to accomplish things in life. And also having the strength to continue believing in oneself when failure does occur. You may see it referred to as self esteem in some areas. But equating self confidence with freedom from doubt is not always a true statement. Confidence is needed when an outcome is uncertain, so true confidence could actually be one of feeling comfortable with uncertainty and not knowing what the outcome will be.

Having self confidence is often a result of a positive learning environment and positive self-talk. This positive learning environment is important in the development of self-confidence because people learn by watching. Being negative is bound to bring on negative self-talk, low self-confidence and a poor attitude. If you live and work around people that are always negative, you will not get positive reinforcement of your abilities. You will eventually come down to the level of others.

Yet if you place yourself among positive people, those that push on regardless of the outcome, you will gain confidence by example. To believe in your own ability and understand that there is so much you can do. Others can have confidence in you but until you have confidence in yourself, it will never matter. Work on this aspect of your life and possibility will become clear in your world.

Self Concept

Self Concept - knowing what your nature is, is important in knowing who you are.

“An individual's self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behavior: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.” - Dr. Joyce Brothers

The definition of self concept is (from Wikipedia) the mental and conceptual awareness and persistent regard that sentient or conscious beings hold with regard to their own being. In other words, knowing who we are as an individual. It isn't what other people think we are, it is knowing yourself.

The Encyclopedia of Psychology describes it as '... the way in which one perceives oneself-can be divided into categories, such as personal self-concept (facts or one's own opinions about oneself, such as "I have brown eyes" or "I am attractive"); social self-concept (one's perceptions about how one is regarded by others: "people think I have a great sense of humor"); and self-ideals (what or how one would like to be: "I want to be a lawyer" or "I wish I were thinner").'

So daily we assess ourselves, we rate ourselves, we compare ourselves, always evaluating the various aspects of who we are. Is your view or evaluation of who you are accurate? I have read from various sources that you need to be accurate, positive and strong in knowing your nature. Doing so will assist you in being the most successful in relationships with other people.

A benefit of all this is the ability to control the various parts of your emotional world in such a way that provides consistency and balance to your life. So know who you are and be better prepared to engage in life.

Six Selfs

“It's self-dedication, self-motivation, maintenance of your feelings. It's having the ability to fall and fall and fall and get up and keep doing it, keep doing it. It's realizing you've made a mistake and going out there and fixing it.” - Amy Nyman

So just where does one start in picking oneself up. One way is to sit down and perform a self assessment of yourself. Examine six facets in your life - you will note that there was a six spoked wheel that contained six areas of your life. The following six facets of life are about self.

1. Self Concept - knowing what your nature is, is important in knowing who you are.
2. Self Confidence - believe in yourself, have confidence in your ability.
3. Self Significance - you do matter in this life, the contribution you make in life is real.
4. Self Improvement - there is always room to improve, always challenge yourself.
5. Self Empowerment - have the desire to see others succeed because life isn't just about you.
6. Self Acceptance - embrace all that you are, who you are and what you are.

Open Door Of Possibility

Opening the door to possibility. Step out of the darkness and into the light. Photographer of this picture is unknown.