Do you know the difference between confidence and self-confidence?
I didn’t until recently and understanding these two concepts has really opened my mind to more possibility. A bigger life.
Confidence is specific to a practiced skill or talent.
Confidence is a feeling you get from your belief about your ability to do something.
Maybe you feel confident in your ability to speak clearly in your native language but then you switch to English and your confidence decreases.
It’s challenging to feel confident in something you haven’t done before or something that you’re not good at yet.
That’s where self-confidence comes in.
Self-confidence is your overall mindset about your ability to learn new things and overcome challenges.
Self-confidence comes from a willingness to experience any negative emotion that comes with growth.
A perfect example came this month from 2 students fo mine, Amadou and Annet. I asked each of them if they’d be willing to host a weekly English conversation group for our Pronunciation Pro member community.
They both were up for the challenge even though they had never done it before.
Annet’s response was, “this is both exciting and nerve wracking!”
Now that’s self-confidence!
She is excited by the challenge because she knows it is new and will stretch her and help her learn new skills.
It also fills her with nervous energy and a bit of fear but she knows she can handle those emotions for the higher purpose of growth.
How are you doing with your self-confidence?
The more you are willing to try and fail, experience negative emotion, and practice self-kindness along the way, the more self-confident you’ll become.
And the more self-confident you become, the bigger your goals will become and the more you can create in the world.
