Confidence and self-confidence are two words that are often used interchangeably. After all, they mean the same thing, right? Not so. While the two are intimately related and can sometimes be interchanged, there is a fine difference between them that needs to be appreciated.
To begin with, confidence is something that you can have in yourself or in another person. You can be confident that your friend will excel at her new job. You can also have confidence that you can learn to play the flute well enough to join the local orchestra.
Secondly, confidence is often tied to an action. Here are a few examples. She walked confidently to the stage. He was confident his dog would win best in show. She swung the bat with confidence. Confidence is also tied to the noun confident, which is how it links to self-confidence.
Self-confidence is a trait or description rather than an action. It’s an attribute that a person has. When you say that someone has confidence in themselves, you are referring to self-confidence. When you say someone acts confidently, what you are describing is confidence.
This distinction might seem irrelevant. The two concepts are so closely tied together what could be the harm of using them interchangeably? This is why it matters: People who have self-confidence don’t always act confident, and people who are insecure in themselves can put on a good show of confidence.
Self-confidence, in other words, is a feeling, while confidence is an action. You don’t have to have one to have the other. But since they are so closely tied together, they are linked and can feed off one another. That means you can act confident to boost your self-confidence.
You have certainly heard the phrase “fake it till you make it.” It’s a cliché at this point. But it’s still true. If you lack self-confidence, you can still put on a show by pretending to be confident when you need to. This is especially true for people in leadership positions; no one wants to see a leader acting insecure.
If you’re struggling with your self-confidence, pretend that you have more of it when you need it, especially when you’re leading. Act confident. Take the actions a person with lots of self-confidence would take. Make decisions like you have self-confidence.
Do this often enough, and you’ll increase your self-confidence to the point where it is no longer an act!
