Confidence

What is confidence? The first time that I was told that I was confident I thought "What? me confident?" And I thought about it and what actually makes a person confident. Whether it is a person's accomplishments, smarts or being comfortable with who you are.

So what makes a person confident? Sure experiences play a part, the more you do something the more confident a person is when performing a task. The old adage "practice makes perfect." What about the first time you try something, what if it doesn't go as planned? Does that mean that you weren't confident? Or maybe you just don't have what it takes. I think it takes a confident person to fail well and get up and do it again. To be able to perform something confidently even while not being confident that the ending will be what you had hoped, is confidence in yourself. You are okay with the outcome good or bad. Not doing something because it might not be successful the first time is the greatest failure. That my friend is a low point. I think it takes a pretty confident person to give your all without the fear of failure. Mostly just scary.

Our past accomplishments can give us the confidence to bring to our present state in life. Knowing what we were able to achieve gives us confidence in ourselves that we can accomplish great things. We find out what we are made of. Even some people are still not confident in themselves, after achieving great things. What about those who maybe don't have many accomplishments? Does that make them less confident than the one with a whole list of accomplishments? I think not! Accomplishments are just that, accomplishments. Their resume is probably just longer than yours. Accomplishments don't necessarily make you a better person. It's how you achieved those accomplishments and what you had to go through to get yourself there. Another person may have very little material accomplishments, but they have had many trials in their life. Those are the real accomplishments. I have known some people who are very talented and yet they do nothing with their talents because they don't think they are good enough. They can't put themselves out there to make it happen. Why? I don't understand that at all. How are we confident? What makes us confident? Is it merely a personality trait?

Being okay with the person that we are, with our flaws, our weaknesses, and our strengths and loving ourselves despite our flaws and shortcomings. God created us, how can we not love what He has given us? Know yourself and love who God created you to be! 

I do think it is a combination of everything I have mentioned and more. I know personally, I gain the greatest confidence from my Faith in God. I am nothing without Him and I can accomplish nothing without Him. If we say that all of these worldly things give us confidence what are we when we are stripped of them? What is at the core of our being that gives us the courage to keep going every day? When we can completely give ourselves over to the Lord, let Him lead our lives and walk blindly the path He has laid out for us, I think that is complete confidence. I'm working on it, most of the time it feels impossible.

Food for thought.
Where do you gain the most confidence?

Ciao,
Rachel