TT50: What is confidence?

The question came to me from someone who just asked me 5 minutes ago: What is confidence?

That’s how we roll here at the Thunder: one minute it’s an innocent question over a cup of tea, the next minute you’re being recorded for an episode of Thursday Thunder. As my niece would say, “Cray cray. I know.”

It almost seems like one of those things that you just have and don’t talk about it … unless you don’t have it. In which case you usually want it but you’re not sure how to get it although you might understand that wanting it and having it are not the same thing and just the act of wanting it might disqualify you from having it.

Whew.

Let’s see what the dictionary has to say about it:

confidence
noun

1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing:
   We have every confidence in their ability to succeed.
2. belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance:
   His lack of confidence defeated him.
3. certitude; assurance:
   He described the situation with such confidence that the audiencebelieved him completely.
4. a secret that is confided or imparted trustfully:
   The friends exchanged many confidences over the years.

Is it one of those things that when you have it, you forgot what it was like to not have it? Or when you don’t have it you really don’t get what it’s like to have it? Is there some special potion you drink made out of dried tulip leaves dipped in honey and cooked for 12 minutes at 220° Celsius? Or some time machine box? Or you just wake up one day and you have it?

What Are Others Saying About Confidence

1. 25 Killer Actions to Boost Your Self-Confidence by Leo Babauta from Zen Habits. “One of the things that held me back from pursuing my dreams for many years was fear of failure … and the lack of self-confidence that I needed to overcome that fear. It’s something we all face, to some degree, I think. The key question: how do you overcome that fear?”
2. 5 Powerful Ways to Boost Your Confidence by Peter Economy for Inc. Magazine. “Confidence gives you the power to conquer the world. Here’s how you can learn to be confident in all you do.”
3. 10 Things You Can Do to Boost Self-Confidence by Chris W. Dunn for Entrepreneur. “Nobody is born with limitless self-confidence. If someone seems to have incredible self-confidence, it’s because he or she has worked on building it for years. Self-confidence is something that you learn to build up because the challenging world of business, and life in general, can deflate it.”