In this article, you will learn about “self confidence versus self esteem.” I tried to make this article easy to understand, unlike others.
Let’s get started!
At the end of this blog, you will know the exact difference between self esteem and self confidence because these two “words” are often used as they are one. However, if you try to understand them, you will know that these two terms have different meanings.
We will cover the general meaning of both terms then we will dig deeper about self esteem and self confidence separately with interesting examples. Keep reading till the end and uncover some amazing facts that are very useful for your growth.
What are self-confidence and self-esteem?
Confidence means faith or belief in oneself. If you have confidence in yourself and trust in your capabilities, then you can say that you are a “Self Confident” person. For example, let’s say you have to give one speech in the auditorium in front of a crowd. In this scene, if you have self-confidence, you will have no fear in your heart because fear and confidence cannot go together. Self-confidence will give you positive energy and the power to tackle that situation.
Even though I had gone through the same situation where I needed to give a speech in front of all students. That time I lacked confidence, and that’s why I got scared, and I had fumbled many times while giving a speech. However, I managed that situation and completed my speech. But I felt that I could’ve done better if I had self-confidence.
I want to share my personal real-life story with you. When I was in college, my self-esteem was very low. I had no confidence either. I had no idea about the difference between self confidence and self esteem. I even had no awareness about self confidence and self esteem. In our college, there were so many extracurricular activities. Many of my friends used to participate in events. But due to low self-confidence, I used to keep myself from these things. At that time, I often used to think about how someone is full of confidence and performing his best on the stage. And why I didn’t have that much confidence in myself.
Many times I used to feel very low. Just because of underconfidence. I was not getting any recognition from others. My self-esteem (self-worth) was going down—at that time, I used to know that having confidence is extremely important while doing anything in life. Then I decided to change things and decided to learn about self confidence and self esteem. I used to search terms like, “How to build self confidence?”, “How to build self esteem?”, “Difference between self confidence and self esteem,” “self confidence versus self esteem”
I started learning and tried to implement whatever I learned. I started seeing magical results in a few areas of my life. The first thing I had ever tried was participating in the paper presentation national level event in another college. Paper presentation event where you need to create a research paper on pre-selected topics, and you need to present it in front of the students and subject experts (professors). My partner and I participated, and I had developed confidence. And with full confidence, we had done our job. And we received 2nd prize. That was an enjoyable day of my life. Onward I started becoming more confident. Slowly my self-esteem started increasing. I felt that without having confidence and self-esteem, life could be very difficult to live.
The moral of the short story is self-confidence can make or break any situation you are going to face in your life. If you believe in your own abilities, then your self-confidence will increase automatically. While discussing the difference between self esteem and self confidence, many things are different.
Self-esteem is having a sense of self. Let’s take the example of children. If children have positive self-esteem then they will be confident. They will be confident in whatever activities they do. The activities such as classroom activities, reading or writing, overall learning. Positive self-esteem impacts their overall learning experience positively.
On the other hand, If the children have negative self-esteem, it will negatively impact the children. The children who have negative self-esteem are less confident. They feel low in confidence, and it affects their school activities and thus overall learning experience.
Thereby having positive self-esteem matters a lot, and it develops confidence and leads to a healthier mindset. And negative self-esteem, a feeling of frustration, anger, and anxiety.
Negative self-esteem can refer to it as “Low Self Esteem” also. If your children will believe that they are not more clever than their friends and do not have competency in doing school activities, it causes low self-esteem, and eventually, it leads to depression. That’s why developing healthier self-esteem among children is very important.
While learning about self confidence versus self esteem, we can say that self-esteem and self-confidence are different terms.
Agree?
Self Confidence Versus Self Esteem
Self Confidence: Ability to Trusting Oneself
If you trust in your abilities and what you can do and what you cannot, you have confidence. Because confidence is all about knowing yourself better, knowing your strengths and weaknesses. A confident person always trusts himself in any situation. He always believes in working on weaknesses and constantly learning the thing which makes him a better person. A self-confident person never underestimates himself. He always works hard to achieve his goals. Even if he faces loss then also he keeps going forward with an optimistic approach. And eventually, he wins.
Self-confidence plays a vital role in emotional wellness. Self-confidence is essential in all areas of life. If the person has no self-confidence, no matter what he does, chances of failure will increase. Let’s consider the example of an interview; if you have a job interview and are not confident, you suddenly start feeling fear. And now you can imagine how you will perform at the interview without self-confidence whether you have very good subject knowledge or not, but just because under confidence, you may fail to express yourself in the interview. And you will miss the chance of “getting a job.”
On the other hand, if you are a confident person. Then you will perform like a pro. And you will express yourself better and positively. It makes a good impression on the interviewer, and the chances of your selection will increase.
Self Esteem: Analysis of One’s Value (Self-Worth)
Self-esteem can be called “self worth.” Self Esteem is the judgment of one’s value. Self-esteem is an evaluation of ourselves. In self-esteem, you rate yourself as a human being. Self-esteem aids the thought, feelings of human beings. Another popular term for self-esteem is “Self Evaluation” Self-evaluation is vital to improve your social and mental well-being. Self-esteem is connected with mental health promotion.
It is possible for anyone to be confident in certain areas of life but has low self-esteem. For example, the sports player can be very confident that he will give his best performance, but in the end, from the inside, he knows his self-worth and his capabilities. It means he is confident in one area, but on the other hand, he has low self-esteem. Many celebrities are highly confident while performing in front of large audiences. However, they kill themselves with drugs. Sometimes they fall into the trap of depression and anxiety due to low self-esteem.
Low self-esteem causes many issues in life. It’s crucial to learn why you should develop your self esteem.
Low self-esteem affects every age person. Children have both low self esteem and a lack of confidence. These types of children, if not treated properly on time. It leads to depression, and it creates a significant impact on their lives. To avoid this, parents and teachers should actively try different methods to protect their children/students from these things. Both self-esteem and self-confidence are crucial. Thereby Parents and teachers both should design activities that boost confidence and self-esteem in children. The children who are the victims of low self esteem and lack of self confidence can be treated by following some tips listed below:
- You should be realistic in your approach. Overnight improvement is impossible; better you must be patient.
- You should motivate your child to study.
- You should praise and encourage children for minor improvements. Also, it will help boost his confidence.
- Celebrate his small success. Giving him rewards will help increase his motivation to learn more and achieve more positive results.
Conclusion
Self-esteem is nothing but deriving one’s value/rating as a human being, whereas self-confidence is trusting your abilities. This is the main difference between self esteem and self confidence. Self-esteem and self confidence cannot go together. In a nutshell, we can say the person might be very confident in few areas of his life. For example, let’s say the person is best at painting, cooking, etc. We cannot say that he has high self esteem. A person needs to work to build self esteem.
