Confidence
Jul. 27th, 2005 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edgIt seems to me that there are two components to confidence:
(The two are intertwined; acknowledging failure and accepting its consequences doesn't necessarily mean that you can't try again, which is where the persistent belief that you have a reasonable chance of success comes in.)
Lacking any belief that you have a reasonable chance of success is pessimism - you're not only willing to acknowledge failure but expecting it.
Lacking a persistent belief that you have a reasonable chance of success is false confidence - as soon as you fail, you'll be back to pessimism.
Lacking a belief that you have a reasonable chance of success - believing, instead, that you have a perfect chance of success - is arrogance.
Lacking a willingness to acknowledge failure and accept its consequences is delusion.
Lacking both - believing that you can't succeed and being unwilling to acknowledge failure - is also delusion, but one that leads to isolationism; if you can't succeed and won't accept failure, then the only course of action is not to try at all.
As it appears to me, then, the key to self-confidence is to abandon the fear of failure and to acknowledge the chance of success. Ipso facto, the key to gaining self-confidence is to figure out how to abandon the fear of failure and to acknowledge the chance of success.
Any thoughts? Am I completely off-base?
- A persistent belief that you have a reasonable chance of success; and
- A willingness to acknowledge failure and accept its consequences.
(The two are intertwined; acknowledging failure and accepting its consequences doesn't necessarily mean that you can't try again, which is where the persistent belief that you have a reasonable chance of success comes in.)
Lacking any belief that you have a reasonable chance of success is pessimism - you're not only willing to acknowledge failure but expecting it.
Lacking a persistent belief that you have a reasonable chance of success is false confidence - as soon as you fail, you'll be back to pessimism.
Lacking a belief that you have a reasonable chance of success - believing, instead, that you have a perfect chance of success - is arrogance.
Lacking a willingness to acknowledge failure and accept its consequences is delusion.
Lacking both - believing that you can't succeed and being unwilling to acknowledge failure - is also delusion, but one that leads to isolationism; if you can't succeed and won't accept failure, then the only course of action is not to try at all.
As it appears to me, then, the key to self-confidence is to abandon the fear of failure and to acknowledge the chance of success. Ipso facto, the key to gaining self-confidence is to figure out how to abandon the fear of failure and to acknowledge the chance of success.
Any thoughts? Am I completely off-base?
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-27 02:41 pm (UTC)The "figuring out how to abandon the fear of failure" you mention is unfortunately (in my experience) a predominently visceral thing. You can't think your way to it completely, you've got to feel it.
It's something like "Sometimes you've gotta say 'What the fuck?'" (said in that resigned, hey, whatever attitude).
CU