Self-esteem & Self-confidence

Self-confidence is how you project yourself to other people. An expert golfer may feel very confident in their ability to play golf. Golf is a skill they have acquired through practice. You can build confidence through a skill set. You can develop confidence further through practice and accomplishments others see. Confidence is something you feel inside. Something other people notice in you.

But even if you have confidence in your skills, you may not feel self-confident. People might tell you how well you are performing, while you still lack confidence in your skills. Confidence shows up as skills, developed and demonstrated to the world.

Self-esteem is how you see yourself on the inside, and is invisible to the outside world. When people think they see self-esteem in another, they are actually seeing self-confidence. Self-esteem is on the inside. It doesn’t come from skills. Self-esteem results from who you are.

Self-esteem results when you believe in your inherent goodness. This may seem to be a radical concept for people with ADHD. The concept is that we are brought into this world, and we are made of love. Love is often described as the highest feeling there is. If you want to feel self-esteem, you must feel love and love for yourself. You need to take the feeling of love you have for others – such as for your spouse, a baby, for playing an instrument, for reading – and pull that feeling inside to feel that love for yourself.

Confidence. No other quality is seen as so elusive yet so important for performance. Everyone knows they need it to perform at their best, yet most would struggle to tell you their strategies on how to increase their confidence.

For some, confidence is a fragile thing. This is especially true for those who base it on just one source (be it the opinion or approval of one individual, or how you did in your last performance). Research suggests that robust and durable confidence is the result of drawing strength from a range of sources. A good way to think of confidence is in terms of time. There are many strategies that can make you feel confident, utilising the past, present and future.

There are a number of psychological influences which are said to have an impact on sporting performance and motivation, self- confidence and anxiety are three main components which are vital for shaping success when interacting effectively. The levels of these behaviours within an individual during a performance vary and the balance must be correct for the greatest outcome to occur.

The researchers have a tough time agreeing on what, exactly, self-confidence is. Some say it’s simply believing in yourself, while others go into more detail about your expectations for and evaluations of yourself and your performance.

This definition works pretty well for the average person and is easy to understand. To be self-confident is to trust in our own abilities and believe that we can do what we set our minds to.

As you can see from the definition, self-belief is a necessary—but not sufficient—component of self-confidence. You must have at least some degree of self-belief to have self-confidence, but simply self-belief does not necessarily guarantee you self-confidence.

Along with characterizing your beliefs about yourself, self-confidence is a trait that permeates your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Think about a confident person you know; now, think about how you know this person is confident. You can’t get inside their head to know how they feel about themselves, so you base your judgment of their self-confidence off of their words and actions

It’s the drive you have to work toward your goals, to put effort into self-development, and to achieve personal fulfillment.

It’s important to note here that self-motivation is generally driven by intrinsic motivation, a kind of motivation that comes from sincerely wanting to achieve and desiring the inherent rewards associated with it.