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You may find your confused between the two terms- self-esteem & self-confidence. They are often used interchangeably; however, they are very different to each other. While self confidence is a measure of our belief in our own abilities, self esteem relates to the sense of self and how we communicate with the world.
The confusion between these two terms might bring people down the wrong path, as they begin to search for self-esteem through their abilities and achievements. Let’s look at the difference between the two.
What is Self-Esteem?
Self-Esteem refers to the feeling about yourself and how it helps guide your thoughts, feelings and behaviors in life. It is believed to be inward facing as it often dictates the way we engage with the people around us.
Self-Esteem is formed through the experiences as well as the relationships we through in our lives and is an appraisal of our worth. Individuals who have high self-esteem do not use their excuse of income or status to face challenges and are not afraid of failure or rejection in life. In fact, they become open to trying new things, tolerating risks and accepting themselves without any judgements.
What is Self-Confidence?
Self-confidence occurs only in specific areas of our lives and is all about trusting ourself and the abilities to achieve goals in order to succeed. It is believed to be outward facing and is easier to build in comparison to self-esteem. It comes from knowledge and practice as the more experience you have in a specific area, the more confident you become to showcase it.
The true meaning is to build trust in yourself and the ability to engage with your surroundings. Having self-confidence in life helps in creating successful experiences. While people believe self-confidence brings happiness, it is also true that such happiness is short-lived, and only occurs when we excel at a new challenge.
Is it possible to have one without the other?
These two terms do not always occur together, but it is entirely possible to feel self-confident in your abilities while having a low self-esteem. For instance, an Olympic swimmer or a movie celebrity might have a lot of confidence in their talent, but at the same time, might be doubting their worth.
However, having a higher self-confidence in specific areas of life, increases the overall sense of self-worth, making it possible to work both of them together at the same time.
Difference between Self-Esteem & Self-Confidence
While people might confuse between the two terms, they tend to put in all their efforts into building their abilities to feel more confident in life. Think about people who go through mental health issues even after the all the success they have gotten in their lives. You might have heard about celebrities joining rehabs to find themselves, is only because even after excelling in a particular field in life and receiving positive feedback from millions of people, they might still feel worthless and dissatisfied with their own selves in life, making their self-esteem low.
The difference between the two often sends people down the wrong road. Chasing the solutions in terms of becoming better and better at something or becoming more physically appealing, directly indicates that you are at the point of fear. The fear of being unacceptable to yourself and to other. It becomes a never-ending cycle as it takes your self-confidence goals even further away.
There could be thousands of reasons why you feel dissatisfied with yourself, beginning at a very small age in your childhood, and you tend to find satisfaction from bad things.
While self-esteem is established at a very young age in your life, it starts to fluctuate as you grow. A part of such fluctuation might relate to having self-confidence issues relating to your career, role in the family or creative pursuits. Even if you have a bold personality, you might suffer from low-self esteem resulting in lack of self-love and secretly needing constant approval.
With low self-esteem you might look down upon yourself, seeping into your psyche and influencing everything you do. While having low self-confidence can be instantly improved by gaining knowledge, expanding skills and practicing until your ability builds.
Improving self-esteem involves practices such as polishing your self-image and seeing your self-worth. As it is a part of your subconscious, that is where you need to put in efforts for effective change.
Lastly, do not assume that high self-confidence leads to improving self-worth. You need to self-accept yourself as opposed to believing in fixing yourself by working on what you think you can do better.
Danger of Misunderstanding
Having constant insecurities and doubts about yourself is perfectly normal, but mastering the healthy balance of aligning our senses and reason can be a demanding process. While self-esteem can be tricky to develop in our ongoing busy lives, we tend to perpetuate certain false notions about this concept.
Taking pride in your income level, your status in the society, your notoriety, the luxury you can showcase and your excesses, implying that people who do not have such liberties are inferior, is an unhealthy practice. It might be a result of your self-confidence abilities; however, healthy self-esteem is quite the opposite.
It involves taking care of your physical and mental well-being, encouraging the community and practicing regularly towards creating a healthy and safe environment are all results of building a balanced and healthy self-esteem. Being forgiving and letting go of the inevitable mistakes in life can impact your spirit, but humans are meant to make mistakes, isn’t it?
Final Words
Identifying the differences between self-confidence and self-esteem can make you understand which one you are lacking and how you can work on improving it to build a balanced and healthy life. While both are equally important to sustain for personal development, they are also essential for leading a spiritual breakthrough in our lives while having the courage to deal with anything that comes along the way!
