Interesting piece on Confidence...

[ronedee]

I was struck by this article on Huffy-post! I was waiting for God to be mentioned at some point because it seemed to be going that way... but she never did.

I wanted to throw this at you guys for your thoughts and opinions on just where does that... or your "inner confidence" come from? God fearing people (if you will) seem to have an edge in that more of them have [emerged publicly] as "ultra" confident. Whether that is because of sheer numbers, or something else might factor in.

But... I'd like you to read the article. Its only a page. And it's very thought provoking. All the situations, and creative moments we have. And all the decisions, and revelations... and yes....mini-miracles! Where do they come from? It made me really search for that point where I felt: "How much is really me, and how much is really [something] else?"

Fill-in your [something]? That little "extra" we can't really explain.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/agapi-stas...ostpopular

[Faith No More]

It's still all me. It's just a matter of being aware enough to connect with that part of me.

These things that you attribute to god are really just parts of yourself that you haven't activated yet.

[Tonus]

*puts on amateur psychologist hat*

Our subconscious controls a great deal of our behavior, and the less we are aware of that (or resist accepting it) the more influential it is, because our conscious self will find ways to rationalize our subconscious behaviors, even when we know they are not rational. Phobias are a good example. My mother is utterly terrified of frogs, possibly owing to a bad experience in childhood. Even if she is aware that the frog in question is harmless, she displays all the effects of sheer physical terror in the presence of one. Why? Her subconscious mind simply believes this, and causes a physical reaction that she cannot control and that she surrenders to.

Confidence (or the lack thereof) is also highly influenced by the subconscious, IMO. Someone who spends his life being told "you'll never amount to anything" by a parent may become very confident (if he uses the words as a motivation to prove the parent wrong) or may develop low self-esteem (if he accepts the criticism as valid). In either scenario, he will subconsciously drive himself to achieve the ends he feels he deserves: the confident person believes that he deserves to succeed and the un-confident person believes that he deserves to fail. Ask them if this is true and they will likely deny it, but the thought process is in there, doing its work.

This frame of mind can be influenced by our surroundings and circumstances, of course. Think about something you do particularly well. Say you're a pretty decent guitar player. When you're with a group of friends who lack any musical talent and are awed by your ability, you become more and more confident and may feel more relaxed as you play. You may even feel that it's as well as you've ever played the guitar. Now go to a studio and sit down with several guitar players that you recognize as among the best in the world, and start to play for them. It's likely that you will be very nervous and worrying that each chord is wrong and that you couldn't possibly be playing worse than you are at that moment. Those other guitar players could change your mindset drastically by either telling you that you're not very good or showing that they're very impressed by your guitar-playing. If they do the latter, the confidence boost could last for quite some time and even build upon itself.

And also think about how that can work for or against a religious person. Knowing that "god has your back" can provide you with a lot of confidence. But those times when you reflect on the idea that "we're just miserable sinners" can leave a person feeling weak and useless. Since religious belief is still something that is generally built on what we hear and learn from other humans, it depends heavily on their input.

[Napoléon]

I think a lot of "inner confidence" comes from personal experience. I was watching a documentary about the French Foreign Legion in which a group of average guys were put through a month's rigorous training. The FFL is renowned across the globe for being one of the toughest military outfits, and many of the guys dropped out of the training along the way. Those that managed to complete it though, notably said that "once you've done what we've done, you get a different perspective on what is difficult and impossible". Or something along those lines.

I think if you've already been through tough situations, and had other people helping to push you there in the first place, if you come across another situation that is tough you can dig deep and persevere more so than those who haven't had such experience.

I guess that's one reason for why some people seem to be able to push themselves more than others.

[Minimalist]

I was waiting for God to be mentioned at some point because it seemed to be going that way... but she never did.

Good.

[Bad Writer]

I have confidence because I'm scared my wife will kick me square in the buttocks if I shy away from something.

[Kayenneh]

I am confident because of knowledge of myself.

[Zazzy]

I am confident because I started owning my geekiness early, and that has served me very well. I have noticed that many people aren't comfortable being weird, and that's too bad.

I'm also very tall and direct, and people associate those things with confidence, and that gives me confidence, even when I start a project without it.

Faking it leads to making, it, in my experience.

[Neo-Scholastic]

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Good link, Ron. And yes, there is something about moments of creative activity when you feel like you must be tapping into some deep transcendent reality.

[MindForgedManacle]

A manifestation of flight or fight? The drive to protect something very valuable to you, unsurprisingly, can push you beyond your ordinary limits. This is very clearly understandable biologically. If we didn't have tbe biological capability to manifest this, it wouldn't matter if we wanted to do them mentally if we were incapable of doing so physically.