Today I will be talking about the importance of confidence for my Tae Kwon Do belt testing. So first, what is confidence? One definition I found is “a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities.” But I think that confidence is self-assurance of one's self worth and ability to provide value to the world. So why is that important? I believe confidence is a tool that allows one to better leverage their strengths, improve their curiosity, and face truth.
How does confidence allow you to leverage your strengths? One way is to allow you to take calculated risks on yourself. Before I started homeschooling my parents discussed whether or not they felt comfortable homeschooling me. Afterwards, they came to me and said it could be my decision. My decision to homeschool would not have happened if I was not confident in myself and my ability to do self directed learning and comply with the state regulations. Also, confidence allows you to believe in your strengths and by being confident in your strengths you feel comfortable to use them and own the things you know you are good at.
Confidence is the key to being curious. The reason for this is when you are curious and constantly learning about the world you might find out things that undermine who you are or your core beliefs. This is scary and only somebody confident enough will be able to take these newfound facts and change their behaviour and beliefs. If you aren’t confident this is a huge opportunity missed because although in the short term you may feel as though you would rather remain ignorant, it will help you tremendously in the long term.
The ability to face truth through confidence relates to feedback, improving on yourself and iterating your ideas. It is easy to take shortcuts in validating yourself and ignoring feedback on how you can improve. But confidence allows you to not be defensive and realize accepting your weaknesses does not undermine your value in any way. You are human, and all humans have weaknesses, the difference is that some people choose to face their weaknesses and improve, and some get defensive and decide to ignore it. But facing the truth is more than just taking feedback. It is also realizing that you know so little about the world, and that you have a very small circle of influence. And it takes confidence to realize this, but once you do you can start learning more about the world and expanding that which you can control.
Confidence is a tool in many areas and can help you in many ways. But the most important thing is to use the tool of confidence in the right way. You should focus on having humble confidence, being aware of how little you know while also believing in the value you can add. I believe the way that people can become confident is by doing something real and adding value to the world by leveraging their unique strengths and passions and sharing it with people. This is a way to prove to yourself that you are valuable and people appreciate the value you can bring.