What is Self Esteem? What is Self Confidence?

What Is Self Esteem? What Is Self Confidence?

July 25, 2010 by Renee

While looking for tips to increase my Self Confidence I came also across the term Self Esteem. And had to admit that I was not sure what the difference between these two is.

So what is Self Esteem? What is Self Confidence?

What Is Self Esteem?

If you check out some definitions on the Internet about what is Self Esteem you come across descriptions like

Self Esteem is a feeling of pride in yourself, the degree to which one values oneself
Self-esteem is a term used in psychology to reflect a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth
Self Esteem is about personal feelings or opinions of oneself
Self-esteem encompasses beliefs (for example, “I am competent” or “I am incompetent”) and emotions such as despair, triumph, pride and shame

So self esteem is a subjective assessment that people make of themselves. It also says something about how much you like yourself.

What Is Self Confidence?

Self Conficence Now if Self Esteem is how you feel about yourself, what is Self Confidence? Again you can check out some definitions like wikipedia and you will find things like

Self-confidence relates to self-assuredness in one’s personal judgment, ability, power
Self Confidence is a measure of one’s belief in one’s own abilities
It’s an individual’s belief that they can successfully perform a desired behavior
Self Confidence is a feeling of trust in ones abilities, qualities and judgment

Now that sounds a little bit different to me. Self Confidence seems to be more about how much I trust myself that I can actually achieve what I want, compared to how I feel about myself / how much I like myself.

Self Esteem Or Self Confidence?

So in order to improve yourself and your life, what do you need to concentrate on? Self Esteem Or Self Confidence?

In my humble opinion both of them are really important.

If you don’t like yourself (low self esteem), you won’t treat yourself in the best possible way, which will stop you from improving yourself.

If you don’t believe in yourself (low self confidence), you won’t go ahead and do everything in your power to achieve your goals.

So in order to live the life you want, in order to achieve your goals and learn the abilities you need to live a happy and successful life, you need to love yourself and believe in yourself.

You need both, Self Esteem and Self Confidence.

Your Next Step In Self Improvement

So now that we have clarified what Self Esteem and Self Confidence actually mean, what do we do? My suggestion? Work on both of them. Because the more you like yourself the more you will trust yourself. And the more you trust yourself, the more you will achieve your goals which will help you like yourself even more.

So what is Self Esteem for you, what is self confidence for you? And how do you increase them? Give us your tips in the comments below.

In the next post I will talk about some tips on how to improve self confidence and how to build self esteem.

Stay tuned

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Posted in Self Improvement, Self growth | Tagged self confidence, self esteem, what is | 11 Comments

11 Responses to “What Is Self Esteem? What Is Self Confidence?”

on 26 Jul 2010 at 2:19 am1 Natalie

I believe self confidence is a component of self esteem.

Self esteem is how you feel about both your ability to accomplish things and your value in the world.

You need good self confidence and good self respect to have good self esteem.
on 26 Jul 2010 at 10:08 am2 Leo Bookham

Hi Renee,

l found this article both intriguing and informative. l guess l always thought of them as the same thing until now, but you have clearly pointed out the differences.

Your site looks fantastic also.
on 26 Jul 2010 at 11:50 am3 Wal Heinrich

From my perspective, both self esteem and self confidence are what are called meta-states. They are both to do with how we feel about ourselves ie feel good about ourselves and feel certainty in some way about ourselves. They are both context related which means that, for example, we may feel self confident in some circumstances but not in others. In brief, the way to feel more of each is to create the feeling, optimize the feeling, go “meta” to ourselves with that feeling, give that feeling to ourselves, receive that feeling from ourselves and transform whatever blocks that feeling. This would take several pages for me to describe in full.
Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..The Wide World of Prefab Homes
on 26 Jul 2010 at 1:17 pm4 Patryc Lampasi

Hi Renee,

Thank for the article!
I like the way you wrap it up with the suggestion to ‘Work on both Self Esteem and Self Confidence. I agree, the more you like yourself the more you will trust yourself… and consequently the more you trust yourself, the more you will achieve your goals which will help you like yourself even more.’

Patryc
Patryc Lampasi´s last blog ..How to Alkaline Your Body
on 26 Jul 2010 at 1:49 pm5 Hilary

Hi Renee

I too had never really thought much about a difference between Self Esteem and Self Confidence.

They are both things that I’ve worked a lot on in recent years through my healing work. When you start digging for the beliefs that hold these issues in place, it can be a very interesting process.

As a parent, I know that it is something I work on trying to establish in my children on a daily basis by giving them lots of encouragement. It really is where the foundations are laid.

A very interesting post Renee .
Hilary´s last blog ..Indoor Air Quality
on 27 Jul 2010 at 4:21 pm6 Doctor Bill

Hello Renee.

Great article on a very important subject

So much of ones Self-esteem and Self-confidence is related to the messages we received in child-hood.

Although having very encouraging parents, who believed I could do what-ever I set my mind to, the voices of others in the background had an impact. I was a young adult and graduate before I understood why and learned what to do about it

Keep up the good work

Doctor Bill
on 27 Jul 2010 at 6:51 pm7 David Moloney

Hi Renee,

I’ve also never really thought to compare self esteem with self confidence. But in my view self esteem would be the inner thoughts and feelings that an individual has. Self confidence would be the outer representation of those thoughts and feelings e.g how an individual carries themselves.
David Moloney´s last blog ..What is a Favicon
on 28 Jul 2010 at 1:38 pm8 Christopher

Hi Renee,

Yes I also believe you really need both Self Esteem and Self Confidence to achieve anything in this world! And what a feeling this gives you when you have both!

Great Article,

Thankyou
Christopher´s last blog ..The Truth About Organic Foods
on 30 Jul 2010 at 12:00 pm9 Caroline

Hi Renee,

I found your article really interesting, especially as I have encountered a few people who appear to have a high level of self confidence, however their actions and comments seem to be coming from a place of low self esteem! I definitely agree that focusing on self improvement gives us all the best opportunity to have an optimal level of self esteem and self confidence.

I look forward to your next article.

Thanks,
Caroline
on 31 Jul 2010 at 8:03 pm10 Improving Self Confidence | Law of Self Improvement

[...] It is different to Self Esteem, which is more about how much you like yourself, or how you see yourself. We have talked about this in the last post where I tried to clarify what is self esteem and what is self confidence. [...]
on 12 Aug 2010 at 7:38 pm11 jallaly

yes i believe in both self esteem&self confidence because without them there will not be room for improvement.it’s so encouraging.