Most people think about this question. Why is confidence so important after all? Can one not lead a good life without confidence? Well, there’s no particular formula to live a good life but if we were to weigh confidence on a “what can make your life much better” scale, it would rank very high.
Its important to have confidence because it helps you get up, dress up and show up in the most unsettling or challenging situations. It’s one of those acquired attributes that can help you turn around the most grave circumstances and for the scenarios that aren’t under your control, it can help you cope with them better.
The Importance Of Confidence In Life
Confidence doesn’t just bring you better chances at bagging a good job or accolades but also helps you in your relationships with others, social situations, matters of health and finance and a lot more. Let’s dive into it. Be sure to check out these signs of lack of confidence.
Confidence and Work
Are confident people more successful? Let’s find out. Now imagine you’re the interviewer and you have two candidates who are equally skilled and qualified for the position you’re offering. One of them is slouching and is shifty-eyed, appears nervous and fidgety. The other one is smiling, communicating properly, is focused on the conversation and sits straight. Which candidate will you hire?
If you hired the second candidate then you already have your answer. This is the difference confidence can make at work. The first candidate showed signs of lack of confidence and as an interviewer you can foresee how he will manage work situations: nervous and unsure while the second one will be better at decision making and managing work-situations.
Due to low confidence, the first candidate will also likely be less interactive and withdrawn from other coworkers which could become a hindrance in team projects. On the other hand the second candidate will be effective at communication and collaboration in team projects helping achieve goals without many hiccups.
If you apply these two candidates in any kind of work situation, the second one will be the winner because of just one thing – confidence.
Confidence and Relationships
If you don’t have confidence, you’ll probably never take the first step to confess your liking or love to someone. This could lead to you losing out on someone you really wanted to be with. Moreover, if you’re in a relationship and aren’t confident in speaking up for yourself or setting enough boundaries, you could end up staying in a toxic or abusive relationship for longer than you should.
It will be harder for you to get out of bad relationship situations simply because you think ”I don’t think I’ll ever find someone else” or ”I must’ve done something wrong.” This can lead to a lot of problems in your love life and can take a toll on your mental health too.
Even in normal and healthy relationships, if you lack confidence, you’ll tend to suppress your true feelings or opinions and will not be able to fully enjoy the fruits of a great partnership. Relationships stand on the foundation of healthy communication and low confidence can cripple that. Confidence is important to build strong bonds that stand on a sturdy foundation not on a rickety collapsable one.
Confidence and Social Situations
Now imagine a scenario where there’s a birthday party full of strangers. You hardly know a few people and aren’t confident enough to mingle with the others. What if the other person is a potential good friend? What if one of them has just the prefect work opportunity for you? What if there’s an amazing human being who is super compatible with you and a potential life partner?
You’ll never know any of this if you aren’t confident to network with other people. This isn’t to say that you should start talking to random strangers on the street and anywhere and everywhere but when in a social gathering, you have nothing to lose by being in a safe small-talk scenario.
Confidence is the key to great networking and networking is the core of all kinds of human relationships. Lack of confidence can rob you of all of the potential amazing experiences and opportunities that you can have.
Choose Confidence Over Doubt
Stop doubting yourself for everything. If your mind tells you you don’t look good enough, you don’t talk well enough, etc, just tell your mind to shut up. It’s lying to you. Get up, dress up and show up everywhere without any nervousness. Take that chance, go for that ”impossible” interview, smile at that old lady at the cash counter of the grocery store, say ”hi” to your neighbor. It will change their day, it will change your life.
