Does confidence rely on feedback?
Our self-evaluation defines our life. It is critical what we think about ourselves as well as the thoughts and opinions of others about us. Such feedbacks can be either positive or negative. In this essay, we will try to analyze to what extent the comments and critiques affect our confidence.
A moderate portion of self-confidence is necessary to succeed in both personal and professional lives. One type of people have a so-called innate feeling of self-confidence, another group obtains such quality in the direct proportion to the growing level of the professional competencies; others only demonstrate their confidence – nobody knows what they think deeply inside.
Self-confident people never doubt their professional skills. It is, no doubt, their high side. However, this strength immediately becomes the weakness if someone starts criticizing them. This type of people cannot accept any remarks towards their actions or personal characteristics. It happens because they never doubt their opinion as well as their estimation. Such people will always accuse someone else of doing something wrong if everything goes in the way different from their prospectives. They never benefit from the feedbacks, especially if it comes in the form of criticizing. It is a very problematic for professional people involved in the creative environment, for instance, musicians, artists, actors, etc. Moreover, too confident people usually start criticizing those who provided some negative feedbacks towards them. They often cite the quotation of Dale Carnegie "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do” (Carnegie, 1936).
As for people with a low level of self-estimation, they react positively on any critiques contrary to self-confident once. It has some positive aspects. For instance, The self-criticism of the scientists makes them double check the facts before declaring the statement or doing the thesis. However, too many self-critiques cause some problems. If people focus on their weaknesses they will never develop their strengths, and, therefore, never reach their goals. Even succeeded they might not pay attention to it. Such people should always remember the words of Coco Chanel “If you were born without wings, do not disturb them from growing” (Chanel).
References
Carnegie, D., How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), Part 1 : Fundamental Techniques in Handling People, p. 36.
Chesser-Smyth, P. (2013). Student life - How to build self-confidence. Nursing Standard, 27(52), 64-64. doi:10.7748/ns2013.08.27.52.64.s51
