How to Be Confident &
Take Pride In Yourself
What do the words confidence and pride mean to you? Why do you want to be confident and take pride in yourself? And which comes first?
These are important questions to consider if you want to live with intention and create the fulfilling life you were meant to live — which is what we do here at The Expectation Gaps ?. And, I’m going to give you my answers to these questions, but let’s consider a real-life example first. An example that will point out the one thing you need to be confident.
As I reflected on these questions, I couldn’t help but think about the academic achievement I am most proud of — passing the CPA (certified public accountant) exam — and I came to a realization about why I am proud of that achievement.
This example requires a bit of backstory. The CPA exam was a four part exam, each part was four hours, and it was administered over two days. Yes, that’s right, two, back-to-back, eight-hour days of exam taking. We accountants really know how to have fun ?
To prepare for the exam, I studied 10-15 hours a week for four months, while working full-time. Plus, I took the week off before the exam and studied for probably eight hours a day. Keep in mind, this was in the summer, I was 22, recently married, and I had much “better” things I could have been doing.
But, I persisted and prevailed. I passed all four parts with fairly high scores! And I am very proud of that fact, and that pride is one of the reasons that I can be confident in myself. But why?
I’m not proud of being “smart”. School was always pretty easy for me, and my smarts are a gift I was given, not something that I achieved.
I’m proud of my effort, my discipline, and my persistence. These are all skills that can be improved through practice. And leveraging those skills to achieve a goal is something to be proud of.
That’s the one thing you need to be confident and take pride in yourself — a skill that you have mastered and can leverage to bring value to your life.
Keep scrolling to find out why I would say this and for my answers to the questions I posed at the beginning of this post.
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Be Proud of Your Skills
Not Your Gifts
Now, to answer my original questions — I believe that pride is a feeling you have when you have accomplished something scary and/or difficult; something that you weren’t sure was possible. And that feeling will give you confidence in yourself; a belief that you can handle life’s challenges because you’ve done it before.
So why do you want to be confident and take pride in yourself? Because having confidence and pride in yourself will empower you to meet your needs — specifically your love/belonging and esteem needs — so that you can realize your full potential. (I’m referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If you’re curious to learn more about that click here.)
Okay, but what does mastering a skill have to do with anything? To be confident, you need to take pride in something that you have worked for, not something that was gifted to you or something you were born with. And mastering a skill will empower you to achieve whatever it is you are working for.
Now, I’ll turn it over to you. What’s your CPA exam — something that you worked really hard to accomplish? And what skill(s) was necessary to make that achievement a reality? How can you use that skill(s) to work toward your next achievement? If you can answer those questions, you’ll find your pride and confidence.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or would like me to point you in the direction of more tools you can use on your personal development journey. Here’s my email: amanda@theexpectationgaps.com.
Click here for more posts with a “personal growth” theme.
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And until next time . . . have a CONFIDENT day!
SCREENSHOT TIME!
Take a screenshot to easily access these confidence reminders:
- Confidence is a belief that you can handle life’s challenges.
- Confidence comes from taking pride in something that you have worked for.
- Having confidence will empower you to meet your needs and realize your full potential.
HOW THE EXPECTATION GAPS WORKS
YOU'RE HERE
You have a knot in your stomach telling you that something is missing from your life, but you don’t know what it is. On the surface, you have everything you could ever want. Yet . . .
You’re frustrated…overwhelmed…”crazy busy”…burned out…unfulfilled…
I'VE BEEN THERE!
That’s why I’ve been focused on living with intention and becoming a Deliberate Thinker for ~ 10 years.
I want to help you with your journey by sharing mine.
PIN IT!