Confidence Issues

Confidence is often said to be having a belief in ourselves, our talents, abilities and personal strengths. We may have qualifications, a job or successful business, a romantic partner or any other typical trapping which may lead to our describing ourselves as successful. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we are confident people. Those who may outwardly appear very confident are often as likely to seek help with confidence issues as those who may appear otherwise.

Confidence allows us to achieve our potential when we are not thinking negatively about ourselves. In other words, confidence is our natural state when we do not have self-limiting thoughts or beliefs in the way of our living the life we want to. A negative belief can create a cycle of negative thinking, which may mean we refrain from taking part in every day activities. This we can interpret as having a lack of confidence.

Lacking confidence, or thinking negatively of ourselves, can affect our relationships with others and it can prevent our developing to our fullest potential. If we lack confidence we may feel the need to apologise inappropriately or seek reassurance from others. We may only focus on perceived criticism and ignore praise. We may be perfectionists and consequently not allow ourselves to take pleasure in our successes, however big or small they may be. These behaviours can be debilitating and affect our enjoyment of life.