When it comes to business, happiness, success, and performance, both confidence and self-esteem are important. When we have self-esteem, we usually have positive, strong internal dialogue, and this can contribute to our ability to develop confidence. For instance, if we are learning a new piece of technology and we have self-esteem, we might say that we are intelligent and a fast learner. This could contribute to us feeling motivated to try things that are hard. When we try things that are hard and we become proficient at them, we then have the confidence that we can do them. The more things that we do successfully, typically the more this builds confidence that trickles into the rest of our life.

Usually, self confidence and self-esteem both contribute to our ability to try new things such as a sport, activity, or staring a business. The more we can cultivate these skills (yes, they are learned skills), the more we can use them to help enrich our lives.

You might be surprised that I said that these are learned skills. So many times, it seems like someone is just born with confidence. Yes, there are people that are naturally more introverted or extroverted. However, introversion and extroversion do not have anything to do with confidence. Much of the time, confidence is learned at a young age by the way we interact with the world around us and the feedback we receive back. But this still means it was learned.

If you did not learn the skills of positive self-esteem and self-confidence at a young age, it is not too late. The great thing about these character traits is that they are skills that we can learn at any age. And like any skill, the more we practice, the better we get at it!