In the journey of personal growth and empowerment, there comes a pivotal moment when we develop a secure sense of ourselves, discerning the distinction between absolute self-esteem and conditional self-confidence. It is at this juncture that we are poised to embark on a transformative endeavor: building our self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy empowers individuals to navigate life’s challenges with remarkable effectiveness, fostering the ability to find solutions from within. It is a testament to one’s capacity for self-care in a wholesome manner. This quality of self-assurance, intrinsic to every entrepreneur, propels them to identify problems as opportunities, believing unwaveringly in their ability to solve them.
Building Self-Efficacy
Once you have a secure sense of yourself and can tell the difference between absolute self-esteem and conditional self-confidence, you are ready to build up your self-efficacy. This means that a person can be effective within themselves to figure out how to deal with the problems of life. Self-efficacy shows that a person can take care of themselves in a healthy way. Every entrepreneur is the type of person who sees a problem and thinks she can solve it.
The foundation for self-efficacy is the steady growth of self-confidence over the course of many years. Your repeated experiences of growing competent in performing a variety of talents build up a larger generalization as you achieve competence in one ability after another. This larger generalization is as follows:
“Even though I didn’t know how to do X when I started, I learned. I learned time and time again to develop new skills and I will do the same again. I will figure this out also. It is just a matter of study, talking and experience.”
The term “self-efficacy” refers to the bigger perspective that is formed when an individual repeatedly achieves success in acquiring new understandings and skills. You are aware that you may have faith in yourself to continue growing and learning now. Apply yourself consistently and give it some time, and you will succeed in the end. This establishes an additional layer of safety and protection inside oneself.
If someone were to ask me if I am certain that I could pilot a helicopter, I would respond in the affirmative. Despite the fact that I have never even been a passenger on a helicopter and despite the fact that at this very minute I have no idea what a person would do once he sat behind the controls, I am confident that I am capable of learning how to fly one. It was possible for me to take classes, listen to the instructions, and read the manuals, and then carry out the requirements outlined by an instructor. I am open to education. It would simply require some time, some money, and some effort on your part. And that is it.
Confidence vs. Self-Efficacy
Confidence and self-efficacy are two very different concepts, and they couldn’t be more different from one another. When you have confidence, you derive your sense of assurance from your experiences in the past. You have done it. You have successfully completed the skill, and you have done it a sufficient number of times that you are confident in your ability to currently perform it consistently. You are now filled with self-assurance. You are capable, and the high degree of your practiced expertise is what gives you the confidence to put that competence to use. [Being confident in one’s abilities without possessing such abilities oneself is silly!]
There is no correlation between prior experience and one’s current degree of expertise and self-efficacy. It is predicated on having faith in oneself and one’s own future. Even if you do not have any direct experience with the skill in question, you are confident in your ability to pick it up. You are able to have faith in yourself because you are well-versed in the skills of learning, thinking, and interacting with other people. It is this self-trust that, in turn, enables you to realize that you are capable of figuring things out for yourself. These “taking on a challenge because you have taken on many other challenges and succeeded” arguments will convince you that you already possess the foundational abilities necessary to learn the new skill that you have not yet encountered.
Conclusion
If acquiring specific talents provides you the confidence that you can handle certain things in life, and hence inside-out security, then esteeming your person as unconditionally worthwhile generates inner security. If developing particular skills gives you the confidence that you can handle certain things in life, then self-efficacy will take it to the next level. Consider building your self-esteem in terms of the here-and-now moment. Think of self-confidence as a core trust that you can achieve specific things based on what you have done in the past. This is how you should approach building your own self-confidence. Consider self-efficacy to be your level of trust in yourself despite the unpredictability of the future. Together, they strengthen both your internal and external security, and as a result, you are now prepared to take on a task.
Curated by Danielle Tan.
Reference:
- [Certified_meta-coach] 2023 Morpheus #24 SELF-EFFICENCY SECURITY by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. Executive Director, ISNS.
