Confidence

Confidence. It implies trustworthiness in the reliability of a person, thing, belief. In science, confidence states the range that is likely to contain the true population parameter. It implies that there is a knowable, reproducible truth.

The level of confidence is the demonstrated ability to reproduce something reliably. Somewhere in there is this concept of belief in the truth of a thing, an action, but that gets into really deep epistemological territory beyond the scope of this post. For now, let’s presume that there are things, events, principles that are reproducible within time/space parameters of human lives. That communication has some correlate in reality so that two people can reliably presume they are playing in the same sandbox when they speak to each other. This leads to the correlate that when perception of reality is clearly different, it becomes a cause or premise of dissonance and conflict.

Self-confidence is a fundamental belief that you exist, you have a right to exist, that you exist in a knowable universe, how ever you might choose to know it. It asserts that you can know, that errors in knowledge can be corrected with the right facts and reasons that are accordance to evidence are provided. It provides psychological security that you will continue to exist in this form if you choose to participate in life sustaining ways. It asks you to know your limitations in any given situation, and offers a reasonable range where you can challenge them. It is based on verifiable experiences that are easily and reliably reproducible. It allows you to check your premises, check your steps, and make corrections, and/or choose differently as the context changes.

You are not confident because you do something well, you do something well because you are confident.