How self confident are you?

[Birdjaguar]

I probably have more than I should, but I am very capable of handling awkward and challenging situations that my confidence has gotten me into. The more you know the easier it is. And if you know more than those around you about the situation at hand, awkward situations become an opportunity. When surrounded by those who know more than you do, listen and ask questions. When you are the expert, share what you know in a form others can understand.

If the situation is brand new and perhaps frightening, first breathe and then find what needs attention first. Deal with that.

 

[nc-1701]

I had a lot more before grad school.

Overall it's mixed there are certain arenas where I'm very confident, but if it's something new I tend to be more reserved. I often think of myself as having what I call 'survival confidence', that is I'm not always gung ho about stuff, but I usually assume that I can take whatever is coming for me. That applies both physically and intellectually, I have very little self doubt, but am often reserved about jumping in until I've built up an understanding of whats going down.

Now if somebody wants to talk to me about undergrad math, I'm pretty damn confident.

 

[Labtec600]

When you're right about everything, what isnt there to be confident about?

 

[gozpel]

I'm confident all the time, until I meet something that challenge that.

Then I go into smurfmode.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'm very self confident.

 

[warpus]

Yeah, you're an engineer, aren't you? You better be.

 

[Traitorfish]

Not very self-confidence. Quite limited physical and social self-confidence. Intellectual self-confidence is a little harder to place, veers between high and low, often starting out as over-confidence and shattering into despair when it turns out that I don't know the answer to absolutely everything. About the only thing that I'm solidly confident in is the obscurity of the bands on my t-shirts, and I don't think anybody but me actually cares about that.

Mostly, it seems to be very dependent on the responses of others, to a degree which is frankly quite pathetic for somebody my age. It's a very adolescent mentality, I think, depending so heavily for your self-image on how others reflect that image back to you. Especially given that there's no real approval-seeking at work, y'know, none of the behaviour you'd associate with an actual borderine personality disorder, just a lot of slouching about feeling sorry for myself, very much a lack of emotional maturity.

(At least I've got the maturity to acknowledge it in abstract, I guess, whatever that's worth.)

 

[Quintillus]

Less so than I should be, but sufficiently so to not be deliciously crippling. Like others, it varies quite a bit by day and even within a day. I've also noticed that it tends to relate to how good of decisions I'm making for myself - I'm more confident when I am well-rested and have had a good lunch, for example. Longer-term decisions make a difference, too, but within a day simple things like that make a significant difference.

The situation also has an impact, of course - I'm much more confident with situations I've been in before.

 

[GenMarshall]

Not very. I still at times hate myself and wished I could be someone else.

 

[Antilogic]

I had a lot more before grad school.

Nothing shatters your self confidence, your intellect, etc. like grad school.

 

[Traitorfish]

Does that mean that the ideal candidate for grad school would be somebody with no confidence to begin with, or is the process of confidence-shattering seen as an integral part of the whole process?

 

[Antilogic]

Your question presupposes there are ideal candidates for grad school.

I think masochists might fit that category.

 

[Commodore]

And how self confident do you wish you were? Very? Completely? Or even be filled with deliciously crippling self-doubt ?

Before my time in the Army I was a victim of crippling self-doubt. In fact, my level of self-confidence was so low that I couldn't even have a conversation with someone I didn't already know. Being in the Army changed all that though and I am absolutely brimming with self-confidence now. I feel like there is nothing I can't do and I rarely doubt my own decisions. Having that kind of self-confidence has allowed me to make tough decisions faster as well since I spend little time arguing with myself over whether my decision will work out or not.

 

[raen]

My self confidence is very high since I met my wife.

 

[GenMarshall]

Before my time in the Army I was a victim of crippling self-doubt. In fact, my level of self-confidence was so low that I couldn't even have a conversation with someone I didn't already know. Being in the Army changed all that though and I am absolutely brimming with self-confidence now. I feel like there is nothing I can't do and I rarely doubt my own decisions. Having that kind of self-confidence has allowed me to make tough decisions faster as well since I spend little time arguing with myself over whether my decision will work out or not.

Sadly, I doubt that I would even make it past Boot Camp (and now, perhaps too old).

 

[azzaman333]

Depends on the circumstances. While playing cricket, I believe I can face the bowling of anyone when I'm batting, and get any batsman out when I'm bowling. I know that it's probably not true, but I always back myself in when in those circumstances. When in social situations, I'm incredibly self-conscious of what I say and do because I have no confidence that I won't say or do something incredibly stupid. Generally it varies somewhere between those two extremes.

 

[Commodore]

Sadly, I doubt that I would even make it past Boot Camp (and now, perhaps too old).

How old are you? As far as I am aware, the cutoff age for first time enlistment is 30.

And you probably could make it through basic training as long as you don't take what the DS says personally. Everything they do and say is designed to make you a stronger person both physically and mentally. Basically, as long as you embrace the training and commit to it 100%, you will come out of it a better person.

 

[Kyriakos]

Just ask private Pyle :O

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Like a bright neon light catching insects and being connected to a bad power source. Bright and strong in its prime, shivering all over and flickering all the time when flies hit it and always looking a bit like being on the edge of going out.

 

[Commodore]

Just ask private Pyle :O

Cases like what was portrayed in 'Full Metal Jacket' only serve to highlight why conscription is almost always a bad idea and should only be reserved for the most dire of military situations.

My basic training cycle sent about 12 recruits home because they attempted suicide. I bunked next to one of them and I could tell his biggest problem was he took all the insults hurled at him by the DS to heart and didn't see them for what they were: an attempt to build mental toughness. Because if you can't handle someone yelling at you and hurling insults at you, you most certainly cannot handle bullets whizzing past your head and bombs going off around you.