What is the difference Between Self-Esteem, Self-Confidence, and Self-Awareness

Sometimes we get confused about the difference between Self-Esteem, Self-Confidence, and Self-Awareness expressions, so in that blog it is going to discuss deeply the meaning of each expression and the divergence between them.

First – Meaning of Self-Esteem
"Self-esteem" is an individual's subjective evaluation that everyone keep in his mind about himself and it is composed of the feelings, thoughts, and beliefs we consider about ourselves. As by time our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs change, so our self-esteem is also constantly evolving.
Self-esteem may be positive or negative evaluation as we belief about ourselves. For example, “I believe I am a good person and I feel happy about that" or "I believe I am a bad person, and I feel bad about myself in general".
For a positive self-esteem, these outcomes can be predicted such as academic achievement, happiness, satisfaction in marriage and relationships, and good mental health. Moreover, for the negative self-esteem, the outcomes will be in contrary. However, there are a number of ways to feel better about yourself and boost your self-esteem, later it will be discussed in other blog.

Second – Meaning of Self-Confidence
The concept of self-confidence is commonly used as self-assurance in one's personal judgment on his ability, power, etc. Self-confidence can be increased based on the experiences and mastering particular activities. It is a positive belief that someone can accomplish his goal, which it looks like similar to the self-efficacy.
Self-confidence can be improved by many ways, as example, thinking positively about yourself, acting in a confidence manner, and thinking realistically in the situation and didn’t give it more than it deserve, which already discussed in details in the below links.

Third – Meaning of Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the state of the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize any individual one separate from the environment and other individuals. It is not to be confused with consciousness, where consciousness is being aware of one’s environment, body, and lifestyle. However, Self-awareness is how an individual consciously knows and understands his own character, feelings, motives, and desires. In addition, Self-awareness has two category internal self-awareness and external self-awareness, later it will be discussed in other blog.

Fourth - The divergence between them
Self-esteem is an individual’s evaluation based on his feelings, thoughts, and beliefs about himself.
Self-confidence is an individual’s self-assurance about his ability and power.
Self-awareness is the state of an individual to understand his own character, feelings, triggers, and desires.


See Also

How to Improve Yourself Confidence
A Seven Days Journey to Confidence
Self-Awareness

How to know more about your self "Self Awareness"

Be aware of yourself, making you deeply understand your personality, strengths and weaknesses points, value, ability, and desires.

 

First Tip - Learning More about Yourself

• Highlight and ranking the top 10 priority in your life, that help you to understand what is truly important to you. As example, your ranking list might include 1-Parents 2-Family 3-Yourself 4-Friends 5-Community....
• Identify your personal goals to know what you want from your life.
• Determine your strengths and weaknesses, which is extremely important point for understanding yourself. You can discover your strengths by assessing your traits, knowledge, and skills. Additionally, you could focus on your weakness for improvement purpose, as example, you might struggle during a public speaking.
• Take online psychometric tests. These online tests allow you to learn more about your personality, about your personal traits, your learning style, and your strengths. Do several different tests to help you discover yourself. Keep a copy of your results so you can review them when you are reflecting on yourself.
• Write on daily basis your feelings and experiences in a diary, which assists you to understand your thoughts and emotions. In your diary, discuss what is happening in your day/night and how you feel about it. To get the most outcome of your journaling habit, set a time for revisiting your old entries to review it, which help you self-reflect. 

 

Second Tip - Develop Emotional Awareness 

• Allow yourself to feel your emotions. To understand your emotions is part of your self-awareness. For example, you might feel sorrow after getting passed over for a job opportunity. Do not try to fight that feeling! Tell yourself, “I’m sad as I thought I was going to get the job. It’s okay to feel this way.”
• Include stress release into your routine to prevent burn out. Stress is a normal part of our life, but it will be harmful if you get significant dose. You should have your own technic to deal with that stress to either call one of your friends after a stressful day at work or take a warm shower to decompress your tension.
• To understand yourself deeply, you should know what triggers your emotion. For example, let us say you blew up at your friend for yelling at your dog. You might realize that seeing people be mean to animals is an emotional trigger for you.
• To stay grounded in the present moment use mindfulness. Additionally you can engage your 5 senses sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to be more focus as follows

1. Sight: focus on a specific color around you
2. Hearing: notice the sounds in your environment
3. Smell: sniff an essential oil
4. Taste: chew a piece of gum
5. Touch: rub your hand on your skin

• For a clear and calm mind, meditate for at least 10 minutes a day, then you will be in relaxed state and could control your emotions. 

 

Third Tip - Getting Feedback from Others

• Ask people whose opinions you value to give you feedback. Identify people in your life who you think they will give you an honest, constructive evaluation of yourself. And send an email to them, asking for as an example,

1. What is my five top strengths?
2. Describe myself in 10 words.
3. Give me five ways to improve myself.

• Pay attention to how others react with you, recognize their body language and notice if they appear comfortable and approach you with ease or if they keep their distance or close themselves off.
• Let one of your friends film you so you can watch yourself and understand how others see your facial expressions and mannerisms. Ask your friend to make a video while you are giving presentation.
• Review the feedback you get at work or school. You probably receive regular feedback about your job performance or academic progress. Read the critiques or job reviews that you receive. Additionally, talk to your supervisor or instructor to ask questions or learn more about your progress.

A Seven Days Journey to Confidence

If you feel a bit low on self-confidence, and need to raise your self-esteem in a short period, read on this article! A seven days journey to confidence

Day 1: Focus on confidence more on a physical level! Especially for those who are unhappy with their posture or appearance. Look in a full-length mirror wearing your birthday suit, and write down your three most pleasing features and 1 not-as-pleasing feature. It's okay to not be comfortable with a part of yourself, but it's not okay to let that single fact control you. Create a list of clothes that make your chosen features prominent. For example, if you'd like to accentuate your waist, splurge on some new belts.

Day 2: Focus on your face! Create a list of 3 things you love about your face appearance.
Remember to write down a facial feature you're not too crazy about. Add to your list (That you created in step 1) some facial cream and facemasks that you'd need to accentuate
your favorite features. Next, write down 1 item you're not comfortable with, as example, If you don't like your teeth, buy whitening strips, you could even change your haircut or get your hair dyed. If your face appearance make you satisfy, that gives your more confidence.

Day 3: Find a hobby and stick to it! For example, if you're creative, get an easel, a canvas, and some paints or a sowing machine and fabrics to your list. Finding something you're good at will make you getting better and it gives you more confident.

Day 4: Social interaction! To keep developing your hobby, you might take classes or participate in other activities. So, you'll meet with new people who have loads in common with you, and you will feel better about yourself as you're pursuing something you enjoy.

Day 5: Shopping Spree! This is the favorite step. Prepare your list of things you need and go buy them. If you're low on money or just don't want to spend that much, go to a thrift store or organize a clothes swap with friends.

Day 6: Party time! Grab some friends you met through the activities and hobbies from Day 4 and take them out for some fun to get to know them better. You could go to a park for hiking or a movie together. This friend relation will develop your confidence.

Day 7: Treatment step! If a more traumatic event has led you to lose confidence, see a therapist or talk to a friend, even write it down in a journal! Getting your thoughts out of your head is extremely important.

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How to Improve Your Self Confidence

Self-confident feeling can be a challenge when facing potentially difficult situations such as: participating in a competitive sport, giving a speech, being around unfamiliar people, or speaking up in class.
Fortunately, confidence can be increase in these moments and other likelihood ones by thinking about yourself positively, thinking realistically about the situation, acting in a confident manner, and using techniques to manage any anxiety or nervousness you might have about the situation.

First Tip - Thinking about yourself positively
If you're going to give a speech, as an example, and you think negatively that you will fail, it increases the likelihood of the negative behaviors which you don't want (stumbling over your words, sweating too much due to excessive nervousness)
Otherwise, if you think positively about yourself that you will succeed, it will increase the probability of the positive actions (Be calm in your responses and speaking clearly)

Second Tip - Thinking realistically about the situation
Using an imagery technique and visualize yourself as confident where you achieve your target and giving a good presentation. Ask yourself what happen if I'm not doing well in that presentation, absolutely, nothing will happen. So don't give the situation much than it deserves and focus on what you are doing.

Third Tip - Using techniques to manage negative emotions
Act as a confident, and be focusing in your speech and ignore any distraction thoughts that get you off your subject. Maintain your posture. Keep smiling.

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