Confidence

Confidence is trust or faith that a person or thing is capable. Self-confidence is having confidence in oneself. Overconfidence is having unmerited confidence- believing something or someone is capable when they are not.

People may have confidence in other people or forces beyond their control. For instance, one might have confidence in the police to protect them, or may have confidence that a sports team will win a game. Faith and Trust are synonyms of confidence when used in this sense.

Usually when someone is referred to as 'confident' they are referring to self-confidence. Self-confidence is faith in one's own abilities. People with high self-confidence typically have little fear of the unknown, are able to stand up for what they believe in, and have the courage to risk embarrassment (for instance, by giving a presentation to a large group of people). One who is self-confident is not necessarily loud, brash, or reckless.


Losing confidence

Losing confidence is no longer trusting in the ability to perform. It may be reasonable as the result of past failure to perform, or unreasonable, because one "just has a feeling" about something or is having doubt.

Choking refers to losing confidence, especially self-confidence, just at the moment when it is needed most and doing poorly as a result e.g. in sports. This is found as a common plot device in literature and film, and is usually devised to result in a total alteration of a character's life.

Confidence in the face of danger is also known as fearlessness.

The states of confidence could thus be described as:

Overconfident: In the absence of anxiety a person could become reckless due to overconfidence. This state can be identified by the cognitive thought process of everything appearing rosy. An overconfident person doesn't see the need to consider all possible outcome and is sure the outcome will be what he / she has perceived.

Unconfident: An unconfident person on the other hand gets paralyzed due to anxiety. The person tends to have lots of self-doubts, becomes very critical about himself / herself and have low opinion of self (low self esteem). This causes a vicious cycle where the anxiety cripples the person into inaction, and he / she continues to berate herself thus creating more anxiety.

Confidence: When the anxiety is at an optimum level, you are at your best. You know that negative outcomes are possible, but rather than exaggerating or minimizing it, you give it the due attention necessary (what can I do if this happens ...). So perhaps a better definition of confidence is the state of balanced perceptions and preparation.