Pessimism Leads to a Lack of Self Confidence
Self confidence is when a person has a strong belief in himself or herself and that they can achieve and get whatever they set their mind to do. In addition, it can be when a person has control to handle a given situation. The degree of self confidence can be perceived differently from one person to another depending on the situation that a person might be facing or prior to dealing with a given situation: for instance a person may have a strong degree of self confidence in public speaking while to another person it may be approaching a member of the opposite sex (Cypert, 1994).
Lack of self confidence can be linked to a given number of causes which include; control, not thinking positively, and the self image of a person in general. In control; here, when a person feels like he or she is not in control; this will lead to them not having self confidence. In a given situation where a person has little or, no confidence they might find that dealing with that situation can be a highly difficult task; in that their mind is already set that they cannot deal with that situation. In self image; here, a person has to have the notion that his self image is okay and is at a state of perfection hence; they will have self confidence to tackle any given situation. Another aspect that may lead a person not to have self confidence is not thinking positively; it is believed that in order to achieve ultimate success in any undertaking one has to have positive thoughts: in the sense that they should have a strong mind that does not leave room for doubt to build up. Moreover, recent studies and research done have shown that positive thinking can lead someone to achieve what might be perceived as a challenge by most people (Lane, 2008).
Over the years, the challenge of lack of self confidence has been dealt with a number of ways such as, building up control, having a state of mind that is relaxed in that it has a strong will power to overcome anything and trying to have positive thoughts about everything thus; changing one’s view to become an optimist.
Pessimism can be defined as the notion and belief that the end result of any given situation will always be bad; in that a person often focuses on the evil side of things. Moreover, pessimism can also be said to be the belief that the world is the worst place to be in and that the goodness of everything is surpassed by the evil side. Therefore, a person who sees mostly the evil side of everything can be termed as a pessimist.
Pessimism is said to be divided into different and diverse categories: these include; moral; here, the pessimist looks at the wars that are in the world. Political; where any aspect that is linked to politics is perceived to be evil. Intellectual; where a person questions the reality of our existence in a true world. Environmental; here; pessimists believe that the world’s environment is not pure and that it has already been damaged by the activities of human beings in general. Cultural; here, the pessimists believe that the current culture has overshadowed by the dark and evil side hence; there is no good that can come out of the current cultures (Prusak, 2005).
Although, being a pessimist does not entirely mean that one will always have glom accompanying them, it is often associated with very low self esteem and having a high degree of self doubt. These, have in many proven occasions led to a person not achieving their expected and desired goals and objectives: for instance a person might stick to a job that they do not like or even want at times with the notion that their life was meant to take that path. Ways of overcoming pessimism has been said to be welcoming happiness into a person’s life and to mostly think and act positively in all given situations (Seligman, 1995).
In conclusion, I believe that there is a relationship between lack of self confidence and pessimism whereby pessimism often leads to lack of self confidence.
Bibliography
Cypert, S.A. (1994). Power of Self-Esteem. NY:AMACOM.
Lane, Christopher (2008), Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, Yale University Press.
Seligman, M. (1995). The Optimistic Child. Adelaide: Griffin Press.
Sfard A., & Prusak, A. (2005). Identity that makes a difference: Substantial learning as closing the gap between actual and designated identities. In H. Chick & J. Vincent (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, pp. 37-52). Melbourne, Australia: PME.
