What is the difference between being confident and being arrogant?  Is it attitude or spirit?

Confidence by definition is full trust; belief in the reliability of a person or thing.  Confidence either comes from something inside or something outside us.  To be confident is having strong belief or full assurance.   Where does the ability to be confident come from?

Confidence is built from many blocks of successes we have in our lives.  A child learning to walk starts out wobbly and unsure, but with every successful step forward, the child stands straighter.   The same holds true for each of our successes in life and career.  As a parent, each time we handle something well with our child, our confidence builds.  In our career, with each successful position or project our confidence builds and we move forward.

Arrogance by definition is a feeling of superiority or an offensive exhibition of it; presumptuous or overbearing conduct, statements, resulting from such a feeling.   Like confidence, arrogance comes from within but the results can be much different.  To be arrogant we are showing pretensions and superiority.  There is little room for any of us to come across better than the next.  Nobody knows everything, and everybody makes mistakes.  True character is shown in how we handle those mistakes.

Let me encourage you to be confident that you will make mistakes.  But don’t let those mistakes be masked by an arrogant spirit.  Be real and if others don’t understand, then they may have an arrogance issue.

Let me also encourage you to be confident in the gifts and talents you have.  Use them to show others they can be confident in you.

What do you think?

All the best,

KK