[Neurons] 2016 Neurons #50 -- More than Just Self-Confidence --> Self-Efficacy

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2016 "Neurons" Meta Reflections - #50

October 24, 2016

 

 

MORE THAN JUST SELF-CONFIDENCE

-> SELF-EFFICACY

 

 

While self-confidence is good, there is something that goes far beyond
self-confidence and something that would really enrich your life.
Interested?  Yes, I'm talking about self-efficacy.  So what is that?

 

Confidence in yourself refers to what you can do.  It is your faith with
yourself (con- with, plus fidence- fideo, faith, belief, trust).  With
self-confidence you trust and believe that you can do something.  What do
you trust yourself to be able to do?  The fact is there are hundreds if not
thousands of things that you do everyday that you have faith that you can
do, that you can pull off.   It's not always been that way.  Today the
simplest things that you do were once upon a time major challenges-tying
your shoes, getting dressed, eating, etc.  Now you can do these things with
your eyes closed!

 

Coming to trust and believe in your skills, your capacities, your ability to
do something is an ongoing and life-long process.  What are you now working
on?  What new skills are you developing that in a year or two you will look
back and remember with delight that once upon a time it seemed hard,
challenging, and difficult?  Remember learning to drive a car, using a
computer, typing on a keyboard.

 

Maybe you have learned to play an instrument, compete in tennis or
gymnastics, rebuild an engine, write a grant proposal, or developed one or
more of a thousand other more advanced skills.  Whatever skills you have
developed and practiced to the point of competence-you now have confidence
that you can handle that.  Confidence unveils your ability to function in a
given area.

 

Self-efficacy is the name of the meta-state that goes far beyond mere
self-confidence.  Whereas self-confidence is about the past, self-efficacy
is about the future.  With any skill that you now have confidence about,
that speaks about your history, what you have over time learned to do and do
at a level of competence.  That's why the questions to ask about
self-confidence are these:

              What are you confident about?  Can you do that skill?  Are you
competent in that?

Have you moved through the stages of unconscious incompetence, conscious
incompetence, conscious competence, and so you are now at the stage of
unconscious competence? 

 

Confidence, based on competence, means that you learned to do something so
you can now perform the skill when you are called upon or when you so
choose.  It is under your control.  You know how to do it, the state to
access and operate from, the process that's required, and so on.  Now you
can point to many instances over time wherein you demonstrated your
competence.

 

Self-efficacy relates to the future rather than the past.  In fact, if
someone asks if you have ever done that particular skill, the answer is no.
But you know you can.   If someone asks me, "Do you know how to fly a
helicopter?"  I would say, "Sure.  If I wanted to as part of my plans, sure.
No problem."  Yet I never have.  So what is the basis of the confidence
inside of self-efficacy?  The basis is based on several things- I know how
to learn, I know how to learn something brand new, I know how to read and
study, I know how to contract with an instructor, I know how to follow
instructions, I know how to set up a discipline for practice, I know how to
patiently walk through the learning process, I know that it is just a matter
of time (payment, hours of flight time, etc.), and I know how to persist
until I succeed in a task.

 

The meta-state of self-efficacy arises from knowing yourself and knowing how
you know things and how you learn things.  And it naturally arises after you
have walked the pathway from unconscious incompetence through the stages to
conscious competence and then on to unconscious competence.  After you have
done that repeatedly, the moment (or moments) comes when you realize
something.  "I have done this before!"  "I have repeatedly done this same
process."  You then jump some logical leels as you realize several key
things that make up the heart and soul of self-efficacy:

"I know that I will figure it out.  I don't have to know it all right now."

"I know how to learn, how to relate, how to access resources, how to set up
a practice discipline, how to persist, how to be resilient, etc."

 

Now you have a state of mind-and-emotion that's oriented toward your future.
This is a common state for entrepreneurs and explains why they can move
forward with "confidence" (actually self-efficacy) in areas that they have
no experience.  It is not a single skill that they feel confident about- it
is something higher.  They feel confidence or rather efficacious about their
ability to learn, work through a process, and persist until they succeed.
So when they launch out, to others without self-efficacy it might look
scary, risky, and fearful.  The entrepreneur with self-efficacy see it as
just a matter of moving forward and "learning as I go."  "I will figure it
out.  That's what I do- I figure things out and if I can't, I know many
others who can and I can create collaborative partnerships with them."

 

Over the years I have written about this meta-state of self-efficacy in
creating wealth (Inside-Out Wealth), in building businesses (Games Business
Experts Play), in leadership (Unleashing Leadership) and in Coaching (The
Meta-Coaching System).  It shows up in so many areas of life.  It is the
foundation for resilience, for determination, and for being proactive
(Achieving Peak Performance).

 

Want some?  Unlike pseudo- self-confidence which some people build solely on
their optimistic thinking about their dreams and hopes, real confidence and
real efficacy is based on walking the pathway from incompetence to
competence again and again and then, from those experiences drawing the
conclusion that you know that pathway.

"I have walked that pathway often and when I move from unconscious
incompetence into conscious incompetence-I know it is just a stage.  It is
just part of the process.  And so I fully embrace the incompetence, the
feelings of being awkward, and uncomfortable, and confidently move through
it!" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
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