Confidence - Invaluable moral lessons

As has been moped about before in alot of my previous posts, we live in a superficial world that focuses on the facade than the inside. One sure-fire way to always leave a lasting impression and get a person through all obstacles come what may is 'confidence'. I myself would define confidence as the assurance one has towards something, and the strong belief and trust one has put in it.

Confidence has various manifestations. One can put confidence in someone, or in an object or thing, or one can even put confidence in oneself. Usually, as with experience, putting confidence in someone or in an object would almost always lead to failure, especially when one underperforms or the object, as with everything in this world, does not last. I can assure you, the dear reader of my blog, that most of the time, putting confidence in someone or an object will lead to your very own downfall, in some way or another.

My personal experience of putting confidence in people is rather tragic. As has been so in every facet of my life, i have at one point or another put some form of confidence in a person to carry out his or her responsibilities, or the very least, to keep something a secret. And more often than not almost everyone has, in some way or another, found a multitude of ways to screw things up, be it slightly or majorly; be it intentionally or unintentionally. I am usually ok with unintentional acts of screwing up my confidence in these certain people. I usually hold grudges against others when they intentionally screw up, and think it is all just a game and shrug it off. Imbecilic heathens.

Then what about confidence in oneself? I do admit that having self confidence is an invaluable asset. The self confidence you have and apply can be an infectious and contagious trait that can bolster the morale of people around you, and is an awesome attribute to obtain, especially for leaders. But as with everything good, there is always a flipside.

The problem arises when one's self confidence reaches new heights that are disproportionate to ones abilities. Usually this swelling up of one's confidence can also be akin to what we call being cocky. Often one can hear or ever encountered cocksure people 'having self confidence' to tackle a certain conundrum and usually failing along the way. Why is this so you may ask? Apart from the obvious fact that in some cases one can fail oneself, it is the fact that the confidence one has has swelled up to the point of ballooning and exaggerating ones own abilities so much so that ones abilities become much more hyped up than it actually is. In other words, constant assurance by yourself and your abilities often leaves you complacent enough to not bother about self improvisation. This leads to a stagnation in abilities, and this alone is a crucial error to make in an ever improving world.

On a divine note, it could also be because when one gets so air headed with ones own abilities, one begins to think more of oneself than ones creator. Knowledge has the power to give confidence to anyone who wields it, and with knowledge one can rule the world, if utilized properly. But we must remember that we are still merely humans. And as the angels said in Al-Baqarah:23 'O Lord! We have no knowledge apart from what knowledge has been taught to us by you...'. We have no knowledge as we stand. What could possibly make us think that we are at a level above angels; the entities who are in constant communion with God? Iblis defied God when asked to bow down to Adam, and look what happened to him. He was so cocky of his status and abilities till he inadvertently defied his own creator. I can safely say that cocky humans are treading down that similar path, and i can assume that their downfall is their price to pay, just as how Iblis paid for his impudence and insolence.

If one is astute enough, one might have impliedly noticed one exception to who one can place confidence in - Our God. He is the one who will be with us through our toughest times, and he is the one who will stick with us come what may. Most importantly he is our provider. Of life and knowledge. It is him that has to be given credit when we score well or when we succeed in any way, as nothing can be done or succeeded if He does not intend it to be so.

In my case, it may seem like i have confidence, especially in classes and lectures, but i can safely say that it is all a facade. I do realise the importane of 'showing' your confidence to people that matter; people who will be your assessors, people who will hire you, and even people who are against you, though it has to always be carefully meted out to ensure that it is confidence, and not cockiness. But deep down inside i have never been confident of 'my' abilities. Because truth be told, it is not mine. It is a gift from the divine powers; one that can be taken back at the snap of His fingers, leaving me a dumb husk of a person who was once priding himself for his supposedly hard-earned abilities and attributes.

Many people have become annoyed by my 'humbleness'. The thing is, i am not humble. I am just stating things as they are. Why would i want to pride myself over something that is not mine? It is a gift that i got, and yes, i will use it to its fullest. But i will never pride or claim ownership over it, and i shall forever remain who i am. Just a human being.

I can attribute the so-so grades i got to two main things - God, coz it is seriously beyond my control considering how little effort i put to studying, and my mother and father, coz they are the ones who till this very day tirelessly pray for my success in this world and the next. Just that one does it in this world and the other does it in the grave. But i am eternally thankful for their endeavours, and i shall try my best to not fail them.

Another facet of self-confidence is associated with looks. I reckon that one has to be confident with how one looks like, and must be able to accept themselves for who they are. This is something i have tried hard to do, and i guess i have finally succeeded in accepting myself for who i am; though it doesn't mean i like what i accept. It's akin to a parent. He or she can accept a rebel child as their child, but that doesn't mean they like what they accept. Haha.. But whatever it is i am still grateful that i am not deformed or retarded in anyway at all (just a bit excessive. Haha! But then i tell myself overdelivery is always better than underdelivery..:P) I guess we must be thankful and happy with what we have, and we must always look at those who are less fortunate than ourselves, than look at those who are more fortunate. Though it is not wrong to look at those who are more fortunate than us as stepping stones, or yardsticks to aspire to in the future, again to prevent stagnation in any way at all.

To sum up my traumatically vivid experiences and ramblings, the moral of the story is that confidence, especially self-confidence, is important in such a superficial world, and one should have it to be able to rise up in rank in the world today. One just has to make sure that confidence here does not lead to complacency and cockiness, and forgetting ones roots and status in this, sadly, God-forgetting world we're living in today.


Cheers,
EzzE