This
five lettered word is currently being proliferated by the media,
religious institutions and schools all over the world today. When a
person is being confident and self-trusting, most people immediately
write him off as “proud”. Yet, when the same person becomes diffident
and pessimistic, he is immediately discarded as some loser. What then is
pride, and what is confidence?
Pride can be defined as overconfidence in what some one has, not what
one is. While confidence on the other hand denotes the act of being
sure of your self because you have self control or integrity. Pride
comes in the moment your source of confidence shifts from what you are
to what you have. What a person is, refers to the person’s character; a
person’s level of self contentment and how moralistic that person is.
While what a person has refers to the certificates a person has, the
money he has, the power he wields, and other things that can be taken
away from that person.
The difference between what a person has and what a person is
is that the latter cannot be changed, except if the person who
possesses it decides to. The former on the other hand is very mutable.
It can be taken away from the person at any given time. For instance, a
person who has confidence in himself because he has integrity would
always possess his integrity even if he loses every other thing he owns.
His integrity can only be obliterated when he decides to do away with
it. On the other hand, a person who’s confidence stems from the money he
has in his bank account can become a church rat if the bank gets burnt
and this will immediately dispel his confidence. It therefore becomes
obvious that pride has to do with the things outside a person, while
confidence stems from the structure and respectability of a person’s
mind.
A thief can never ever be confident. This is because, if his deeds
are exposed to the world, all he will get is shame, shame and nothing
but abject shame. Anything close to confidence such thief exhibits can
only be rightly referred to as “pride”. A lecturer whose confidence
stems from the impressive certificates hanging in his office cannot be
said to be confident because if the standard of education suddenly
dropped and that certificate became proliferated, it would become
useless and his confidence; dispelled. Further more, a person whose
confidence stems from what he thinks he knows can become a dullard
immediately if he contracts a neurological aliment.
However, a person of self control or integrity may lose every single
thing he owns and his integrity will still be untouched. He may be
wrongly accused, ostracized and castigated, but he knows within himself
that he is worthy to be respected and this can never change till he
stoops low to give in to the temptations of life.
Pride is foolish folly in foolishness, while confidence is permanent,
stolid and immutable. Pride is feigned because those who wield it
easily become jealous, discontent and disturbed whenever they see
someone who possesses things shinier than theirs. Proud people feel
inferior, the moment they are in the midst of their superiors. They
become failures. Pride is not earned. One can easily acquire some
knowledge and become high immediately.
Confidence, on the other hand can only be acquired through fastidious
discipline, consistent self-reprehension and vociferousness. Confidence
cannot and will never be achieved in a day. Confidence can come as a
result of consistent practice. It comes from having a sophisticated
mind.
These two words are constantly used by people interchangeably these
days and it shouldn’t be so. A lot can be acquired through confidence,
but nothing good can ever come out of pride. One should be able to
clearly distinguish the latter from the former and also eliminate the
former as it can only lead to one thing; doom!
Eliminate pride today and start threading in suave confidence…
Pride is foolish folly in foolishness. Confidence; candid conviction in a cadenced character
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