SELF CONFIDENCE AS THE KEY TO THE ACCURACY OF TARGETS

Taufiq Rahman
4 min readApr 30, 2020

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One day Batara Kresna ordered the five Pandavas to shoot birds. When they wanted to shoot, the Pandavas were asked by Batara Kresna. “What do you see?” Yudistira, Bima, Nakula, and Sadewa all answered in unison, “Bird, my lord.” Except for Arjuna who was silent. “Arjuna, what did you see?” And Arjuna answered, “Bird’s neck, my lord.” And indeed the bird’s neck was hit by the arrow of Arjuna.

The puppet story above suggests that to achieve success there needs to be self-confidence. From that self-confidence then arises intention or determination. And from that determination, there is an effort to reach the goal appropriately. The intention is already half the success of an action. But the basic remains one, namely self-confidence. Then, what is called confidence?

Trusting Self

Confidence is the belief that people have the ability to do something to achieve certain goals. Confidence is also the belief of people in their ability to produce levels of implementation that affect the events that affect their lives. Confidence is the belief that people have the ability to decide on the course of an action that is required to take care of the situations at hand.

Confidence is touted as a concept that has evolved in literature and society: as a belief that one’s actions have an influence on the environment; as a decision of a person for his ability based on mastery criteria; one’s sense of ability within a specific framework, focuses one’s ability to carry out specific tasks in relation to goals and standards.

Confidently evaluate past experiences. And confidence is positive psychology. He tells about the factors that create meaning in individuals. Our personal ideas can influence our social interactions. So, knowing the development of self-confidence is important because it can lead us to a more productive and happier life.

With confidence, we are aware of our existence, of our irreversible core of personality and what lasts throughout our lives, no matter how varied our environment, and how other people’s opinions and feelings change. It is at this core that the reality behind the word ‘I am’ and from that reality is based on our opinion of our identity. If we don’t have confidence in our survival, our feelings of identity will be threatened and we become dependent on others whose approval is the basis of our feelings of identity.

Confidence is important in relation to trusting other people. Only people who have confidence in themselves can be able to believe in others because only he can be sure that he will remain the same in the future as he is today, and as such, he will feel and act as he now expects. Belief in someone is a condition of our ability to promise, and because, as Nietzsche said, humans can be defined by their capacity to promise, belief is one of the conditions of human existence (human existence). So said Erich Fromm.

No Inferiority

With confidence, we are actually taught that we are the same human as the others. If anything is more advanced, we say that we are also human beings like them, who must eat, drink and sleep. “They are men, we are men” (hum rijal wa nahnu rijal), Iraqi Abu Hanifa said.

Indeed there is no human who is more (superior) than other humans. How fierce and mighty a general is, if he sleeps he can be killed too. So says Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher. Therefore, there is no reason to be inferior.

But all that can be distorted, if we have strong confidence. Of course, we are not just independent, without imitation stages, for example. The Japanese won’t be as great now if they don’t imitate the West. But it must be convinced first that we are able to imitate and even be able to go beyond what we imitate.

Therefore, we must feel proud of ourselves that we are superior. This is the recipe used by great men such as Alexander the Great, Prince Asoka, and Napoleon in advancing their people.

Instill Confidence

To educate the child’s confidence, the family at home must bring the child to the self-confidence. Namely that the child can do something, learn something, talk about something well. Here parents, as lazy and busy as anything, must be able to make their children grow with good confidence.

At school, teachers can educate their students to be sure of their own abilities. For example, students must be able to express their opinions; must be able to speak up before other people (for example speeches, singing, dancing, etc.); must be sure, do not doubt of the actions being chosen; don’t copy other people’s work; and the like.

Thus, this confidence must always be there, because with that self-confidence exists, and with that confidence, he can also achieve. Like Arjuna who believes that he can shoot right at the bird’s neck, in the story above.

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Taufiq Rahman

A lecturer of philosophy living in Bandung, Indonesia