Self Respect and Confidence vs. Pride

PaK

There is a fine line between a healthy concept of self respect/confidence and pride. I think the line seems more blured for artists, especially those who make a living off their work.

<u>Definitions:</u>

This should start us off:

Confidence
Respect
Pride

<u>My 2 cents</u>

-I think many of us can spot people with self-confidence and self-respect very quickly. I think it's one of the first things we asses about other people...even children, and from a very young age.

-I think what can seem to be self-confidence is often fake, and the difference shows up over time. Once you get to know someone you start to see how they shape their opinions and you base your assesment on that.

-I think that people will listen to you if you exuberate self-confidence.

-I think our assesment of self-confidence plays a huge roll in how we size people up. mreso than almost anything else. it's also the most long-lasting impression we have, and the one we hanmg on to he longest. I think these assesmenst are made quickly, and are extremly difficult to change.

<u>What I'm hoping to discover from ths thread:</u>
-Examples of situations where you might have been defending your pride, why you think this is an example.

-Examples of a self-respect and confidence and why you think it's was a good example.

<u>What Will Klll this Thread:</u>

-excesivey arguing word definitions. Spliting hairs is just annoying.

-People arguing a particular example of pride or confidence/self-respect. It's different for each of us I suspect. It's the reasoning behind it that makes all the diffferece. What can be the source of pride for one man can be the source of healthy confidence and self-respect for another. Not understanding this reality is just going to derail this thread entirely. I really don't wanna see that happen.

It's been a while since I've brought something like this to polycount, my hope is to learn a bit.

-R

hawken

I have little pride, self confidence or respect.

you do it to yourself I guess.

FAT_CAP

In my experience I tend to empathise with people who don't exude self-confidence and are a bit more self-critical and less brash.

This is probably to do with my own personality gravitating towards like-minded people, but I have often found people that are overly confident have the least purposefull things to say and are much more forceful in their opinions...both things which wouldn't instantly enamour me to someone.

For example: I would be much more receptive to a great-artists advice if they were a more self-affacing character, who could speak to - and take crits from anybody. This probably all comes down to personal experience with such people in the past though.

Prs-Phil

hmmm, good thread. I´ve got to be carefull that I don't drift away into worddefinitions .

Confidence or self confidence is something you build. To actually say that you are selfconfident to a certain degree means that you have taken steps away from yourself and are slowley finding back to "it".
I´ve come to see if you do that in a way without demanding anything from yourself or setting yourself above other people you develop a better sense for who you are and what you do. You begin to find see little (or big) things that make out your character and you become more aware of them and how people will react to them giving you a chance to harmonize better and to develop further.

Pride. I personally don't like pride allthough sometimes there. It is something cold even in combination with things you love and like, a bit like a fire that doesn't really keep you warm. There is a certain distance between ther person who is feeling the pride and the thing/person (whatever) he is feeling it for and I find that a bit disturbing.
I try to see past the action of pride and turning it into understanding. Understanding of a connection. If you are really honestly proud of something you might aswell just admit you love it and be happy that you can see it.

I don't even want to start what false pride can lead to.

thats my 2 cents

jzero

It all comes down to basic self-image, as does most of human behavior. How self-reliant you are and how you feel about yourself in relationship to others is the foundation, I mean the bedrock, or human behavior.

Good self-image gives you confidence in your own abilities and worth. Good self-image allows you to respect others, because you respect yourself. Good self-image is well-regulated, meaning you take pride in what you do, but not to excess. Pride can mean different things, but the good one means knowing how good you really are without feeling you have to prove yourself.

It all requires a good deal of experience and objectivity, which are learned.

/jzero

Ruz

I think tis too easy to simplify our perceptions of people.

TomDunne

Bruce Lee had something interesting to say on the nature of pride - it's in the first dozen pages or so of the Tao of JKD, I'll see if I can dig that up later.

*edit*

Oops, it's actually in the last few pages:

"Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem is derived from the potentialities and achievements of self. We are proud when we identify ourselves with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body or possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is sensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potentiality in the self, the more imperative the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection. It is true, however, that when pride releases energies and serves as a spur to achievement, it can lead to a reconciliation with the self and the attainment of genuine self-esteem."

There are some other pertinent bits in that section, but I have to go now to get tacos