Three Characteristics of Confident People

We’ve all known confident people. They tend to be the people we try to emulate or the people we earnestly desire approval from. They know who they are, and they don’t need anyone’s permission to pursue their dreams or believe that good things lie in store for them. Sometimes we envy them because we want to live like that - to know that we’re allowed to hope and to know that we’re not insignificant.

But what sets confident people apart? Here are three characteristics of confident people.

Confident People Know Who They Are

Confident people aren’t seeking to glean their identities from other people or the world around them. They know what they like and what they don’t, who they are and who they’re not, and they don’t apologize for it, because…

Confident People Know Their Rights

Confident people know that they deserve to be treated with the same respect as other human beings. They allow themselves to recognize when they are in situations that are harmful to them and find ways to change the situation or to grow from it. When other people give them negative feedback, confident people don’t accept that feedback as part of their identities, but make an intentional decision either to let the feedback go, if it was baseless, or to use it to improve themselves, because they know their lives are worth investing in.

Confident People Don’t Need Permission

Confident people trust that they are capable of making reasonable, well-informed decisions. They make choices in their lives and don’t ask others to approve of them. They know that other people don’t know them as well as they do and know that they are usually more qualified to make decisions about their own lives than other people are.

But don’t arrogant people have a lot of these same qualities?

Where is the line between arrogance and confidence? This is why it’s so important to understand the responsibility of confidence.