The word "confidence" comes from the Latin fidere, "to trust." To be self-confident means to trust in yourself and your ability to accomplish the goals you've set for yourself, solve problems, deal with challenges, and be an agent of change – not a helpless observer – in your own life.

Self-confidence is based on self-esteem – a deeper inner feeling, where you know you're worthy and you've got valuable gifts and talents to contribute to the world. A person with a healthy self-esteem believes in themselves and isn't afraid to be creative and entrepreneurial. They aren't afraid to make mistakes either. Even if they fail, they won't lose their sense of self-esteem, because they trust in their own instrinsic value.

Contrary to that, if we lack self-esteem, we might be hiding from the world, never feeling good enough, always settling for less, and never really allowing ourselves to spread our wings.

Or, we might be compensating by overachieving, by being a workaholic, by trying to prove to the world how successful and important we are. But deep down, we'll never feel enough, no matter how hard we try.

An athlete can feel self-confident as long as they're achieving results and winning medals, but if they suffer an injury and can't compete any more, they might suddenly lose their self-confidence and get depressed. That's because their self-confidence was based on outer achievements and successes, instead of being rooted in a deeper sense of self-worth.

In order to have true personal power, we need to have confidence in our ability to accomplish things in the external world, as well as the deeper inner sense of self-worth. This enables us to pick ourselves up and find new strength even if our life circumstances change, and we experience failure and loss.