Confident or Cocky

When you think of the word confidence what image is conjured up for you?  Who or what comes to mind?  Do you see yourself anywhere in those images?  There is nothing wrong with being confident, actually confidence is an attractive attribute.  Basically to be confident is to be assured of your own abilities or qualities.  You walk taller, smile broader and there is a tone of pride in your speech.  Ahhhh pride, that thing there.  That feeling of extreme pleasure with ones own achievements.  In essence there is nothing wrong with being proud of oneself but there is a threshold.  There is a VERY thin line between being confident and cocky and between feeling proud and being prideful.

We humans have this strange ability to turn something good into something distasteful in a matter of seconds and it's usually because of our initial intent behind the act of doing something.  We can turn an achievement and a reason to be proud of ourselves into something that resembles boasting or cocky behavior.  Just recently I had this experience.  I pride myself on finding simple solutions to problems and I was able to do that for a repeat problem at work and I went around telling everyone who would listen...but no one would acknowledge it or say that it was a good idea.  They would just move around as if I had said absolutely nothing to them at all; as if I were invisible.  So I sat my bruised ego down and continued to work my solution and said nothing else about it.  Then one morning my employer was looking for some documents and I pulled up my spreadsheet and voila', I was able to answer his question in a matter of a minute or two rather than an hour or two.  He was so pleased and subsequently so I was I.  But, could that pleasure have arrived weeks earlier if I had just let it be after creating the spreadsheet?  Oh, this is the part that I left out, and I think it's critical to my point here, when I initially told everyone about my solution my tone was one of irritation and dare I say arrogance.  This, I believe is what made people move around as if I had said nothing at all; my delivery.

Years ago, when I worked for a major copier company, there was this extremely attractive man that worked in the same building as I.  He was the cliche' tall, dark and handsome and he also fit his suits rather well.  Every single morning I would see this man and I would swoon on the inside.  It was a deep swoon honey, my knees practically buckled.  One afternoon I went into Starbucks and he was walking out, that was his daily stop but usually in the mornings, and the cashier had that look on her face as he walked out.  You know the look, the one that said "I would devour him if he were mine".  Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, lol!  Anyway, she had the look and I chuckled at her, we began discussing the gentleman and all that we THOUGHT we knew about him but the one thing that stuck out for both of us was that no matter how FINE we thought he was he had this air of cockiness about him, not confidence but cocky.  Fast forward a year or so later and the very same accusation is placed on me and it was true!  I walked around as if my poop don't stink and as if I were too good to speak to or with.

The bible speaks of those prideful behaviors and how it will cause your downfall and oh, how the mighty have fallen.  Be mindful of how you carry yourself, of how you present yourself to others.  Be confident in your abilities and your assignment in life but leave the prideful behavior and cockiness behind.  It will serve you well to do so.

Verses on humbleness

2 Timothy 1:7

Proverbs 3:26

Hebrews 4:16; 10: 35-36

Verses on Prideful behavior

James 4:6, 10

Jeremiah 9:23

Philippians 2:3

Isaiah 2:12

Proverbs 16: 18-19

Peace and Blessings beautiful people!

Remember to walk in Your purpose!

Jai