Overconfidence (too much of Something good)

Charisma is defined in some instances as too much of something good. Overconfidence is the same thing. Too much of a good quality and too much of something is usually not good. However, if you don’t have something like confidence, then lots of if won’t do you any harm.

You can lack everything as a man but not confidence. You should be overconfident if you don’t have confidence. People tell you to be confident; well you better aim for more than necessary. When you go to the extreme end of something, you will eventually dial it down to the right amount. The extreme ends are not that bad for learning and finding balance.

Overconfidence is not far from high expectations. You can be confident but you can leave room for disappointments, surprises and wildcards. There are always mishappenings that come up and ruin situations. High expectations are not always good. But you should expect something if you just know what you are doing or whatever you are into.

There are universal signs that someone is overconfident; one of them is energy, when you feel hyperactive, you are not just riding on good feelings but you are also super confident at that time. You might be hyping yourself too much. There are those moments when you feel like you can conquer the world just one man without an army. That is not realistic. You are overthinking things. No single man without an army can conquer the world. Confidence is feeling like the world is yours and you got this, overconfidence is the former.  

If you have been driving vans and minibuses, you feel very comfortable driving salon cars. It is nothing compared to what you are used to. But if you have never drove a 12 wheel truck before and you are used to an automatic salon car that change gears by itself please don’t think you can drive a truck across the country without causing an accident, that’s where the word stick to your lane came from. You are likely to run into bridge. It is not just the same thing you have been doing. You are overconfident thinking you can drive that big lorry without proper training. But you can be confident that you will drive it with just a little training.

Another thing you can be overconfident about is your strength; do you feel like you can carry 80kgs comfortably? This is for men. It is men who bite more than they can chew when it comes to lifting weights. A man likes to feel strong but hey, unless you have been hitting the gym for years, 80 Kgs on the bench is just some serious weight. Your chest might tear off. It is possible with support though. You need someone motivating you to carry 80kgs for 3 sets of 15 reps.

It is good to be strong; we all want to achieve a certain level of fitness as men but just don’t overestimate your abilities. You get there with time. Your strength will grow slowly. If you have been lifting 80 kgs correctly for a while, you can be confident of doing 90kgs. That’s confidence based on competence not incompetence.

Another thing related to overconfidence is over ambition. Ambition itself is good, but too much of it can make you do some really nasty things. It is good when your confidence is in the stratosphere but a man got to manage his expectations. Don’t be surprised when things turn out not to be what you thought, it is always good to revise your thinking process.

An overconfident person will just have one plan without thinking of a plan B. You need an exit plan in any situation you are getting into. Confident people are random in their quests, should the plan change, they will change with it. It is like a football match, should you go in with a formation and you discover that it doesn’t work in the first half; you will try something different in the second half.

You see football teams doing that all the time. They walk into the field so majestically confident in the first half only to get dog beaten with their weak formations. They come in second half with a totally different angle and manage to make a comeback. There is nowhere in this life you will see last minute comebacks like the ones in football.

Overconfidence is not a beginner problem as such; both the rookie and the master can be overconfident. It is an assumption that you got it and you don’t even have to prepare for it or check the facts before doing something. It comes from ignorance. And ignorance is not always a good thing.

Above all, it has never been a bad thing; I would rather be overconfident than have low confidence. Over-aggression, overthinking, over-ambition and such are better than not having those qualities.

Nice Week!