[Marco Polo]

@Chado - THere's a lot of good advice in this thread, so I hope you've started to implement some of it. Good luck with all this.


@Nick Pagan - Overall, I actually think you've got it right, and hence your apology was probably unecessary. Fair enough, your definition of confidence is quite narrow, but one should remember that words are not static. Definitions are (and should be) malleable.

By adopting an objective mindset and focusing on increasing competence -- as opposed to creating delusional beliefs -- we are laying the groundwork for a sound intellectual development. At the emotional level, what people often refer to as confidence I would indeed describe as "courage in the face of uncertainty". And in the long term, I think the feeling of confidence is more a by-product of competence than a goal worth pursuing in and of itself.

Of course, we're just playing semantics games here, but if I had to chose a definition it would probably be something close to yours (with some minor tweaks perhaps). Great blog by the way.