Confidence or Conceit?

Confidence or Conceit

Everyone, at one time or another, has heard someone arguing with conviction. Barely listening to the opposition, only briefly addressing their concerns, simply stating their opinion, considering it the summation of the debate. One need not look beyond our political landscape to see how hard itโ€™s become to tell the difference between an impassioned speaker and a hypocritical zealot. In a world where polarizing thoughts have become the norm, we confuse someone comfortable in asserting their view of the world as conceited or arrogant. The line between the two becomes blurred.

There is a difference. If they are truly centered, truly knowing themselves and only sharing their opinion of the world without expectations of universal acceptance or validation, they are not arrogant. And the ability to do so is one of the most precious skills we can have. As C. S. Lewis put it, โ€œThe virtue of courage is a prerequisite for the practice of all other virtues, otherwise one is virtuous only when virtue has no cost.โ€

Arrogance is to make claims or pretensions that somehow oneโ€™s own opinion is more important than any others, and that it should be heard over all others. Often it is a lack of confidence, a questioning of belief that causes a bold, arrogant assertion of black or white, when the world is gloriously colorful. 

No one wants to say things like โ€œI donโ€™t knowโ€. It leaves us feeling vulnerable or chastised, both internally and externally, for not having a definite opinion. Even more so if we donโ€™t have the opinion of the questioner.

Have the confidence to be you, and step into the sunlight.