Everyone’s heard of the need for self-esteem. If you don’t feel good about yourself, how can you ever accomplish anything in your life?
But what you may not know is the need for something else, which may be even more important — self-efficacy. That is, the belief that you have what you need in order to succeed (even if you don’t always do so).
People with self-efficacy often have very high standards for themselves, which brings about a paradox — they may not always have the highest self-esteem, nor do they always succeed (according to their own standards). What they do do is to never give up and always continue believing in themselves and their abilities.
The Wall Street Journal’s Melinda Beck has a column today about the role and importance self-efficacy has in our lives:
Still, such people succeed because they believe that persistent effort will let them succeed. In fact, if success comes too easily, some people never master the ability to learn from criticism. “People need to learn how to manage failure so it’s informational and not demoralizing,” says Prof. Albert Bandura.
Albert Bandura is the psychologist who first described this concept back in the 1970s and is still teaching it at Stanford University.
Self-efficacy differs from self-esteem in that it’s a judgment of specific capabilities rather than a general feeling of self-worth. “It’s easy to have high self-esteem — just aim low,” says Prof. Bandura
The column points out all of the setbacks some famous people have experienced, from Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs, to Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowling and Walt Disney. The key to each of these people’s success is that they never doubted their own abilities and believed in themselves and their contributions.
Self-efficacy has become a part of the positive psychology movement nowadays, and the concept of “resiliency.” The good news is that even if you don’t have a lot of self-efficacy or resiliency today, you can learn these skills and become more self-efficacious in your own life.
Where does such determination come from? In some cases it’s inborn optimism — akin to the kind of resilience that enables some children to emerge unscathed from extreme poverty, tragedy or abuse. Self-efficacy can also be acquired by mastering a task; by modeling the behavior of others who have succeeded; and from what Prof. Bandura calls “verbal persuasion” — getting effective encouragement that is tied to achievement, rather than empty praise.
It’s a good article describing a life skill and personality trait we may have admired in others, but didn’t quite know what it was or how to get some of it in our own lives.
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6 Responses to “Failing in Order to Succeed” (Pingbacks/trackbacks not shown below)
Wendy Aron at 10:52 am on
April 29th, 2008
This post was very interesting. Personally, I must have high self-efficacy because I persisted in trying to sell my book to a publisher despite a steady barrage of rejections and ultimately succeeded. On the other hand, I don’t think I could ever be confused with someone who has high self-esteem.
Wendy Aron, author of Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
Kathy Carpenter at 12:18 am on
April 30th, 2008
Some have asked me; “are you afraid of anything?” and my answer is an OUT LOUD YES!
Just like anyone else, I have trouble getting started, but once on my path, keep going….
for that reason I have founded YEAH YEAH Out Loud; a children’s self-esteem program for children3-8 years old. Check us out!
Flips at 10:27 am on
April 30th, 2008
re “In fact, if success comes too easily, some people never master the ability to learn from criticism.”
YES. School did that to me. I had the particular aptitudes to succeed in the school system, of my day, without effort. So never learned how to learn or achieve by making an effort.
Nathaniel Moore at 5:12 pm on
April 30th, 2008
The other statements issued by the other responders are true. I think that unless you experience some let down in life, you can not truely appreciate success, and also that if at some point in the life of someone who is not use to “being let down,” it could be rougher for them to cope with rather than someone who has great self-efficacy. Great Self-efficacy gives you hope, low self-esteem gives you hindrances.
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This post was very interesting. Personally, I must have high self-efficacy because I persisted in trying to sell my book to a publisher despite a steady barrage of rejections and ultimately succeeded. On the other hand, I don’t think I could ever be confused with someone who has high self-esteem.
Wendy Aron, author of Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
Some have asked me; “are you afraid of anything?” and my answer is an OUT LOUD YES!
Just like anyone else, I have trouble getting started, but once on my path, keep going….
for that reason I have founded YEAH YEAH Out Loud; a children’s self-esteem program for children3-8 years old. Check us out!
re “In fact, if success comes too easily, some people never master the ability to learn from criticism.”
YES. School did that to me. I had the particular aptitudes to succeed in the school system, of my day, without effort. So never learned how to learn or achieve by making an effort.
The other statements issued by the other responders are true. I think that unless you experience some let down in life, you can not truely appreciate success, and also that if at some point in the life of someone who is not use to “being let down,” it could be rougher for them to cope with rather than someone who has great self-efficacy. Great Self-efficacy gives you hope, low self-esteem gives you hindrances.
