The dictionary defines it as 1. Trust and reliance or 2. Self-assurance, boldness or 3. A state of trust or intimacy.
People can have confidence in themselves, in others, in a cause, or many other things.
But the type of confidence I am referring to is the personal self-assurance we must have about ourselves in order to take charge of our lives and face the many challenges that arise day after day. I must admit that for a good part of my life, I have lacked confidence in myself, in my looks, in my abilities. Even today I can't say that I have completely overcome all of my insecurities about myself. But is it any wonder that I would lack confidence when I grew up with the knowledge that I had attractions to my own sex, while at the same time having society tell me where ever I turned that my natural feelings were wrong, that I was not normal. I was just there, and merely because of that I became the target of their taunts and harassment.