We, as human beings, do many things on automatic pilot or without having to think too much about it... at least consciously any how. An example would be tying a shoelace. Even though we might have gone through a few years of fashion wearing slip on's, if we needed to, we would not find any difficulty in tying a shoelace. That is because we have done it so many times before that we know just what to do and do not have to give it too much conscious thought. So if you were to ask someone, how confident are you that you can tie a shoelace, they would probably say 'very confident'. They feel confident about it because they have done it many many times before successfully. In fact they now give very little thought to actions required to tie that shoelace as it all happens automatically.

This is a type of self confidence. Knowing something so well, that as saying goes, you could do it with your eyes closed or you know it like back of your hand.

When someone says that they lack confidence or have low confidence, they can so easily make mistake of covering their whole life with this description or tag. They might even say 'I never have any confidence in myself'. By saying this out loud to others who will listen, or thinking it to themselves they will be setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy. The label you give yourself or label you accept as being true (whether from a friend, family member, colleague or even from school) will invariably mean that you start to fit yourself to that label, and, can make it your own living reality.

Yet, that person above will be able to do many things with confidence but, and here is big 'but' they will not use these successes and evidence of confidence, as they should be used. They will ignore them or diminish them in some way (e.g. saying "I was lucky") so that they do not contradict this label that they have accepted of having no confidence. Which is a pity because it is only taking a realistic view of what happens in their world, will they then be able to feel more confident about themselves.

It can be quite amazing how someone will say they have no confidence and yet 5 minutes later they will tell you about some amazing things that they do such as talking in front of 10,000 people, or they go mountain climbing. Despite undertaking these events, which ordinarily seem nerve wracking events, they may still say that they have low confidence.

So confidence or lack of it, has a lot to do with how you view yourself. If this is case then really it is down to a perception. Perceptions are not a true reflection of reality all of time. Often perceptions even between just 2 people can be remarkably different even though these 2 people have in reality, experienced exactly same thing.

Of all traveling I have done in my life I have heard people asking one question constantly. It doesn't matter if you are religious or not. We all want to know "What is meaning of life?" I myself have asked that question a thousand times.

Socrates and Plato and a thousand other deep thinkers of their times have tried to define or explain meaning of life. Each with his own perception and understanding and most times with a very complicated explanation.

It was not until I took up hiking in mountains of Tennessee that I had plenty of time to ponder complexities of this age old question. Being a Christian I was raised to believe certain things and to look at life in certain ways. But as I got older and began studying and searching for myself I began to realize that what I was taught as a child was not as complicated as some would have had me believe.

I always wondered why God would have put us here simply to suffer through this life. After all he does love us and of that I have no doubt. So why then? I studied and pondered and reflected in deep thought just like many have before me, and like them, to no avail.