Believing in Our Ability to Create Change for Ourselves and Others
What drives us to take action, persist through challenges, and believe in our capacity to create change? At the heart of motivation lies efficacy – our belief in our ability to influence our own lives, help others, and contribute to the world around us. This fundamental belief fuels resilience, perseverance, and success across all areas of life, from personal growth to collective societal progress.
Efficacy reflects our belief in our ability to care for ourselves and others, make an impact, and positively shape our lives and the world around us. Key feelings of wellbeing that arise from efficacy include feeling:
Capable: Knowing we can manage daily challenges, care for our and others’ needs, and accomplish tasks with confidence and mastery creates a strong foundation for wellbeing. This sense of capability translates into self-assurance and resilience to confidently take on challenges.
Considerate: Being considerate toward others – acknowledging their needs, understanding their perspectives, and acting with responsibility – enhances our sense of efficacy. It allows us to feel capable of recognizing others’ needs and contributing positively in ways that support and uplift them.
Compassionate: Caring for ourselves and others reinforces empathy and emotional resilience. Compassion allows us to meet challenges with a constructive attitude, helping us respond thoughtfully and meaningfully to others and ourselves in both good and difficult times.
Efficacy enables us to feel proactive and empowered, enhancing our wellbeing by feeling confident that we can capably handle life’s ups and downs, feel that we are considerate and compassionate towards others, while making a positive difference in our world.
These three categories of feelings – feeling capable, considerate, and compassionate – are deeply interconnected with and arise from each type of efficacy, including internal self-efficacy and external efficacy, which includes other-efficacy, collective efficacy, and means efficacy. Developing a strong sense of efficacy in all these areas enhances motivation, resilience, and our ability to effect meaningful change.
Internal Self-Efficacy: The Engine of Personal Growth
Self-efficacy – the belief in one’s ability to achieve goals and overcome challenges – is a core driver of motivation, resilience, and lifelong growth. Believing in our ability to manage challenges, set and achieve goals, and overcome obstacles is the foundation of personal empowerment. When we believe in our capability to influence our own lives, we are more likely to take action, persist through setbacks, and approach difficulties with confidence rather than fear.
Albert Bandura’s research on self-efficacy demonstrated that this belief is essential not only for task completion but for overall well-being. It shapes our choices, behaviors, and even our perception of what’s possible. People with high self-efficacy tend to set ambitious goals, recover more quickly from failure, and embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. On the other hand, those with low self-efficacy may hesitate to pursue their aspirations, fear failure, or give up easily in the face of setbacks. Bandura identified four key sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences where success builds confidence, vicarious experiences of seeing others like us succeed, verbal persuasion and encouragement from others, and emotional and physical well-being.
Self-efficacy is deeply tied to feeling capable, strengthening our confidence in managing life’s challenges, accomplishing tasks, and caring for our well-being. When we believe in our ability to meet our own needs, we develop resilience and a proactive mindset. However, self-efficacy is not just about personal success; it also helps make us feel considerate, allowing us to manage our own well-being effectively, freeing up mental and emotional space to recognize and support the needs of others without feeling overwhelmed or depleted. Self-efficacy fosters both self-compassion, helping us respond to ourselves with kindness when we encounter difficulties, reinforcing the belief that we can grow from setbacks rather than be defined by them, and compassion towards others, feeling confident that we can recognize and meet other’s needs.
Many factors can erode our confidence, such as repeated failures, negative comparisons, discouraging feedback, or overwhelming stress. Even the most capable individuals can experience self-doubt, whether due to negative past experiences, frequent exposure to social comparisons, a lack of mastery experiences with tangible successes, verbal or environmental discouragement and negative feedback from authorities or peers, or stress and emotional overwhelm.
While self-efficacy is shaped by past experiences, it’s a highly malleable skill that can be developed and strengthened over time. By taking intentional steps, we can cultivate greater confidence in our abilities and reinforce a mindset of success. For example, to cultivate stronger self-efficacy, we can engage in mastery experiences – setting small, achievable goals and progressively building our competence. Reframing failure as a learning experience, surrounding ourselves with supportive people, taking steady action, and practicing self-care and positive self-talk can all help build an unshakable belief in our ability to shape our own lives. When we trust in our ability to grow, learn, and adapt, we unlock the potential to achieve more than we ever thought possible.
External Efficacy: The Confidence to Make a Difference Beyond Ourselves
While self-efficacy is about our personal agency, external efficacy is about our ability to effect change in the world. Without a sense of external efficacy, we may feel that our contributions do not matter, that we are powerless to improve the lives of others, or that collective efforts are unlikely to create meaningful impact. In contrast, when we believe in our ability to influence the world beyond ourselves, we experience greater motivation, purpose, and fulfillment. When we feel capable to make a difference, we are more likely to make meaningful contributions, form stronger relationships, and cultivate a deep sense of meaning and mattering.
External efficacy is often framed in three interrelated ways:
Other-efficacy, our confidence in our ability to understand, connect with and support others;
Collective efficacy, our belief that a group can work together to achieve meaningful change;
Means efficacy, our belief that we have the tools, resources, and systems available to accomplish a goal.
Other-Efficacy: Positively Contributing to Others’ Wellbeing
Other-efficacy, the belief that we can positively influence and help others, is essential in relationships, caretaking, leadership, and mentorship. When we believe in our ability to positively impact others, we are more likely to engage in acts of kindness, guidance, and support. Focusing on understanding others’ needs and challenges enables us to tailor our support effectively, increasing our confidence in our ability to help. Whether helping a friend through a challenge, mentoring or coaching a colleague, or simply listening and offering encouragement, we reinforce our belief that our contributions matter. Receiving positive feedback from those we have helped further reinforces our belief in our ability to make a difference.
Other-efficacy encompasses two key components of self-efficacy: empathetic and social. While these primarily represent external efficacy because they involve our confidence in how we interact with and impact others, they bridge our internal self-efficacy to external self-efficacy. Empathetic self-efficacy is about believing in our ability to understand and positively respond to others’ emotions, having the confidence to understand and care about others with compassion. Social self-efficacy is our confidence to connect, navigating social interactions and building relationships, which strongly aligns with and supports collective efficacy, our belief in the power of group efforts, because it allows us to engage in and sustain meaningful connections within a community or team. Together, empathetic and social self-efficacy are the foundation for building a strong social circle filled with deep connections. Social self-efficacy helps us take the first step by initiating a conversation, reaching out, engaging in social spaces. And empathy allows us to deepen these bonds, offering emotional safety and trust.
Feeling that we can positively impact the lives of those around us makes us feel more capable in relationships by reinforcing our confidence in our ability to support, guide, and uplift others. When we trust in our ability to contribute positively to someone’s life – whether through mentorship, kindness, encouragement or tangible actions – we experience a stronger sense of purpose and meaning. This belief also helps us feel more considerate of others’ needs, as recognizing our ability to help others makes us more attuned to their needs and perspectives. Finally, other-efficacy strengthens compassion, both for those we assist and for ourselves, as we see the impact of our efforts and develop deeper empathy for the struggles and triumphs of those around us.
Collective Efficacy: The Power of Group Action
Collective efficacy is the shared belief in a group’s ability to achieve goals and thereby create meaningful change. When we trust in the power of teamwork, we become more engaged in social movements, community-building efforts, and collaborative projects. It is essential in workplaces, teams, social movements, and any context where collaboration drives success, leading to more cohesive, productive, and resilient group dynamics. Seeing the impact of a unified effort – whether in a professional setting, a sports team, volunteer work, or community activism – reinforces our confidence in the ability of collective action to effect meaningful change. We can foster collective efficacy in ourselves and others by encouraging open communication and trust within teams, celebrating group achievements and progress, and encouraging a culture of shared responsibility and accountability.
Collective efficacy fosters a profound sense of capability and belonging by reinforcing the belief that we can achieve meaningful goals when working alongside others. Knowing that we are part of a competent, effective group enhances motivation and encourages us to actively participate in collaborative efforts. At the same time, collective efficacy heightens our consideration for others, as successful group dynamics require understanding different perspectives, listening actively, and valuing diverse contributions. This shared sense of purpose also amplifies our compassion as we work together toward a common goal, deepening our emotional investment in others’ well-being and creating a more connected and supportive community.
Means Efficacy: Confidence in the Tools and Resources Available
Means efficacy is the belief that we have access to external resources and tools – such as technology, financial support, education, or organizational structure – that can help us achieve our individual or collective goals. When individuals trust that they have access to the right tools and systems, they are more motivated to take action. Leaders and organizations play a key role in cultivating means efficacy by ensuring that team members have access to the right tools and sufficient resources, with the knowledge and training needed to feel confident using them
Believing that we have means efficacy enables us to feel capable and confident that we have and can effectively use the tools, resources, and support systems available to us to effect positive change. When we believe we have access to effective solutions, we are more likely to take decisive action and overcome obstacles. This belief also fosters consideration for others, as we leverage resources wisely to make better-informed decisions that benefit both ourselves and those around us. Furthermore, means efficacy supports compassion by ensuring that we do not bear the full weight of challenges alone. Trusting in external supports, whether through technology, education, or organizational structures, helps us manage stress more effectively and extend that sense of reassurance to others who may need guidance or access to similar resources.
Efficacy and the Experience of Meaning and Mattering
A strong sense of efficacy, whether internal or external, is deeply connected to feelings of meaning and mattering. When we see that our actions create positive change – whether for ourselves, individuals around us, our customers, or a broader collective community – we gain a strong sense of purpose. Knowing that we have made a difference increases our intrinsic motivation, deepens our relations with others, strengthens our emotional resilience and makes us feel more significant. Receiving recognition from others, as well as witnessing the tangible results of our contributions, reinforces the belief that we are not just participants in life, but active agents of positive transformation. In so doing, our lives take on meaning and we feel that we matter.
Applying Efficacy in Everyday Life
To cultivate efficacy in all its forms, we must take intentional steps. Personal growth can be achieved through self-care routines, continuous learning and skill development, and seeking mentorship. Strengthening relationships and providing support to others fosters other-efficacy, while engaging in group initiatives and team efforts enhances collective efficacy. Trusting in and effectively utilizing available resources boosts means efficacy, ensuring that we have confidence in the external tools that support our success. And recognizing and reflecting on ways we’ve helped others in the past reinforces confidence in our ability to continue making a difference.
Embracing Our Ability to Create Change
Efficacy is more than just confidence – it is a powerful force for motivation, action, resilience, performance, fulfillment and life satisfaction. By strengthening our belief in our personal abilities, our ability to care for ourselves, our capacity to help others, our power as part of a collective team, and our trust in the tools at our disposal, we unlock the potential to effect meaningful change. Whether shaping our own lives or contributing to the well-being of others, believing in our ability to make a difference empowers us to lead lives of purpose and impact. When we believe we can make a difference, we do.
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