Speedcubing and Self-Confidence

[AlGoreRhythm]

I don't know about anyone else, but when I started cubing, my self-esteem and confidence were raised. A lot. Is this the same for anybody else? I mean, before I got bullied sometimes. Now I guess I intimidate people a bit.

 

[goodatthis]

I guess I see what you're saying, a friend of mine said I'm an egoist when it comes to cubing. I think it's really just because I'm a fairly shy person, so being a little cocky is the way I deal with the attention, haha. But in reality, I'm not all that cocky, the cubing just comes across that way.

 

[cubistprime]

I don't know about anyone else, but when I started cubing, my self-esteem and confidence were raised. A lot. Is this the same for anybody else? I mean, before I got bullied sometimes. Now I guess I intimidate people a bit.

I'm kind of the same. Cubing made a lot of more people notice and now I'm pretty much friends with everyone.

 

[gj matt]

I don't know about anyone else, but when I started cubing, my self-esteem and confidence were raised. A lot. Is this the same for anybody else? I mean, before I got bullied sometimes. Now I guess I intimidate people a bit.

I had a very similar situation. Before I started cubing, I used to be pretty depressed and I just generally had a lack of motivation and energy. Once I started, I found a niche of fellow cubers who were very supportive and uplifting

 

[Lazy Einstein]

It makes me afraid of my wife since she wants to punch me out when I cube.
I do feel more motivated to learn more for some reason however. Before I was started cubing, I was beginning to watch t.v. a lot more, read less, and being generally more lazy. After a few months of cubing, I was back to being super interested in learning again. Whether about cubing or other stuff I have been pretty motivated since. Not sure if cubing is to blame for that but I feel it may be a little bit.

 

[tpt8899]

Well, My only source of motivation was myself... I guess it both worked and backfired on me as people think I'm a "geek" or "nerd" etc. Well, at least I can solve it

 

[penguinz7]

I actually found it the opposite. As I started seriously speedcubing I actually lost friends (don't ask me why I have no idea.) My motivation to cube is fine, but my overall motivation has definitely lowered.

 

[CriticalCubing]

Speedcubing made me lonely. I have taught many classmates but none of them are nearly as fast as me so they think I am alien and not from this planet and stay away from me. It is like I dont even exist in class. But nonetheless, I speedcube as I want to get faster and faster and dont care what anybody says. I am not cold hearted or anything. I am calm and kind and cool

I actually found it the opposite. As I started seriously speedcubing I actually lost friends (don't ask me why I have no idea.) My motivation to cube is fine, but my overall motivation has definitely lowered.

Same here. I cant even call a single person my friends,let alone best friends.

 

[Smiles]

Cubing at first was all fun and competition with my friends when we couldn't sub 1 minute. Then they stopped and I stopped, but I got curious about how fast I could go and picked it up again. Doing it at school really isolated myself, eventually I transferred schools and these girls brought some cubes to school a few weeks in. I solved it and everyone had their five minutes of amazement. After a little while, I showed them I could do it blindfolded and they loved it. I met lots of new people.
I don't practice cubing at school because for me it's a super cool hobby that I love, but not a lifestyle. I try not to let it distract from school and friends, but it has definitely made me more confident in myself.

 

[penguinz7]

I know exactly how you feel @CriticalCubing. We should hang out sometime.

 

[CiaranBeahan]

My confidence wasn't high when I started. But then when I got faster it turned out that there was nothing to stop my confidence from getting higher. I feel being put under pressure helps your confidence because after a while you get used to it.

 

[Yarco]

Someone on the bus asked me if I have autism. I don't cube in public any more, and needless to say didnt improve my confidence.

 

[sneaklyfox]

I was really quiet in school. Cubing meant that people knew who I was. Except that it was all they knew me for... haha...

My self-confidence has always been high so I'm pretty sure I didn't need a cube to boost it or anything. But it sure doesn't hurt it. Generally I really don't care about what other people think about me when I cube in public but it could be a conversation starter.

 

[Rubiks560]

Really surprised people are saying it made them less confident/lose friends.

For me it was the exact opposite. I used to be incredibly shy and I lacked all confidence. I always dreaded meeting new people and was super nervous that people would judge me.
After I started cubing I completely changed. I absolutely loved meeting new people and I gained a ton of confidence. Starting cubing did a complete 180 on my life. I would be a completely different person had I not started cubing.

 

[IRNjuggle28]

Someone on the bus asked me if I have autism. I don't cube in public any more, and needless to say didnt improve my confidence.

That's a silly reason to make you stop cubing in public. Did it really take that much of a toll on your confidence? Autism isn't that insulting.

 

[Silverspeed]

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but my life really started going uphill when I became dedicated to speedcubing.

 

[XTowncuber]

Really surprised people are saying it made them less confident/lose friends.

For me it was the exact opposite. I used to be incredibly shy and I lacked all confidence. I always dreaded meeting new people and was super nervous that people would judge me.
After I started cubing I completely changed. I absolutely loved meeting new people and I gained a ton of confidence. Starting cubing did a complete 180 on my life. I would be a completely different person had I not started cubing.

I kinda feel the same. I still hate meeting people, but I am a lot better at it.

It seems weird to me that people would lose friends because of this. A lot of my friends got to know me via cubing.

 

[RageCuber]

For me there was about a year where I was really shy around people i didn't know. I'm not sure if that stopped because of cubing or not. But before that and after I've always been an extrovert.

 

[AlGoreRhythm]

Well, for me, cubing helped me get to know people. It's a good conversation starter.

today was a bad day for me. Sometimes I just get randomly depressed. Anyway, ended up just doing a couple solves on My Fangshi during Science. That helped a lot. My friend sitting next to me drew a picture- "Keep calm and cube on". It rocked.

 

[Coolster01]

I've always been overly outgoing, as far as I can remember. But now I guess more people think I'm cool. I'm probably more modest because before I was sometimes a bit annoying.

EDIT: it also gives me a free ticket so the teachers like me. Two of my teachers aren't very fond of me and those are the only teachers that don't know about me cubing at all xD