Definition
Self-efficacy, a concept introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura, is your belief that you can successfully carry out the actions a task or goal requires. It is task-specific: a person can have high self-efficacy for public speaking and low self-efficacy for budgeting.
It differs from general self-esteem. Self-esteem is how you feel about your worth; self-efficacy is how confident you are that you can do a particular thing. The latter is what predicts whether you attempt difficult goals and persist through setbacks.
Why it matters
How it works
Bandura identified four main sources. Mastery experiences — past successes — are the strongest: each small win raises belief for the next attempt. Vicarious experience comes from seeing similar people succeed. Social persuasion is credible encouragement from others. And physiological state matters, since calm energy reads as capability while anxiety reads as inadequacy.
The practical implication is to build efficacy on purpose: break goals into winnable steps, accumulate evidence of progress, choose role models and encouragers, and manage stress so the body does not undermine the belief.