Confidence is a trait that people learn over time. It’s can also come and go, so don’t think it’s going to stick around forever. However, it’s easier to feel confident as you grow older, as with middle age comes a new type of confidence. You’re not looking for approval from others, you have probably achieved in life already, and you’re comfortable in your own skin. If you want to build on that confidence, here are some tips on how to feel confident as you grow older.
Find your people
There’s no greater feeling than finding a community of like-minded people. As you grow older, this becomes easier to do. In middle-age and beyond, people lose their egos and become more compassionate towards others. Finding your community is a great way to feel more confident about yourself. It can be a local church group, a hiking group, or even your existing friends—whoever makes you feel good about yourself. And when you find them, do everything you can to stick with them.
Practice positive self-talk
Positive self-talk is the greatest weapon in the fight against low self-esteem. And it’s important whether you’re 16 or 60. To practice positive self-talk, it’s useful to have a mantra—a phrase that you say to yourself when bad thoughts pop into your head. It can be as simple as a list of your proudest achievements. For example, if your kids have gone off to college, just remind yourself of this every time you feel down. Alternatively, you can battle each thought as its own separate entity. For example, if you feel down about your body, remind yourself that you’re beautiful.
Become self-aware
Self-awareness often comes with age, and it comes easier to some people than others. If you feel like you need to become more self-aware, there are some tried and tested ways of making it happen. For example, you can keep a daily journal, ask trusted friends about your flaws, and practice meditation. All of this will help you find out who you truly are and become more confident in the process.
Practice gratitude
Gratitude should be practiced every day. Ask yourself what you are grateful for every day. It can be as simple as the nice weather, or as meaningful as the love of your family. Practicing gratitude will help give your life more meaning and will help your confidence to grow—because a life that has meaning is worth being confident about.
Wear comfortable clothes
The days of wearing uncomfortable clothes to impress people should be put behind you. It’s what people do in their 20s and 30s when the way you look seems more important. Now though, as you are getting older, you can wear the clothes that you actually want to wear. Comfort should certainly be prioritized in your 40s and beyond.
Improve your health
It’s never too late to become healthy. For some people, a healthy lifestyle is a long-term battle that takes years to win. For others, it’s easy. If you struggle with your health and confidence, now is a great time to make a change. You can make big differences with small changes. For example, walking for an hour a day will vastly improve your health. Also, consider adding some daily supplements—for example from neubria.com—into your daily routine. This will help you avoid health problems later in life and will add to your overall confidence.
Indulge regularly
It’s important to live a healthy lifestyle if you want to be confident. However, it’s also important to allow yourself indulgences, whether that means eating a bar of chocolate at the end of a week or booking a spa day. You certainly can’t indulge yourself with treats all day, every day, without consequences; but that doesn’t mean they should be avoided entirely.
Find a new passion
Passion and confidence go hand-in-hand. If you care deeply about a particular aspect of your life, it’s easy to be confident about it. It’s also never too late to find your passion—it could be gardening, music, charity work, family, or anything else. If you feel like your life is lacking passion, you need to start looking for it.
Face your fears
Many people go through life without ever truly facing their fears. Fight or flight mode kicks in and people decide to run away from what scares them. But, if you want to boost your confidence, facing up to what scares you is an important step. It could be as simple as holding a spider in your hand or approaching someone at a bar. Whatever you’re scared of, now is the time to tackle it head-on. You won’t regret it. One way to start facing your fears is to imagine whatever it is you’re scared of. Then, move closer to it in your mind and spend time with it. This will help your brain acclimate to the feeling.
