Taking on the world as a young adult is a daunting task. For plenty of people, this is their first time living independently, away from the comfort of their childhood home. For others, it’s just another day in the life of a hardworking human being.
We all deal with the challenges of life in our way. And while people’s fates differ from each other, there is one trait that can make or break them—self-confidence.
Self-confidence is characterized by how well you trust your specific abilities and judgment. This trait plays a major role when it comes to dealing with life’s challenges. As a young adult, your self-confidence, or your lack thereof, may influence how well you deal with the major life changes you are experiencing.
The Life of a Young Adult
Young adults often experience multiple major life changes during their early years away from home. These changes may include moving out of their childhood home, finding a new job, establishing their careers, and even moving into other cities. With that, their lives can become turbulent and stressful.
So How Does Self-Confidence Affect the Young Adult?
Having good self-confidence as a young adult will ultimately help them successfully deal with the changes they are facing. Also, self-confidence may encourage positive life outcomes.
This is because people who are confident in their abilities and decisions are more likely to explore new things. They are not afraid to get out of their comfort zone. With that, a string of positive results can emerge.
When young adults are not afraid to step out of their comfort zones, they will most likely experience new things that they can learn from. This means they can gain more knowledge and life lessons than those who hesitate to explore new experiences.
Self-confidence can also help them cope better with failure. They are not afraid to fail, which means they are willing to do challenging tasks even though they are not that competent at it yet.
They will probably fail at doing these tasks. But that failure can only help them improve their skills. Failure is just the beginning of how they build their competence.
With that, young adults must make sure to build up their self-confidence. This ensures that they can deal with the changes of adulthood in a healthy manner.
Self-Confidence: The What’s and the How’s
To know how to build your self-confidence, you must also understand the factors that affect it. Knowing what influences your self-confidence will help you identify how you can proceed to build it.
Past Failures and Achievements
Your achievements in the past as well your failures may affect your level of perceived confidence. Of course, when we achieve key goals in the past, it makes us feel good. This makes us believe in our abilities more.
Failures, on the other hand, make us doubt our abilities. We question if we up for the challenge or not. This hinders us from taking on new challenges because we fear that we may fail.
With that, you should always keep in mind that achievements and failures in the past do not necessarily predict your future achievements. Be sure to focus on what you are doing in the present and keep in mind that what you are doing today is the only thing that matters.
Knowing Your Abilities
Make sure you know what you are capable of. How do you do this? The only way to know the scope of your abilities is to try.
There is some truth about not knowing the outcome if you never try to do new things in the first place. By exploring new things, you will better understand the things you are good at and the things that need to be improved.
If the fear of failure is holding you back, keep in mind that failure is part of the process and that being good at something can take time. So be patient with yourself and stay focused.
Appearance
Some cases of low self-confidence may come from low self-esteem. It has been shown that your perceived physical appearance may affect your levels of self-esteem. They observed that participants who are less satisfied by their physical appearance have lower self-esteem.
With that, it is not uncommon for people to adhere to certain beauty standards. This helps their confidence. Some change how they dress, while others go as far as undergoing cosmetic and dental surgery. Whatever the case may be, note that your satisfaction with your appearance can play a part in your self-confidence.
It is not easy navigating an unfamiliar world full of challenges and uncertainties. This is essentially what early adulthood feels like. By being sure of their abilities and decision, young adults stand a fighting chance against this rough terrain called the real world.
