The Coach SpaceA few years ago, investing in yourself was largely about going back to school, taking classes or getting certified, and making progress in your career. Your focus was on productivity, credentials and your career advancement. Today, this concept has become much more personal.
People are now investing in therapy, coaching, fitness and skincare. They are trying to establish healthier habits and break out from the cycle of burnout instead of pretending that it’s a normal part of their lives. More people are spending time, money and energy on things that make them feel confident about who they are, not because they are vain, but because confidence affects almost every aspect of your life.
When you really stop to recognize it, you start to see this trend everywhere. People are looking for ways to feel good again, not simply to be able to write on a piece of paper that they have been successful, but to actually feel good about themselves as people.
Confidence Affects More Than We Admit
Confidence has a strange reputation. Some people think it is something they are born with or something people put on an act for on social media; others just work hard to develop it but can not seem to get it right. The reality is that true confidence is very quiet; you don’t “show off” about your confidence. You can tell if an individual has real confidence by the way they communicate at meetings, ask for promotions, create boundaries, introduce themselves to others and put up pictures without second thoughts.
People who have a high degree of comfort in themselves go through their lives in a different way than people who have low degrees of confidence. The extremes of the spectrum provide for completely opposite ways of behaving; confident people are willing to try new things, speak out, take chances and deal with failures.
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People who have a low sense of self-confidence will still have experiences of low self-confidence, but confident people have developed ways to deal with those experiences. This is one of the reasons coaching has become so popular in the past several years. As people recognize that their attitudes and depictions of themselves create the way they approach their interactions in their lives, whether it be with friendships or work, the focus on enhancing these has resulted in an influx of individuals taking interest in enhancing their lives.
Based on this understanding, building confidence is not limited to personality traits; you can build your confidence through behavior, allowing you to express your confidence for the rest of your life.
People Are Spending Less on “Stuff” and More on Themselves
Previously, luxury was largely seen in an external setting. Women owned expensive handbags, men drove flashy automobiles and some people displayed designer logos just to show their success to the outside world.
Today, it seems people are seeking inward instead of outward; but that’s not to say that all things material have disappeared. In fact, today there has been an unmistakably clear shift to investing in experiences, health and wellness, and self-development or improvement. People are spending money on:
- Therapy,
- Fitness memberships,
- Wellness retreats,
- Nutritional coaching,
- Meditation apps,
- Career coaching,
- Stylish personification, and
- Preventative health care or wellness.
Some people also choose aesthetic treatments as part of their broader self-care and confidence-building journey. As these services become more common, financing options can help make them more accessible for those who view them as an investment in their well-being.
Since many people feel these new things are much more fulfilling than the purchase of a status symbol, many people have re-evaluated over the past few years about what brings them real fulfillment. Many have also realized how much they have neglected their own personal well-being in order to only be productive, work hard or keep up appearances.
Moving forward, many people want to find balance, energy and emotional wellness/tranquility, not just the aesthetic representation of success from the outside.
Social Media Made Everyone More Self-Aware
Whether you love it or hate it, social media has changed the way people perceive themselves.
We are all so much more aware of how we look than we have ever been before. Zoom meetings, Instagram stories, TikToks, selfies, FaceTime, and profile pictures are all methods we are utilizing to check out our own faces on screen more than ever before. The increased visibility of our own faces means that we are also increasing our self-awareness.
Self-awareness can be overwhelming at times as well. The comparison culture is very tiring and exists because of unrealistic beauty standards that are created online. However, social media also creates opportunities for people to talk about certain topics that they have not been able to openly discuss in the past.
Out in public, people are talking about:
- Anxiety
- Burnout
- Self-esteem
- Therapy
- Reinvention
- Aging
- Confidence Issues
- Wellness Routines
As a society, we have reduced the stigma of wanting to feel good about ourselves. Additionally, we have started noticing that there are many different aspects of our lives that are interconnected when it comes to producing confidence. For example, the way that we sleep, the amount of stress that we are experiencing, the physical health of our bodies, and how we talk to ourselves, all contribute to our overall level of confidence.
Also, many of the small things that happen in our lives can affect our overall level of self-esteem over time; for example, improving your posture, updating your wardrobe, developing a skin care routine, exercising on a regular basis, or enhancing your communication skills all contribute to an overall increase in self-esteem.
The confidence you develop will more than likely result from making many little decisions over time and never based on making one huge change in your life.
Self-Improvement Looks Different for Everyone
What’s exciting about modern self-investment is that people now feel less pressure to grow the same way as everyone else does. For some people confidence comes from starting therapy. Other people gain confidence by quitting a toxic job, improving their health, learning how to assert themselves or working on aspects of themselves that they have neglected for years.
Some individuals work with life coaches; others concentrate on fitness while others dedicate their energy to emotional healing. There are people who concentrate on mindfulness and those who spend time rebuilding their identities after a significant change in life circumstances.
More and more individuals are beginning to understand that all of these areas are interconnected. When individuals begin to feel better in one area, they often are inspired to also take better care of themselves physically. An individual who feels better physically may also experience an increase in their social or professional self-confidence.
As a result, self-investment has become a much larger umbrella than just being more productive. Self-investment is now about creating a greater alignment to who you want to be.
Reinvention Is More Accepted Than Ever
Not too long ago, many people felt societal pressure to have everything figured out by certain points in their lives. Nowadays, though? Less so. In fact, many of us adults are constantly reinventing ourselves. It’s commonplace for someone to change careers after they’ve turned 40; it is also commonplace to start over following burnout, or prioritize wellness later in life, or develop confidence after years of not feeling it. They’re all normal.
The knowledge that personal growth does not stop at age 20 is a liberating thought, as many adults who are officially middle-aged, in many cultures, have finally given themselves the permission to develop into new versions of themselves rather than remaining the same self they outgrew years earlier. This change is significant because for the majority of us, our confidence tends to increase once we stop being who we think we are “supposed” to be and instead build a life that feels good, true, and genuine to us.
Confidence Is Not Vanity
A common myth about investing in yourself is that wanting to feel confident or have an appealing appearance is a sign of being superficial; however, it is only natural to desire to feel at ease with your body and proud of the image you project.
Confidence does not require one to be perfect; therefore, many people are not searching for perfection but instead, want to be able to be themselves again and feel more relaxed.
Furthermore, when a person feels good about themselves, they can have a dramatic impact on all parts of their lives as they:
- will feel confident in how they show up.
- will communicate confidently.
- will carry themselves with confidence.
That being said, confidence doesn’t solve every problem but can certainly enable a person to live their life differently.
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