Your important renewable resource

Remember being 25, unshakeable, unstoppable? As the years pile up, so do the disappointments and setbacks. The nothing-to-lose confidence of your 25-year-old self gradually makes way for an all-too-acute awareness of the limitations of your 55-year-old self.

It’s natural, but there are things we can do to counteract this dynamic.

Confidence is a crucial resource, and without it we freeze up and go into decline. All sorts of bad things start happening.

But it isn’t an organ that withers with age. It’s more like a delicate garden that you can help to thrive through careful and regular tending.

How do we tend that garden? A bunch of ways. For starters:

  • Talk to people about what’s bothering and oppressing you. It’s such a relief.
  • Treat yourself as worthy of being taken care of, which includes looking after your health, and not beating yourself up.
  • Don’t evade for extended periods emerging dangers, chaos and burdens, but instead take steps to deal with them. Get started, and feel your spirits lift.

Confidence is a renewable resource, so tend the garden.