Confidence

One nice aspect of aging is the confidence that often comes with it.

Several years ago I began to notice that I am more comfortable in my own skin than I was in my 30s or early 40s. This became more apparent to me at a recent company conference during which I had great conversations with attendees ranging from beginners in the business to a couple of our corporate Vice Presidents. Some people develop this kind of confidence early in their lives; I didn’t. But I’ve got it now.

This brand of confidence comes without arrogance. I know what I’m doing and it shows, yet I don’t believe I know all there is to know and I’m not afraid to learn new things or new ways to do what I already know how to do. I credit the aging process for this new-found confidence.

I also realized I am less susceptible to peer pressure. Earlier in my career, for example, I tended to follow the crowd. If the “cool” people at a convention stayed up late drinking, I stayed up late drinking. Now, I have one drink, or no drink, and turn in when I’m tired. These conferences provide great networking opportunities and the usual style seems to be a “work the room” technique, in which you meet as many people as possible and hand out a lot of business cards. That doesn’t work for me. My strength is to have extended one-on-one conversations with just a few people. I now have the confidence to chart my own path in these situations.

This personal discovery may seem silly to someone who has always been self-assured, but I suspect I’m not the only boomer who learned self-assurance at this point in life.

Some may call this aging gracefully. I am not very graceful, so I will name this aging confidently.