What made your confidence as a man grow over the years?

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1. Going to the gym and building muscle

2. Setting goals and achieving them.

3. Building myself mostly, learning, getting in better shape, achieving.

   However… the single biggest factor was realising that nobody really knows what they are doing. It’s all a con. Everyone is walking around hoping that today isn’t the day that someone else notices they are just winging it.

4. Eating right and working out has done wonders for my self confidence. Probably a combination of looking better, having more energy, and higher testosterone levels.

5. Experience and doing the things I said I’d do.

6. Just age and experience from exposure to things. Trying and failing.

7. Learning to not give a fuck.
   Hits your confidence more than you’d realise.

   Everyone worries about what people think of them. The sooner you learn to not give a damn about all that.. The sooner you can just focus on you.. And work on self improvement and being the real you.

8. Fighting

9. To be honest…time away from my family. I love my family, but them being so hypercritical over everything I did made me question myself so much. When I went off to college and moved out, I started to dabble in the things I really wanted to do because I had that freedom and was out of my bubble. Once I found what I liked and got questioned by my family, I had the confidence to finally just tell them that it’s what I like and you can’t change that

10. Accumulation of experience.

11. Experience. When something shitty happens that has happened before in the past it doesn’t rattle me at all.

12. Interacting with women and realizing they’re not intimidating monsters who can’t wait to belittle me if I approach them.

13. Pets,Emotional intelligence, hygeine and a discipline routine of waking up. I didn’t notice it but it did make me better.

14. I mellowed out from my younger days and feel much happier, which helped my confidence and self esteem.

15. Getting in shape, dressing better, and having a solid career.

16. Good and effective communication. Projection of the voice, annunciation, body language etc. It’s used in all sorts of industries like drama, politics, tour guiding etc. The skills can be learned, and if you practice it becomes second nature. I used to be very shy but now I’m confident meeting people from all over the world and starting conversations with strangers

17. WORK WORK WORK AND MORE WORK. ALSO READ READ READ AND DONT STOP TO GET FOOD. ALSO, ADHERING TO WHATEVER STRATEGIES YOU SET.

18. Making more money than people around me

19. Moving out and turning out alright

20. Working out and gaining some muscle. It did wonders for my confidence. It’s not just because of my appearance but the idea of lifting something heavier than before and improving myself physically makes me feel like I can accomplish and *enjoy* a challenge, which life is full of.

21. My growing disregard for other people’s opinions of me.

22. Becoming proficient and experienced at my job to the point I am seriously valued by my employer.

    This did *wonders* for my confidence, which took an enormous hit after being laid off shortly after college in the 2009 recession and having trouble finding a new job with my thin resume.

23. Consistent failures, bud.

    Also, knowing that World will throw shit at you. Its my responsibility to not take it. ✨

24. a lot of things of course such as the amount i have travelled and how high quality my friend groups are. but lets be real…as with many men, nothing came close to giving me the confidence that getting a lot of sexual attention from women gave me. that was the actual game changer.

25. The way other men present themselves and act.

26. Success. Living longer than my enemies.

27. The ability to say ‘no’.

28. Accepting myself.

29. noticing that everything is pointless and noone gives a fuck about me

30. *Looks around for ideas*

31. Knowing that what made people popular or “attractive” does somewhat change as you get older. For example, having a good job, stable life and a small but good group of friends is what makes me feel good now which increases my confidence in life. If that makes sense.

32. Experience. I’ve learned that real confidence (for me) comes from knowing I have done something, and can do it again. I lived in the world of potential too long and finally moved to the world of tangible results.

33. Eh you experience more, life is kinda like one big exposure therapy session.

34. Keeping my word.

35. Honestly? Fucking dudes

36. Being a father

37. Realizing that every last person on this planet is suffering from some thing. None of us are clear sailing life spite all the fake pictures and moments people like to share. Realizing that had me look at my kindness and the way I am as a blessing instead of a curse, people gravitate to me for a reason and it’s because I can make them smile, learning my boundaries save guards my emotions so I know when to cut bad people off

38. It just happened as I got older and started making better decisions about my life, looking around and realizing I had caught the middle ground between the geniuses of high school and the people truly struggling.

    Getting sober helped a ton

39. Realizing, truly, that I have nothing to prove to other people