While there, he said, his experiences—and those of others around him—taught him that our attitudes and reactions are the last of our human freedoms.

Twentysomethings who take the time to explore and also have the nerve to make commitments along the way construct stronger identities.

told Kate that while most therapists would agree with Socrates that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” a lesser-known quote by American psychologist Sheldon Kopp might be more important here: “The unlived life is not worth examining.”

That’s why I wish I had done more during my first few years out of college. I wish I had pushed myself to take some work leaps or a wider range of jobs. I wish I had experimented—with work—in a way I feel I can’t right now at almost thirty.

We spent even more sessions helping her shift from being wanted to wanting. Cathy had never thought about what she wanted or needed in a partner. She never thought she could do the wanting.

Without a doubt, then, friends play a crucial role for many twentysomethings, and they provide lots of good times. With all the attention paid to the urban tribe, however, many twentysomethings have limited themselves to huddling together with the same few people. This is a problem because, while the urban tribe may be the most supportive figures

Literally, confidence means “with trust.” Confidence is trusting yourself to get the job done—whether that job is public speaking or sales or teaching or being an assistant—and that trust only comes from having gotten the job done many times before. As was the case for every other twentysomething I’d worked with, Danielle’s confidence on the job

Our twenties can be like living beyond time. When we graduate from school, we leave behind the only lives we have ever known, ones that have been manageably organized into semester-sized chunks with microgoals nestled within. There are syllabi and tests and papers and assignments that keep us on track. There are teachers (or parents) to tell us

William James, the father of research psychology in the United States, said, “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.” Knowing what to overlook is one way that older adults are typically wiser than young adults. With age comes what is known as the “positivity effect.” We become more interested in positive information, and our brains