I’m sure you have all seen the bodies of the dead and dusty looking teens that wander our streets on a Saturday morning.  Our drinking culture starts from a very early age and because of all of the social pressures that us young people face such as fitting in, I’m surprised that we didn’t start drinking from an even earlier age.  And for those who don’t drink and don’t fit in, perhaps they should just start drinking, as its one of the only ways they will ever be accepted.

You might have heard of the term “false confidence”.  This term means gaining confidence by using an external stimulus to remove our insecurities and inhibitions. Many would say and argue that alcohol gives us a false sense of confidence.  This isn’t totally true.  Alcohol doesn’t give us a false sense of confidence, what it really does is it removes the barriers and insecurities that are holding us back from acting like our true selves.  Therefor alcohol is a positive tool which helps us show our true selves, be happy and ultimately be more successful in life. All of these things are a result of being more confident. It’s amazing and almost unreal that something as simple and legal as alcohol can open up the doors to being more confident.

I’m sure you have heard of Kim Kardashian, a very well- known and successful business women who is currently worth an estimated $350 million.  Kim Kardashian has said that her keys to success are “being confident, working hard and paying attention”. The fact is that most successful people have a lot of self -confidence. If lack of confidence limits success, drinking to release our true selves seems to be the answer.

The obvious counter argument is that too much alcohol leads to health problems and sometimes alcoholism. If we believe all we read, it is a major problem in modern society, but pretty minor compared to drug addiction! But not so much of a problem for confident, successful people, or people who have used alcohol to become so.  Heard of Winston Churchill? The prime minister of England during world war two, who lead England throughout its darkest hours to eventual victory over the Nazis.  He also drank whisky daily. He once said “when i was younger i made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch.  It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast” Apparently he rarely got drunk. the trick is not to go overboard, and enjoy the confidence it brings.  Churchill also said ” i have taken more out of whiskey than whiskey has taken out of me!” That is, the positive benefits outweigh the possible health problems it could cause by over-indulging. Remember that alcoholic drinks have been around from the beginning of human civilisation, and has contributed to where we are today!

Another social pressure that us young people run into is our physical appearance.  Our appearance has a huge impact on how we come across as a person and how we are treated by other people.  If you’re not being accepted into a group or feel like you’re being excluded, then you should probably take a step back and have a look at what you are wearing and how you look, as it may be the root of your problems. You may have heard it said that “if you look good, you’ll feel good”.  This is so true.  Maria Sharapova is a very successful and internationally known tennis player and she stated that “confidence with what you are wearing is very important.  If you feel good you will always perform your best without worrying about anything else” This shows us that fashion plays a very important role in our lives even if we don’t know it.  Wearing the right clothes and having the right image plays a key role in how confident we are, and how we are treated by other people.

Another huge pressure that young people face now days is social media.  It is almost expected of us to have some sort of online image.  One important way that our appearance is broadcast to the people around us is via social media, such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.  These days social media is a huge part of how we create and maintain our visual social image.  We also use social media to keep up to date with current fashion trends, which are constantly changing.

Coming back to Kim Kardashian, she created her business empire mainly through social media.  This shows the importance that social media plays in the lives of successful people.  For people such as Kim Kardashian they wouldn’t be where they are now without social media, and this applies to us too as creating your own image online is key to making new friends and getting well-paying jobs. So aren’t we lucky, people get to know us before we even meet them, and want to be our friends! The missing link? Make sure you are confident when you meet them!

Have you ever been at a party and had to  stay sober?  It’s quite an eye opener isn’t it?  You get to see the clear relationship between alcohol and confidence.  You also get to see how people without a fashion sense or confidence just get excluded and ignored.  Possibly doomed to be wallflowers for their whole lives!  Unconfident older people in business, who also have no fashion sense, often turn to a fashion consultant, to help them to change their image, gain confidence and be more successful.  But why wait till you’re older!

In conclusion there are several things you can do to really aid how you fit in.  drinking is a huge step to fitting in as it helps to make you more confident, in moderation off course, keeping up with fashion trends helps us to be more desirable to others which means they will want to be around us more, and creating our whole new image online will really help to shape our futures and get us to fit into our perfect society.  Your future is up to you, however if you do not do any of these things you will find that you will never fit in, never be successful which will lead to you not getting the most out of life.