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Adulting isn't one skill; it's many. Use strong skills to improve weaker ones.

Successful adulting often appears messy, not slick, due to hidden learning curves.

People may seem confident at adulting but might find it as awkward as you do.

We often misperceive what successful adulting entails, and that can stop us from bringing our A game. Good adulting requires strengths you might already have but feel hesitant to use. These myths may be reasons why.

1. We Believe Adulting Is One Monolithic Skill, When It's Many

When we meet people, we often meet them in their professional capacity. If they're a great immigration lawyer, book editor, or corporate pilot, if they seem extremely "onto it" professionally, we think they must be good at all other aspects of adulting. However, that's not always the case.

We're judging them based on the available info we have, which is our sample of their specialized skills.

Everyone's adulting skills look like an uneven graph, with peaks and valleys. We can use our high-bar skills more and bring up our lagging skills.

Don't be so ashamed of your lagging skills that you hold back from using either your best or worst skills.

2. We Believe Excellent Adulting Looks Slick, When Often It Looks Messy

A lot of life is about the hidden curriculum: the things you need to learn to succeed in an area that aren't widely publicized. Imagine you'd........

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