Once the great American poet Sylvia Plath said – The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.
Truly, self-doubt can be a powerful and persuasive voice which holds you back. It is like an anchor that keeps our ship of success from sailing. It holds you back from grabbing excellent opportunities. It makes getting started and finishing things tougher than they are.
Self-doubt is one of the main obstacles to living your life to the fullest. This is an unhealthy food for the soul that crushes your ambitions, drags down your spirit, and prevents you from achieving the things you can.
We all have listened to those inner voices inside our heads telling us that we are not good enough, not capable enough and unfit of doing the things we dream of. Often, these feelings of weakness or incompetence develop from childhood and become deep-rooted in our very being.
Over time, self-doubt can even give birth to problems related to anxiety and depression, which in turn can result in serious physical ailments such weight gain, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue and even increased mortality rates among people suffering from heart disease.
Surely, sometimes it can be helpful as it allows you to see your current limitations or recognize a bad or half-baked idea. But most of the times, it just holds you back from success.
So how you can you get around that? How can you stop self-doubt from crippling your success?
Ways to Stop Self-Doubt
Read below to know the ways how you can stop self-doubt and can enjoy a happy, productive and fulfilling life.
#1 Shut the inner voices:
Whenever you hear the little voices of self-doubt bubble up in your mind, take step at once. Do not let them get out of control or grow from a faint whisper to loud voices telling you discouraging sentences.
Rather, talk back to your doubtful part of the mind. In your mind, say things like stop or no, we are never going down that road again. When you do something like that, you can break that negative thought pattern and halt the self-doubts from taking control over your life.
#2 Look back to the past and immerse yourself in the memories:
Be honest with yourself and ask yourself an important question –
How many times have I doubted my ability or feared something would go wrong, but in reality, anything of the contrary sort did not happen?
You will be surprised to find out that the answer is a “yes” number of times. Most of the times, self-doubts are like monsters in your head which your mind uses to prevent you from making any changes and to keep you inside your comfort zone.
When you look at the past and see how good things have turned out to be in spite of those self-doubts, then it gets a lot easier to ignore them or to let go of them to think positively and to take action.
#3 Talk to someone about it:
It is not a good idea to keep your negative thoughts boxed inside you because when you do that they can grow more exaggerated, illogical, and not very much in line with the reality.
This is truer when it comes to self-doubting thoughts. So, let them out of your mind. Talk to someone you trust. It can be your friend, a family member, or a professional counselor.
Just by letting them out and saying them aloud can help you realize that how unreasonable these thoughts have become. Also, talking about your self-doubts with someone who is supportive can help you bring a change in your perspective and be more optimistic about yourself.
#4 Start maintaining a journal:
Keeping a journal can help you for an ample of reasons. In this case, it helps you in the maintenance of a realistic document of your life. It can also contribute to recall the positive things, the successes you have had achieved and how you have defeated the obstacles that had come in your way.
You will gain clarity more easily. You can make a list of your strength and weak points and write down different perspectives on some issue in your journal by going through your thoughts and similar events from the past.
This will definitely help to find solutions for the problems you are currently facing and see your challenges in a clearer mind.
#5 Stop worrying about others’ opinions:
If you keep worrying about what others are going to think or say when you do something, then your thoughts of self-doubt can become stronger, leaving you stuck in a stagnant situation.
You will not move forwards and achieve the things that you have dreamt of. So, you need to stop thinking about other people and stop giving importance to their opinions.
The thing is people don’t really care that much about what we do because they already have their hands full with their issues.
#6 Try to see things optimistically:
Let someone else’s confidence, motivation and enthusiasm help you gain a positive outlook on life. Start reading motivational books, watching inspirational videos and attending lectures of motivational speakers to boost your confidence.
You can even spend time with an optimistic person to shift yourself from self-doubting thoughts to positive and constructive ideas.
#7 Remember setbacks are temporary:
We all start doubting ourselves and questioning our capability when facing a setback. This can stop you from taking any action or doing something else.
It’s critical to realize that setbacks are temporary, not permanent. Just because you failed this one time, it doesn’t mean that you are a failure. Sometimes things just don’t work out the way they were planned. Setbacks can happen to anyone and everyone who are not afraid to take chances.
Instead of sulking over it, use this delay to your advantage. Learn from your mistakes and move forward in your life as a smarter and wiser person.
#8 Hone your skills:
If you, for example always get nervous about public speaking or get self-doubts before a presentation at your work, then try to sharpen your public-speaking skills.
Read books or watch videos and keep practicing at home in front of the mirror or with a friend. You can also join a class to work on your weak points. This will help you to gain more confidence and feel more competent and efficient.
#9 Don’t beat yourself up:
A lot of people tend to get angry at themselves as a way to stop self-doubting thoughts from arising in their mind. Trying to beat yourself up to move forward is not really a good idea.
If you have self-doubts, it is better to deal with it by being kind to yourself. Instead of being angry, try to be constructive. Use kind and understanding words to get rid of self-doubts.
You can ask yourself; what is a small step that can be taken to move out of this situation. Then take the small step and start your journey towards success.
#10 Remember you can always learn along the way:
It is almost impossible to plan every step you will take on your way towards a dream a goal.
Often, plans don’t turn out the way you want them which gives birth to self-doubt in your mind. Just do some rough planning before starting your journey. Remind yourself, you can always learn along the way.
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