Before everything else, we’ve got to accept one thing.
If we’re not feeling any self-doubt at all, then something is off.
We could be lying to ourselves. We could be playing it far too safely. Worse, we could be ignoring one of the most potentially productive feelings we could have on our journey of achievement and success.
The fact that you’re experiencing self-doubt is a good thing. Letting that self-doubt cripple you is when things begin to go wrong.
Here are three things I do when I’m starting to let self-doubt act negatively on me.
Give them a shot.
1. Refocus on preparation.
There are a ton of things we can’t control. The list is so long that it’s pointless to list them here.
One of the things that’s absolutely in our control is how much effort we put into our preparation. Great preparation puts us in the best position to react to what comes our way.
It’s smart to be prepared, and it feels incredible to be prepared.
Things don’t have to go according to plan when we’re prepared. Instead, things can go incredibly wrong and still work out in our favor if we’re prepared for things to go right and wrong.
Preparation is an incredible antidote to self-doubt.
2. Take an immense amount of action.
Consume yourself with your work.
This works especially well if you’re prepared for what you’re going to attack next.
Self-doubt usually waits until you’re calm to really affect you. It creeps into your morning coffee. It creeps into your commute. It creeps into your quiet moments before falling asleep.
When it does, lean in.
When it doesn’t have to, push it away with progress.
3. Remind yourself that “it only takes one.”
You’ll likely fail and fail and fail.
Sometimes the failures are tiny, and sometimes they’re massive. Sometimes failures seem huge at the moment, but they’ll turn out to be much smaller in hindsight. And sometimes the failure won’t seem like much when they happen, but they turn out to be more impactful down the road.
The size of the failure matters less than the lessons you learned.
What you’ve learned has gotten you one step closer to the one.
When it feels like you’re nowhere near where you want to be, just remember: it only takes one.
Self-doubt, your best friend?
Curiosity didn’t kill the cat; over-confidence did.
Let doubt drive you, not drown you.
You’ll be thankful for it if you can harness it.
So, harness it.
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Photo: Flickr/Angelin Song