How To Deal With Doubt

Doubt, a constant companion that even when not directly in the thoughts, lurks in the shadows, ever awaiting the opportunity to rear its head.

Have you ever experienced this? I have.

Doubt seems to constantly be the uninvited guest that visits and doesn’t know when it is time to leave.

Maybe, it could be that we give doubt a room or encourage doubt to abide even on occasions when it may open the door to depart.

The good news — doubt can be reduced and eventually eliminated. It all depends on one thing — YOU.

Will you hold on to doubt, or will you encourage its departure?

Every time I venture something new, doubt is present. A new project, a new job, a new relationship and so on.

I have wrestled with doubt and understand that doubt can play a positive role if I look at it differently.

Most persons give in to doubt.

You see we all exist with some level of self-doubt about our abilities to transcend our life now.

To grow will involve pushing out and up into unchartered waters.

When you decide to grow you will have more opponents than supporters, don’t let yourself be one of the opponents.

Fight the desire to let doubt use the full room in your mind.

It’s not easy. I continue to struggle with it, but I am determined that doubt will not win.

Those who wait anxiously to criticize you or await your failure may have never themselves dared to try something new or different. So when they see someone else doing so, there is the wish to do all that can be done to criticize and dissuade from taking the steps for creating the future you want.

Today, I encourage you to take the advice that my great great grandmother left me many years ago. “Do it anyway”.

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“Doubts in your mind are a much greater roadblock to success than obstacles on the journey.” — Orrin Woodward

If you are to make positive steps only when you have a hundred percent support from family, friends, acquaintances and the general society, you may never do anything!

I continue to learn how to place doubt in a remote corner and pursue relentlessly the steps towards the future I want for myself.

You want to start a new business, a new job, a new relationship, a new investment…Do it anyway!!

A certain amount of doubt can be positive as this plays a role in carefully considering the decisions being made, as each decision have consequences both good and bad.

After carefully considering and you see that it is something that will not harm or hurt others, but is geared towards helping you develop yourself, so you can offer this growth and development to others — do it anyway!

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

I recently started writing. I had done it on and off for many years.

However, this year after recovering from a period of illness, I decided to resume writing as one of my goals.

I started writing earnestly four months ago. I will never say I am a great writer, I have a good way to go. However, if I never start I can’t become a great writer from just having it in my thoughts and wishing it.

I took a few courses and began writing. Once again doubt reared its head, but I am determined to persist.

I recently submitted an article to a publication, that got more traction than I thought would have happened so early in my writing. I was ecstatic, but in moderation, knowing that I still have a long way to go, but with persistence and consistency I will reach there.

Along with the positive feedback, I received some non-constructive critical comments as can be expected as a writer. I took it all in stride.

The interesting thing about one of the critical comments received, the person indicated that they would never write since it would expose them to being critiqued which they could never face!

Here was someone giving me all their thoughts on how my article should have been written, when they themselves refused to be exposed to such!

Certainly if I was to entertain every negative comment that offers no progressive suggestions I would quit.

I choose to do it anyway!

There is only one way to become a better writer and that is by practicing, not wishing it to happen only. I am going to be a great writer and I know this because I quiet the doubts by continuing to do it.

Hidden in each and every one of us are talents and abilities, we may never discover if we allow self-doubt to dominate our minds and thoughts thereby leading to inaction.

My one-hundred-year old great great grandmother history lives on.

When she decided to go out and open a business, and was told that in that era women wouldn’t succeed in business, she did it anyway.

When she wanted to learn to read and was told going to school back then was only for males, she did it anyway.

Though she has died the memory of her words live on. When I asked her once about doubt, the faint words she whispered to me, “Do it anyway” remains entrenched in my memory and has been a guide for me in each new venture I undertake.

What about you?

What is doubt keeping you from doing?

Stop thinking about it and go do it anyway!

It may very well be the path to open the door to the future you crave.

“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.” — T. Harv Eker

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This post was previously published on Change Becomes You and is republished here with permission from the author.
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