Self-doubt is a deadly poison that kills your chances of success. When you doubt yourself, you disqualify yourself. As a result, you stop yourself from doing what is proper, positive and powerful. “I am fat.” “I am dumb.” “I don’t deserve it.” These are the thoughts that go through your head when you are battling with self-doubt. There are fatter people. There are dumber people. Nobody deserves it. You failed and so what! To overcome self-doubt you need to resolve these existing doubts you possess. Doubt is not good for success.

Why do you self-doubt?

Superficially, this is a tough question to answer. Self-doubt comes from insecurities that you possess and lack of confidence in yourself. When you dwell in insecurities you interpret possibilities  through your limited perspective. You continuously suppress the expression of  your uniqueness and abilities. Sometimes the self-doubt cycle begins in early childhood where you are constantly shutdown by your parents or guardians and it follows you into adulthood.

In your moments of great insecurity you often say these two things to yourself:

1.) What if I am not good enough?

2.) May be I don’t deserve…

The truth is that if you do not resolve your self-doubts, you will continue living a life of damaging self-image, lack of fulfillment and regrets.

How do you overcome self-doubt?

Your self-doubt can cripple your self-image and keep you on the sidelines of life. If you continuously do any of the following, you will get yourself back in the game and dominate in all your pursuit.

• Act on Your Doubts

Decide to do that which you doubt. Action helps you develop your confidence and kills fear. The moment you say I can’t write a book, you shut down your ability to write a book. Instead of saying ‘I can’t do it‘ ask ‘how can I do it?’ This puts your brain to work searching for ways to overcome your limitations. By the same token, go and learn that subject you are finding difficult rather than saying ‘I don’t know.‘ If you think you’re a bad public speaker, enroll in a public speaking or communication class. If you think you’re bad at anything, go learn the skill. Do not entertain your self-doubt. In order to overcome self-doubt, you have to take action.

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“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

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• Stop Comparison

Comparing your abilities, talents, or strengths to other people’s is a deceptive mechanism that sometimes makes you feel like you’re not good enough or you don’t have what it takes. When you constantly compare yourself to others, you’re holding yourself back from truly finding out what you’re capable of. Moreover, success is not what you have accomplished compared to other people’s. Success is what you have accomplished compared to what you are born to do. Make a commitment to yourself to desist from comparing yourself to others and overcome your self-doubt.

• Avoid Toxic Environment

You are a product of your environment. This could be a good news or bad news to you, depending on where you are located. Environmental conditions are instrumental to your success. A toxic environment limits your chances of developing personal qualities that you need to flourish.  In a toxic environment you are exposed to negative people with low self-esteem, stuck in victim mode and poor outlook towards life.  If you chose to overcome self-doubt, you must stay away from places that break you psychologically, emotionally and spiritually. Switching from a toxic environment to a positive one broadens your range of possibilities along with a worthy view of yourself.

• Seek Nourishing Relationships

In order to overcome self-doubt you need to actively seek out nourishing relationships. This is a relationship with people who are vested in your interest and willing to support you as well as encourage you. Who do you surround yourself with? How confident are they? Do they empower you? Are you a better person through your association with them? Avoid people that tear you down. People that constantly bring up your ugly past. Whenever you are in a controlling or abusive relationship with people that destructively criticize you, your self-confidence slowly begins to damage. Hence exposing you to crippling self-doubt. A wave of abuse and harassment plants the seed of self-doubt in your subconscious. Similar to toxic environment, bad relationships break you down mentally and eventually you start doubting yourself. Surround yourself with more mentors and supporters. You are the average of the five closest people you hang around.

• Positive Affirmation

What do you say to yourself in private or public places? Are your words to yourself positive? Or do you make jokes about how incapable you are? Certainly, there’s power in spoken words. If you’re a believer in God, it is no news to you that the world was created out of God’s spoken words. “Let there be light!” , and there was light. Whatever you speak into existence, comes into existence. Positive affirmation is not one of those laughable ‘take-for-granted’ success tips. It is a habit that when adopted,  will shape your mind and physical being into an unstoppable force. As you speak positively about yourself, your mind slowly begins to connect the dots of greatness within you. Then your body begins to prepare for corresponding action to be taken. Start speaking positively to yourself today.

• Take More Risks

When was the last time you did something that scared the darkness out of you? The more calculated risks you take, the more you strengthen your courage muscle. As you take more risks,  you become more tenacious. The more tenacious you become, the more courageous you become. When you’re courageous, you are confident. With risk comes failure and success. It’s a numbers game. Prove yourself over and over again by taking more risks in life. So, decide to fail on many things by taking risks. Because you learn through failure and most successes result from failure. Taking more risks helps you overcome self-doubt.

• Have  a Strong Why 

Another key point that will help you overcome self-doubt is having a strong why. A strong why is a compelling purpose. When you are guided by a strong why it is easier to make the switch from self-doubt to self-assurance. Due to the fact that your strong reason fuels your ambition. Your why is like the fire that heats up the water boiling in you. And like heat increases the temperature of water to the boiling point, your why drives you to higher levels forcing you to soar. When you doubt yourself, your why gives you a reason to keep taking action and avoid quitting. Remember, it’s easy to doubt yourself and give up when you don’t know why you’re fighting.

In conclusion, self-doubt affects all aspects of your life: your finance, your family, your relationships, your health, your emotional stability etc. Striving to overcome self-doubt opens up the room for personal improvement in all areas of your life. Always believe in yourself more than you believe in anyone else. To thrive, you must overcome self-doubt.

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