Self-Doubt

Everyone has self-doubt. Sometimes it can be crippling and overpowering. Sometimes it is merely a fleeting feeling which prompts you to question yourself. That hesitancy can leave you failing to act. The most important part of self-doubt is the “self” portion. The doubt you feel is because of your own mind and thoughts. Self-Doubt is completely a result of your internal emotions about how you view yourself. You can conquer those feelings, but in order to do so you must directly and deliberately go through an uncomfortable path of discovery in order to prove your thoughts wrong.

Self-Doubt is a human emotion and everyone encounters it. Some encounter it on a daily basis. I believe there are two specific types of self-doubt. These types are what I will call “Warranted Self-Doubt” and “Wavering Self-Doubt.” I find Warranted Self-Doubt appears when you lack preparation for something. Warranted, by its definition means it has a right to be there. Warranted Self-Doubt can appear when you sign up to speak in front of the school but have never spoken in front of that many people before. It can appear when you sign up for a marathon knowing the furthest you have run at one time is 3 miles. Warranted Self-Doubt thoughts are the parts of self-doubt that are honest and factually based. These thoughts tend to address the feelings of, “I have not done this before. Can I?” I believe Warranted Self-Doubt is important because it pushes you to overcome, it pushes you to try, it pushes you to prove yourself wrong, it is what makes the voice in your head saying, “You can do this,” stronger. It is in this struggle that you can surpass the feelings of Self-Doubt.

Perspective with Warranted Self-Doubt is vital because if seen in a positive light you are inclined to act. However, there is a fine line between using Warranted Self-Doubt positively or letting it slip into Wavering Self-Doubt. Wavering Self-Doubt is the crippling portion of self-doubt. The self-doubt which causes you to freeze, causes you to grow smaller, causes you to hide. Wavering Self-Doubt is the opposite of Warranted Self-Doubt because it lives in the grey area. With Warranted Self-Doubt, you can point to specific reasons why you are feeling those thoughts. “I did not prepare enough.” “I have never done this before.” “My prior performances did not succeed.” With Wavering Self-Doubt you can take these constructive, fact-based thoughts and morph them into emotionally charged “gray area” thoughts. “I did not prepare enough and I do not have enough time to get better.” “I have never done this before and never will.” My prior performances did not succeed and this one will not either.” See the difference? With Warranted Self-Doubt, the thoughts were a challenge, a challenge you could attempt to conquer. With Wavering Self-Doubt, you changed the challenges into negative statements and sucked out all desire to act.

Wavering Self-Doubt also tends to be prompted by external circumstances compared to directly within. You walk to the starting line of a race and see people who “look more like runners than you do,” and Wavering Self-Doubt creeps in. You can begin to doubt your preparation and your own skills before the race even begins. Wavering Self-Doubt lives by letting your mind concoct thoughts of what other people would think of you when you act. It removes personal doubt and implants how others “would” feel when you act. Wavering Self-Doubt is harmful, and the main recipient of the damage is yourself.

What main regrets do you have? How many of these regrets were because of inaction? How many moments of inaction were caused by Wavering Self-Doubt? By addressing these, you can choose to move forward and treat self-doubt in a different way.

This piece is not meant to remove self-doubt from your life. Nor was this piece meant to minimize the real feelings of self-doubt. It was intended to help provide a perspective you can use to adapt and overcome the adversity of self-doubt. By framing these real feelings in a different way, you may find more belief in yourself and have more confidence in your life pursuits.