The truth about self doubt

Am I good enough?  

This age old question is the fulcrum that sits between your self-confidence and your imposter syndrome.  Being able to trust in yourself and your abilities often comes down to how loud the volume is set on your voice of self-doubt. 

Your brain is designed, by nature, to keep you safe and stop you from doing activities that may cause you harm. So whenever you venture outside of your comfort zone that may risk you looking stupid, failing or feeling bad about yourself, your brain is likely to kick in to protect you from danger.

It often does this through amplifying your self doubt.

In one particular study from over 12,000 people found that 'people who experience frequent self-doubt not only distrust their skills, they also have an extremely pessimistic attitude, struggle to express their feelings, and have a deep sense of self-loathing.' [1]

This study [1] revealed that....

• 54% don't feel confident about a decision unless it's approved by other people (compared to 7% of Self-believers).
• 66% panic when given a task that is even just slightly outside their comfort zone (compared to 9% of Self-believers).
• When they are not good at something right away, 36% would rather quit than spend more time and effort trying to improve (compared to 6% of Self-believers).
• 59% start projects or goals they never finish (compared to 8% of Self-believers).
• 33% back down from challenges (compared to 3% of Self-believers).

A little bit of self-doubt is helpful for self reflection and growth. Problems arise, however, when self-doubt becomes an ingrained and all too familiar habit of reacting to pressure, change or challenge.

Self-doubt can become a conditioned response - Think Pavlov's dogs. You can create the conditioned response of going into a negative mindset whenever you feel uncertain or outside your comfort zone.

In Pressure Proof language, this is known as the Fractured and Fragile levels of resilience (I have written a white paper about all 6 levels - you can download it from my website - see URL in comments). This is where you condition your mind to be pessimistic and fatalistic about your ability to create positive outcomes in new or challenging situations. That's when self-doubt starts to define who you are, what you attempt and what you achieve.

In any endeavour of business, sales, leadership, etc., overcoming self-doubt stats with proving your assumptions wrong.

Dr. Ilona Jerabek, says that "To overcome self-doubt, you need to learn to challenge the assumption that you are incapable of accomplishing what you set out to"

She says to start by asking yourself "What proof do you have that you are incompetent?" Even if your excuse is, 'I have tried this before and failed miserably,' that doesn't mean you are always doomed to fail.

There are two types of barriers that you will face in life - external (circumstances, opinions, other people's decisions, etc.) and internal (your thoughts, beliefs and willingness to try). Don't let self-doubt cloud your judgement and decide how you live your life.