Why Doubting Yourself At Work Is Normal

Have you ever hit a speed bump on your road to career success?

Then, all of the sudden, self-doubt creeps in. Now, you feel guilty for doubting yourself. Now, you start thinking that maybe you should just give up on your career goals to avoid the pain of failure.

Enter self-sabotage.

Look – feeling like you want to give up on or change your career goals is normal. Especially when your career hits a rough patch. Maybe your path to a successful career hasn’t been as smooth as you expected it to be. Maybe it’s taking you a long time to reach your career goals. Or maybe outside circumstances are making you re-evaluate your goals entirely.

Doubting yourself when this happens is normal.

A study by the European Institute for Leadership and Management showed that 50% of female managers and 31% of male managers experienced self-doubt.

Don’t feel guilty for doubting yourself or your career path from time to time.Not only is it expected and normal, it can even be helpful. When you invest time, energy, and passion into something you want, not feeling doubtful from time to time would be unusual.

When you’re doubting yourself and feel like giving up, remember that your doubt is merely a sign that you’ve chosen a worthy career goal. Realize that doubt is a normal part of the achievement process.

Doubt happens to all of us.

Sometimes, you’ll set big career goals and then actively prevent yourself from achieving them.

You may even get close to achieving these big goals, but then, right before you do, you’ll blow everything up.

You’ll choke at an interview, blow a presentation, or get distracted before an important interview.

But why?

The reason is simple…

You don’t believe in yourself. You don’t value yourself. As a result, you doubt yourself. Then, instead of realizing self-doubt is normal and using it to drive you forward, you feel guilty. The only escape you can find from this guilt and self-doubt is distraction.

Enter more self-sabotage. Enter career suicide. Enter drama.

The only way to avoid this is to start seeing self-doubt differently. Here are 3 ways to re-frame self-doubt in your mind so you can stop wrecking your own career path…

1. Doubt is NOT the enemy.

Doubt, or any setback, is not the enemy. It’s a helpful evaluator of your current position and an instigator of necessary next steps.

When doubt creeps in, you might even feel defeated and just want to quit pursuing your career goals. Don’t feel bad about these feelings.Instead, lean into them. Use them to your advantage.

A report from Tech Insider found that doubting yourself can make you more creative. In other words, challenging doubt stirs creativity.

Stop feeling guilty for your doubt. Ditch the shame and let your brain start to come up with creative solutions.

If the direction you’re going and the career goals you have set matter enough to you, this process will strengthen your commitment. If you need to make adjustments, this process will stimulate problem-solving. When you take on a big goal, it’s easy to forget the reason you started pursuing it in the first place.

It’s easy to lose your way in the forest of obstacles you will encounter. It’s easy to become doubtful. Acknowledging that momentary doubt is normal can reignite your passion for your work and reinforce your reasons WHY.

It can help inoculate you against giving up on what really matters to you.

2. Wanting to give up is NOT a sign of weakness.

Giving up is a sign of weakness.

Wanting to give up, though, is normal.

The bigger your career aspirations, the more you’ll want to give up. Doubt doesn’t come with small career goals. Success and victory don’t come from setting piddly little ridiculous goals that anyone can achieve. They come from setting big goals that you might not achieve.

Here’s what nobody else will tell you…

You will experience doubt on your way to these career goals and this doubt is your biggest strength.

A study reported in Change This found that successful leaders and CEOs often use self-doubt as a catalyst for self-improvement to gain clarity about their direction and goals.

The doubt comes because you have big career goals and you’re getting closer to getting what you want. If you think that wanting to give up or doubting yourself is a sign of weakness, you’re wrong.

Never wanting to quit is not a sign of strength, it’s a sign that your career goals are too small.

If you find yourself lying in bed at night wondering if it’s all worth it — congratulations you’re one of the few people who is actually doing something worthwhile. It means you have a growth mindset. It’s easy to give up when the outcome is small, when it’s something you can live without.

Why bother continuing to push if it doesn’t matter?

But if your thoughts are consumed with your goal and evaluating whether or not you should quit, this is a good sign. You’ll either realize that your career goal is worth it and charge towards it even harder, or that it’s too small and you need to make it bigger.

3. Doubt does NOT have to distract you.

Quitting when you doubt yourself is normal.

But it’s also a mistake.

Doubt can make you short-sighted and unfocused — if you let it. You’ll want to start looking for other options and an easy win. Suddenly everything will start to look more appealing.

Don’t fall into this trap.

Look — greatness comes at a price. No matter what mountain you’re climbing, there are going to be times when you’ll want to stop and settle before reaching the top. There will also be times when you’ll want to get off the mountain altogether and start climbing one of the “greener” mountains next to you. Again, this is normal.

The higher you climb on one mountain, the better you’re able to see all of the other mountains.

But that doesn’t mean you should stop climbing the one you’re on. It means you should start climbing harder. Imagine how many other mountains you’ll be able to see and conquer once you reach your current peak.

Don’t give in to the temptation to quit. Don’t buy in to the lie that it’s too hard, not worth it, or that doubting yourself means you’re on the wrong path. Remember, feeling a sense of doubt means you’re on the right career path.

The key is to use this sense of doubt to get refocused on your goals. Now, you know your career goal is valuable. Now, you know you’ve chosen a worthy pursuit.

Doubting yourself and wanting to give up just means you need to refocus on your goal, revisit the reasons why you started on your current career path in the first place, and gather support and energy to keep pushing forward.

Think back to when you felt the most passionate and energized about your work. Remember this passion and energy and allow these powerful emotions to push your forward.

How do you protect yourself from self-doubt at work? Tell me in a comment below.

I also write for Fast Company and Entrepreneur Magazine:

• The Skills You Need To Grow Your Business
• 10 People Who Will Destroy Your Business
• 5 Benefits Of Being A Misfit Entrepreneur

Check out my book of personal and professional advice,Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent People Create A Powerful Purpose For Their Lives.