“It’s not who you are that holds you back; it’s who you think you are not.”-Denis Waitly
No matter how much experience we may have, or how confident we are , we all sometimes struggle with self-doubt. Self-doubt is the lack of confidence in oneself and one’s abilities. Why is it that we doubt ourselves? Is it that we focus to much on what everyone else thinks? Are we to consumed with perfection? Do we really lack the skills that we believe we possess?
Whatever the reason maybe, if we don’t find ways to overcome self-doubt it will keep us confined to where we are, and we won’t make progress towards our goals and dreams. I remember when I was first offered the supervisor position at my job; the first question in my mind was “Am I really qualified for this?” If you know me personally you probably know that leading is not only one of my biggest strengths but also my passion. Deep in my heart I knew I was qualified and that I would have fun leading, but I was plagued with self-doubt.
As I look back on that moment, the reasons why I was so full of self-doubt were evident; I was afraid, my thought patterns of myself were negative and I was consumed with what others thought about me. I accepted the job offer but I knew that in order to give everything and do my best in the new position I had to overcome these challenges.
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”-Les Brown
Fear was one of the biggest reasons for my self- doubt. I knew that in order to thrive in my new position, I had to overcome fear. My method of overcoming fear was taking action. As I was offered the position my mind was telling me one thing but my heart was telling me another. I knew that I had to follow what was in my heart so in that moment, I took action by accepting the position. Fear will cause our minds to convince us of every reason in the book of why we shouldn’t do a certain thing, but I was not going to allow my fear to keep me confined to where I was. Just like I stated in my last blog post, action cures fear.
“Once you start replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”-Willie Nelson
Once I became a person of action and conquered my fear, I had to tackle the negative thought patterns in my mind. Our thoughts are powerful tools that create our everyday life and determine what we experience. Our minds have the power to convince us of things that are not even true if we let it. I had to learn how to guard my thoughts, when a negative thought came into my mind I would redirect that thought by speaking positive words, not only in my mind but out of my mouth. For example, “You are not capable to lead these people.” I redirected the thought by saying, “I will lead these people and I will be the best at leading them.” This type of thinking helped to boost my confidence and motivated me to give one hundred percent. This was not a one time experience, I had to continually redirect and train my thoughts to be positive.
“If you care about what others think of you, then you will always be their slave.”-James Frey
Lastly, I had to stop being consumed by what others thought about me. I knew that in order to thrive in a leadership position I needed to be confident. Something that helped me to gain confidence was speaking positive affirmations over myself and focusing on my strengths. Everyday I would wake up and tell myself, “You are beautiful,” “You are smart,” “You have what it takes to be successful,” “You are a great leader,” “You will accomplish great things.” The more I spoke positive affirmations over myself the more I began to believe and think upon those things. After creating that habit I began to focus on my strengths; I am really good at leading so I wanted to figure out how to be the best so I could be more successful as a leader. This helped me because my focus was no longer on my short comings but on my strengths, and whatever we began to focus on is what will consume our minds. As I developed these things, what other people thought about me no longer mattered because my confidence was on high.
“Self doubt is the anchor that keeps our ship from sailing.”
We all struggle with self doubt at times, and I want to challenge you to not allow self-doubt to keep you confined and stuck where you don’t belong. You have the power and ability to overcome. Take time to reflect and discover the causes of your self-doubt and develop a plan so that you can make progress in life. You are more capable then you think, stop selling yourself short and go after whatever is in your heart.
Thanks for reading!
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Intentional Hope 