Plagued by self-doubt? Sorry! But you are not alone.
For many individuals, there is much in them to get out to the world but self-doubt continue to militate against them. Even in a social media age, it is easy to see how well other people are faring and how smart they are- there lies another reason to doubt ourselves. A flurry of pictures about great things we can never achieve or great people we can never become flash across our minds every now and then. All plans and visions start and end in our imagination- and sometimes become ghosts tormenting our inner being. While the smart guys are getting smarter, we trap ourselves in the belligerent web of “how am I supposed to do that?” and, sometimes, haranguing ourselves out of doing it.
Self-doubt is a dexterous yet deadly negotiator; it talks us out of doing well, it dampens our spirit and warps our future goals. In fact, we lose to it more than we can easily account for.
Here is the great news: It is not an uncommon condition. Almost every one of us has suffered a surge of it at some point in our life. The difference between individuals is, perhaps, that some realised it’s a battle that could be won while some did not. And unless you rise up to it, your dream will always continue to dwell the backyard. For all its worth, look at it the common soldiers of self-doubt and how you can disarm them:
1- Inadequate knowledge:
According to a popular saying,“You will never know everything. Knowledge unfolds as we move forward. Sitting back and waiting to know everything before we do anything is a waste of life”
Perhaps you presume the level of knowledge you carry around is miserable and will label you wrongly to the world, therefore you have to wait till the day you know enough before you can do things? Wrong!
The solution to this is summarized in the above quote. The golden rule here is: Start! You accumulate knowledge overtime and you will never have enough of it. The earlier you know this the better.
2- Your friends don’t believe in you:
You have always felt inferior among your friends. In fact, luck and fortune often sideline you and rarely smile upon you. Truly, it might be so that you don’t often come off well among them. So they all have doubts about your adventures. How much more of other people?
Here is the solution: the fact that you don’t thrive where others do doesn’t mean you can’t thrive somewhere else. And the fact that those friends couldn’t uplift you means you need another set of friends. Go away from them and find your own tribe.
3- The comparison syndrome:
I will say this in a most unusual way. I won’t drive you into the common belief that you don’t need to compare yourself to others. You sometimes need to. Know your chances and your weaknesses. An average African living in some rural slump plagued by continuous erratic power supply should by no means be in competition with a lad from anywhere America in the issue of internet usage.
The solution to this is to always remember they probably have a chance you never had or you probably had an accident they never experienced. Be proud you’ve come this far. Be optimistic you can do more.
4- Many a better product out there:
What has your self-doubt problem turned you to? Since the beginning of the world, producers never ceased producing and consumers never stopped asking for more. When will you ever realise that some parts of us need exactly that genius you are hiding? Go out there and do whatever you can. Do first.
5- Past experience:
We all are products of our past experiences. Our fears and aspirations are often built –subconsciously or otherwise- on them. A person with former experience of war eruption might easily be alarmed at the sight of any worrisome argument. The same goes for a person who has once been ridiculed.
If this is your problem then it’s time for you to start living in your presence and let the past be what it is. Don’t forget: it is more ridiculous to live and never do anything than having failed and tell the story when you finally break through.
Walking yourself out of self-doubt should never be impossible for you, that is if you bear truthfully in mind that the greatest stars out there are often a subject of criticism and fierce debates. As human beings we turn the fairest of the fair men to a subject of ridicule in our gossip. How much more of a common man like us? Produce for us, we need every genius including yours.