The Real Reason You Doubt Yourself in Business and Life and What You can do About It

Why on Earth would you doubt yourself when you have so much to offer the world?

Let me start by saying – Self-doubt – for what purpose?

Self-doubt is a massive problem for many entrepreneurs and professionals.

And I’ve said it before – often inner obstacles like self-doubt are just symptoms of being an achiever.

You see whenever you stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone to achieve something new it’s natural to feel a dip in your confidence.

It’s not a sign that you’re incapable, it’s a sign that you’re not experienced at the thing you wish to achieve.

It’s simply something new or different.

And that’s OKAY.

And of course it is – that’s life.

It’s natural to experience a lull in your confidence sometimes.

The problem is that when self-doubt becomes a habit or even a strategy, which we’ll talk about today, it will consistently hold you back from playing a bigger game.

So I often have clients say to me, “I keep doubting myself.”

My reply is always, “So is it working yet?”

Self-doubt, like everything, has a presupposed purpose or higher positive

Intention…

…otherwise you wouldn’t do it.

It’s a learned strategy we generally form at a young age to help protect us.

As adults, if it’s separating you from experiencing success, then it’s definitely not working anymore.

If that’s you, you need a perspective-shift.

You need to engage in some self-enquiry.

Let me give you 3 keys to help with this…

Key 1. Ask yourself, “Is it rational?”

Ask yourself, “Is this self-doubt rational.”

If the answer is “Yes” it means you need to reassess the thing your doubting yourself about.

Rational self-doubt is functional and may save you a lot of grief.

In this case you need more information or to become more certain about vital elements of your decision.

If the answer is “No” it means the self-doubt is irrational and you need to understand the backward logic to doubting yourself.

In this case move to the next key.

Key 2. Discover the higher purpose of your self-doubt

You now need to get to the real positive intention of your inner Self-Doubter or Pessimist.

The best way to make this shift it is to use self-enquiry, to ‘chunk-it-up’ and discover WHY you doubt yourself.

Or more to the point, you need to ask, “Self-doubt for what purpose?”

So here’s an example of what the process may look like:

Ask yourself…

Q. What’s the highest positive intention of my

self-doubt?

A. You might get an answer like Protection!

Q. Protection, for what purpose?

A. Safety!

Q. Safety, for what purpose?

A. Survival!

Q. Survival, for what purpose?

A. To thrive!

Q. Thriving, for what purpose?

A. To succeed!!!!

Q. Success, for what purpose?

A. To be all I can be!

Q. To be ALL I can be, for what purpose?

A. PURPOSE!

You’ll get a pattern emerge something like that.

Your answers may be different but there will be an upward progression from self-doubt to something functional.

You’ll see that the REAL purpose of your self-doubt is actually to propel you forward.

You need to get clear on what the ultimate purpose for doing self-doubt is.

Because you are doing it, it’s something you actually choose to do and it’s most likely an unconscious pattern.

Write down each answer you get to these questions.

Keep asking yourself, “For what purpose? For what purpose?”

There will definitely be a higher positive intention and you need to discover what that is.

Eventually through this process, you’ll discover that the ultimate intention of self-doubt is – strangely enough – to SUCCEED (or something similar).

Self-doubt is usually just a backward strategy to prepare for, or protect you from, potential failure, so as to assist you to succeed.

Preparing for failure is preparing to fail.

So this leads to the next key…

Key 3. Shift your strategy

Ask yourself, “What’s 3 actions I can take now, other than doubting myself, that would help me succeed without doubting my abilities.”

Write them down and take action.

Do those things (as long as their ecological to your Self).

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Self-doubt also holds another function.

You might not be aware of it but self-doubt is also there to balance a polarity or an opposite to self-doubt.

(Which by the way isn’t self-belief or confidence).

The polarity to self-doubt is arrogance.

Yep arrogance.

Think about it, extreme self-doubt is overly pessimistic and total arrogance is being overly self-consumed in your belief to the point of dysfunction.

They’re both egoic expressions.

Where you need to be is somewhere in the middle of these polarities, which I believe is simply humility.

Humility is a real key!

I view humility as the understanding that you are all that you are no more no less.

Full acceptance of self!

You see what ever you need to achieve in life you ARE already good enough to do it.

Even if you haven’t realized the potential yet the ability is within you.

There is no need to feel shame or doubt if you can simply be in acceptance of yourself in your fullness without having to play small with doubt or overcompensate with arrogance.

If you can be in full honouring of who you are, where you’ve come from and where you’re going without condition;

If you can view yourself and your life with full reverence these obstacles become illusions.

You either achieve what you want or you functionally accept non-achievement and move on with a barrage of learning’s under your belt.

With this attitude you can never really fail.

It’s not possible.

You either win or learn with humility and then you move on.

Next Step

So hopefully this has been really helpful.

This is just one small tip in overcoming the inner obstacles that hold you back from purposeful and profitable success in business and life.

If you’d like to learn more please download my Free PDF 5-Step Formula…

“How to Smash Self Doubt, Play a Bigger Game and Stay True to Your Purpose”

To grab a copy is simple just click here and download it.

If you feel like you need some one-on-one attention to help you figure this stuff out please go ahead and book yourself in for a Free 20 Minute Strategy Call.

In this call together we’ll help you discover…

What’s possible for you in business and life,
What your number 1 obstacle to success is, and
The 3 action steps you can take now to get moving with clarity, confidence and courage