10. Doubt As An ally? Take Small Actions Despite Self-Doubt
“Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), . . . Am I really an artist? chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”—Steven Pressfield, from The War of Art
Instead of running away from self-doubt by avoidance and doing something else, why not enlist it in your path forward.
Many times when you feel paralyzed by doubt, it is trying to tell you valuable information about something that you may need to know and learn from. When you acknowledge and make friends with self-doubt and release the resistance associated with it, you have the freedom to move forward
Self-doubt may be telling you key information about skills you need to build up or weaknesses you may need to address through study, action and implementation.
After you have made peace with the idea that some doubt is natural and will exist, you can take action and small calculated risks.
Action Tips:
Do new things even if you have some self-doubt.
Develop new skills.
Take small risks and small actions.
Understand what self-doubt is trying to teach you about your skills and strengths.
Take action anyways, through the fog of self-doubt and fear. Action and results are great antidotes to getting beyond crippling self-doubt.
Now over to you! What strategies and amazing techniques do you use to get beyond self-doubt?
Image Credit: _scartissue via Flickr CC
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