Don't Let Self-Doubt Hold You Back

A Comprehensive Guide to Overcoming Negative Thoughts and Achieving Your Goals

Most people feel doubtful about themselves at some point in their lives. It's that voice in your head telling you you're not good enough, smart enough, or strong enough to reach your goals. Even though self-doubt can be uncomfortable, it can also be a sign that we must rethink our goals and plans.

In this article, we'll talk about what self-doubt is, why we doubt ourselves, why it's normal to doubt ourselves, how to tell when self-doubt has gone too far, and how to get rid of it.

Why we have doubts about ourselves

Self-doubt has many different sources. Here are a few common reasons why you may doubt yourself that I personally encountered, as well as many of my 1:1 clients:

• You have the habit of constantly comparing yourself to others which often leaves you feeling inadequate, like you're behind and lacking important skills you should have by now.

• You're motivated about achieving your goals but end up setting too high expectations for yourself. This leaves you feeling like a failure and will never achieve your goals.

• You tend to get caught up in negative thinking and frequently belittle and criticize yourself. You end up doubting yourself because you lack the cognitive tools to work against your negativity bias.

• In the past, you have had past negative experiences. Instead of learning from them and moving on, you're stuck dwelling on them and believing that they prove you're not good enough.

• You jump to conclusions about how others achieved their goals as well as your capabilities and make assumptions based on how you feel, rather than looking at the evidence and being realistic.

What's important to understand is that self-doubt is normal, to a degree. Everyone experiences it; the difference between healthy self-doubt and toxic self-doubt is that you don't let it control your actions. Therefore, it's important to have the mental tools not to let your self-doubt drag you into negative thought spirals and let it paralyze you from acting toward creating your goals.

Why it's natural to have doubts

People have doubts about themselves all the time.