Overcoming self-doubt so you can live your best life

podcast

Aug 21

The negative impacts of self-doubt and how to overcome it

Self-doubt is something that so many of us struggle with. That good old voice in our head that makes us feel like we aren’t good enough. that makes us feel like we are at war with ourselves. The back and forth, the insults we tell ourselves, the way that we can beat ourselves up over little mistakes, little flaws, and insecurities. If you feel like you are at war with yourself, you are not alone.

in the second episode of the small steps to self-love podcast, i asked my readers on Instagram to share how self-doubt makes them feel. Like an imposter. Frustrated. Sad. Worthless. Like they failed their younger self.

A lovely poet said, “self-doubt makes me feel like my writing is terrible and I should give up.” Someone else said, “it makes me feel discouraged and forget all the things that matter to me.” That one’s really powerful and stuck with me when I read it. How not trusting ourselves and not being confident in ourselves can make us forget the things we care about. But, self-doubt is something you can work through and overcome. You are not alone.

Overcoming self-doubt

I’ve found some things that have helped me that I’m going to share, and I also asked my followers on instagram to share. There is unfortunately no quick fix—it’s something we have to focus on and work on, but it’s so important because as we’ve already talked about, self-doubt can really have a negative impact on how we feel, the things we care about, and what we pursue in life.

Writing

Writing and journaling is really therapeutic and it’s something tangible that you can look back on and see your progress. I think there’s a misconception with journaling that it has to be positive and you have to write about what you’re grateful for and what’s going well in life, and that’s wonderful if you do that, but it can also be so helpful to let out the not so great parts of life, too.

Someone said, “writing out my feelings in my stories and poetry, and knowing this feeling is only the opinion from one.” Self-doubt is just one opinion, one part of you that thinks you can’t do this. When self-doubt begins to take over, it can be helpful to turn to other people in our lives for support. A partner, friend, or family members.

Reading

Similarly to writing, a handful of other people said reading, writing and “embracing what I was feeling rather than letting it control me.” When we let it fester inside and not let it out, those feelings just grow stronger and they stay inside of us.

Patience

It will take time to overcome self-doubt, but having the patience with yourself to forgive yourself when you have those moments of doubt and the perseverance to push through it is really healing. To defy what your own mind is telling you and say I can do this, I am talented, I am good at what I do, I do deserve this amazing thing that happened to me.

Practice

All of this takes practice. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone and being uncomfortable. This podcast is uncomfortable for me but I know it will get easier. When I started sharing my work online it was incredibly uncomfortable and now I don’t think twice about it. Hearing my own voice when I started recording my poems and reading them aloud, it took me a dozen or more tries each time because I kept deleting them, and saying “this sounds horrible no one will ever want to listen to this.” Flash forward two years, I don’t think twice.

Small step 2

In every episode, i share a small step, An action to take this week to carry with you, and remember as you might be facing doubts today or this week or with something coming up.

I want you to think about or write down a moment in your life when you were sure you couldn’t do something and you succeeded. I don’t care how small it is or how big it is. Take a few moments to focus on something you accomplished that you thought would never be possible.

And then once you have something in mind, or you’ve written that something down, why was it possible? What was it about what you did, to make that something happen, that you didn’t think was possible?