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Writer's pictureNeha Joshi

The Enemy called Self-Doubt

Updated: Jun 25, 2019


Ever since I was a child and I started thinking (OMG then it has to be ever since I was a tiny 2 yrs old), I think I have doubted my abilities more than I ever believed in them. I have always needed that push from someone to make me pull out my talent from within. God has always been kind enough and I always had that someone who did it for me. Parents, an aunt, my bestie of those times, my subordinates, bosses, colleagues and so on. How easily they saw my spark and made me bring it out. To top it, once I performed, I used to be in an awe of my own self!! How on earth was I that self? I never knew I could perform that well?

Anyways ... through the years I have been able to reduce that doubt to a large extent although not completely. Adversities came and went and I have withstood them, faced my fears and overcome them. However, when a new challenge emerges, that dormant little enemy of mine called self-doubt, doesn't fail to poke its head up and scare me. We all go through it, don’t we? Yes we do. Ya ya .. we do have fake faces who claim that they are not scared of anything. The reality is, we all are scared. Scared of that one thing called - Failure.



However the best way to combat this little enemy of self-doubt is simple. Accept it. Accept that you do doubt yourself at times. We all do and it’s OK ! It’s because of this inherent fear of failure within us. What we need to do is, to let that fear be and realize that its fine to be scared, to have fear. What is not OK, is to be guided by it. Never let self-doubt guide you. Face it and ask yourself that why is it there inside you and analyze the reasons. Once you do that, your inner self will automatically guide you towards the solutions. For example, if you have self-doubt that I will probably not get through a job interview or I won’t be able to perform well or chase a deadline, then accept it. Calm down and breath. May be don’t think of it for a while and then revisit the self-doubt. The Fear. Then write down on a piece of paper, the reasons why you might fail or things that might not turn out to be favorable. The solution lies in the problem itself. Maybe you aren't giving enough time to the task at hand, maybe you lack some skills and need to learn new ones.

Fear has a way of getting to you. Years of suppressing the fear and denying its existence converts it into more toxic emotions like anger, resentment, low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence. The golden words that “The best way to overcome your fears is to face them” is the maxim to follow.

Having people around you who help you understand this fear and help you reinstate your faith also play an important role. However the best way to overcome the self-doubt is to let that tiny fellow come out and make friends with him. Then ask him why is he there and help him out, so that the confident ‘Self’ remains and the ‘doubt’ vanishes away. 

So many small enemies reside within us and we think that the world outside is our enemy. There is no doubt that even a small change in your own self is what it takes to change the world around you. So start by conquering these small enemies within and see how everything else just gets better for you.


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