How can self-doubt be an advantage in our existence? Obviously it can be paralyzing, for we are afraid what we are doing is not the best or good or enough. We seem to fret about this often. We would readily say the last thing exploring the emotion of self-doubt brings us is happiness, right?
Maybe, but then again, maybe not. For it can also be a light in the mysterious and sometimes stormy path our life takes.
It is more than possible that self-doubt is there as something to explore intentionally, because everyone experiences it — like some code we have been given at birth to figure out. And it spurs us onward or stops us in our tracks. Our free will decides which way.
The most successful people in the world have self-doubt. Why? That is the point — and perhaps the advantage — the bridge into full wholeness of self. We are meant to take this winding journey of uncertainty because through it we learn to trust ourselves, to know our strength and purpose of will, to realize when something matters to us, and to keep doing what we are doing no matter what tries to stop us, including that inner, doubtful voice — the one that comes from ego, the one we use to compare ourselves with someone else, anyone else, except our own true voice.
You may have doubted yourself, but have you noticed that more often than not you have prospered in spite of that? It is called life, and it is shaped according to your desires, dreams, and courage. You are the arbiter, no one else.
Would you know what courage is if you had never been afraid? Would you be able to gather strength against the odds if you had never experienced failure and seen how you could rise from it like the phoenix?
Every time you go through self-doubt and push through to the other side, you are more than you were before. That is a good thing. Trust in who you are and who you are becoming.
Truly, my constant self-doubt always makes me better myself and what I’m doing. Thanks, Regina, for this empowering post.
What a thought provoking, well writen piece. You could write an entire book on this subject. Just yesterday I heard an actor reading a letter from Sal Lewitt to a friend who was in a crisis of self doubt to just stop thinking and do. Then there are narcessic people who forge ahead with little doubt but lots of blame for everyone around them at the hint of a problem.There are others so filled with self-doubt that they focus on everything but themselves in an attempt to avoid failure. Would you know what courage if you had never been afraid infers that you went ahead and faced the dragon. Perhaps that was what Sal was trying to say. Self doubt can be thought about but only conquered by taking a bold step and doing. Your closing statement “when you push through to the other side, you are more than you were before”says it all for me.