Doubts Are Whispers Not Sirens

Something that I’m affected by, alongside just about everyone, is self-doubt. We are our own toughest critics and we can be really, really hard on ourselves. We know our own truth better than we know anyone else, we see the areas we’re falling short that no one else knows about, and it causes us to lose confidence and belief in ourselves.

When doubt creeps in, it does so really quietly. Doubts are whispers, not sirens. Self-doubt is so subtle that it integrates itself into your normal stream of consciousness and influences you without you even knowing it. Emotions are sirens. They are loud and clear, and you know you’re feeling something when you're emotional. But doubts are discreet whispers.

This makes it very difficult to defeat self-doubt. The first step to changing anything is being aware of it because with awareness comes choice, which helps you to make new decisions that lead to new results. But the nature of self-doubt makes it challenging to identify and therefore, difficult to change.

Self-doubt is a form of self-sabotage. This is your brain’s attempt to protect you from things that are new and unfamiliar by making suggestions to your conscious mind. Self-doubt is the brain’s way of keeping you from believing that you’re capable of doing something new, better, or different. It’s a defense against change, which through years of evolution has come to be perceived as a potential threat. And remember this happens quietly - Self-doubt (alongside other self-sabotaging tendencies like procrastination, limiting beliefs, irrational thinking, and overgeneralization) introduces itself in such a quiet way that it goes unnoticed. 

But no one in their right mind would choose to be held back. No one wants to be the limiting factor to their own success, and the reality is our self-doubt is often the biggest bottleneck to making progress. So to become more aware of your self-sabotaging tendencies, and begin to change them, I’ve put together a self-sabotage quiz so that you can start becoming everything you know you can be, and not just the version your protective brain has allowed you to be.

One tip, one tool, and one point of self-awareness at a time you’re growing into a better version of yourself. Way to be consistent! And to apply today's learnings click here to take the self-sabotage quiz.