3 Ways To Make Self-Doubt Your Greatest Ally

Self-doubt should be a driving force, not a brake on your ambitions.

Doubt is a mindset that we will all find ourselves in many times in our lives. No one can go through life without ever doubting, even those who seem to you to have unshakable confidence. The big difference is that these people make sure to use doubt to their advantage.

Self-doubt is normal. This is the first thing you need to understand to change your relationship with self-doubt.

Then you can move on to the next step: making self-doubt your greatest ally in life, where many make it their worst enemy. It all starts with a choice. The choice to use this mindset to your advantage.

Use self-doubt to evaluate your options

When doubt comes over you, you should see it as a good way to evaluate the different choices available to you more thoroughly. So, when it comes time to make a big decision that can change the course of your life, doubt may creep in.

You'll start thinking: “What if this decision is the wrong one and I fail?”

If you let this kind of question take over, then doubt will become your worst enemy. Rather than doubting the outcome of your choice, you need to engage in the following thinking:

“Does this choice A give me a better chance of achieving my goals than this choice B?”

Here, no room for thoughts of potential failure and humiliation that you might feel in front of others, but rather a reflection on the best way to maximize your chances of success. This is a fundamental change of mindset that will put self-doubt to work for you.

Never let self-doubt reduce your ambitions

You must learn to recognize the different types of doubt. There is good self-doubt and there is bad self-doubt if I can put it that way. Doubt that makes you put yourself down is obviously on the bad side. The doubt that invites you to think about your best options for success is the good one.

It is the famous voice we all have inside us that pushes us to act in one way or another because we think at a given moment that it is our best choice to make.

Also, never allow others to instill doubt in you through little wicked thoughts: “You know, no one has ever succeeded in doing that” or “You don't stand a chance, aim for easier goals”.

Just because some people can only achieve easy goals doesn't mean you should do the same. Self-doubt to evaluate your options is a big yes. Self-doubt to belittle your goals is an absolute no.

Share your doubts with others to improve your mindset

By sharing your self-doubt with people you trust, you'll be able to get the boost you need to not let it get the better of your goals. Likewise, always be there to help those around you not to let this insidious evil do more damage than it needs to.

Failure is just an outcome, just like success. In both cases, it is what you do afterward that counts. How you will use this outcome to continue your path towards your goals. The fact that you failed should not make you doubt yourself, just as the fact that you succeeded should not make you feel invulnerable.

You need to find the right balance between doubt and confidence so that you can always move forward and give it the maximum of your potential. If you can do this, then self-doubt will be a driving force for you, not a brake on your ambitions.