May 18, 2010

How Costly is Your Self-Doubt?   Are you a doubting Thomas?    Do you experience moments of disbelief, distrust, or uncertainty?  Chances are you do, and that is OK; there is room for healthy doubt.  It keeps you on your toes as you question in a positive way your movements forward to reach your goals.  Yet when you carry those thoughts to the extreme, your doubts become unhealthy and hazardous to your happiness.   Self-doubt can be crippling.  It will destroy your confidence as you second-guess your decisions, your actions, your thoughts, and YOU.  How can you be the best you can be when you doubt yourself at every turn?  You procrastinate, are quick to give up (doubting your ability to succeed if you continue), and are paralyzed in your ability to make a decision.  Your life remains at a standstill.   Self-doubt is often grounded in fear.  It is ironic that not only do you fear failure; you also fear the opposite, success and your own greatness.  Who is not moved by Marianne Williamson's words: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually who are you not to be?"   You fear your light so your self-doubt keeps you in your darkness. That's your safe place.  You don't easily take risks, you go with the status-quo, and you're slow to share your talents and skills with others (are they really talents?).  The end result - you do not become all that you can be.    Furthermore, those critical voices you listen to magnify your self-doubt and keep you in that darkness.  You're not good enough, you don't have what it takes, and nothing ever works out for you, so why bother?  Silence those voices by choosing to replace them with empowering ones.  Start with your conscious mind.  "The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled," said Andrew Carnegie.  Your thoughts count!! Reread Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill for a refresher in banishing self-doubt.   Think about it.  How costly is your self-doubt?  Don't let it rob you of the happiness and success you deserve in life.     "Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt."             William Shakespeare   "There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt.  Doubt separates people.  It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations.  It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills."             Buddha   "Don't waste life in doubt and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it."             Ralph Waldo Emerson   "The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt."             Rollo May     There is no doubt that self-doubt is costly.  I've seen it in my own life and in the lives of others.  When my self-doubt spirals out of control, it's just a matter of time before I find myself on that slippery downward negative path.  That is not a place where I want to be. The only way to stop the fall is to regain the command I have over my thoughts.  It can be done.  You can do it too!   Imagine how your life would be different if you were able to banish your self-doubt for good!   Have a fantastic week and out your self-doubt.   Stephanie     We grow by "word-of-email" so please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone whom you think might benefit from and enjoy it. Thanks so much! Contact Us: stephanie@7steps2abalancedlife.com