Fighting Self Doubt
Posted on March 30, 2012 by Denise LaFrance , One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Experiencing self-doubt is common. Instead of turning away from fear, question it and build confidence.
I have a little Denise on my shoulder. She’s frowning and shaking her head from side to side. “You’re going to make a fool of yourself, I’m telling you – don’t even try it.”, she says. Sound familiar? Fighting the urge to take the easy way out is hard. The easiest thing to do would be to agree with my doubting Denise and go back into my comfort zone as quickly as possible. But I’ve learned something that makes me reconsider the easy route. I’ve learned that if something makes me really uncomfortable, I’m usually on the verge of personal growth. And if I stop and consider whether my fear is justified, 8 out of 10 times it’s not. For example, If I’m uncomfortable getting into an elevator at night alone with a big guy who won’t make eye contact, I will say that fear is justified. No one has ever told me that I can’t express myself well. Yet why do I believe that if I stand in front of a group of people, I am going to stammer and sound like a ninny. Is that fear justified? No, it’s not. So I’ve started putting myself in situations where I am building my confidence. Every time I have the opportunity to stand up, introduce myself and talk about my coaching business I am doing it. Are my palms sweating…that would be a YES, but with each stretch of my growth muscle, I get a closer to shaking off doubting Denise.
So… what is something that you’d like to do, and when you start feeling uncomfortable, you turn away without further question? When your negativity starts yapping – do you accept it as the truth or do you question whether it’s based in reality. The first step to stretching past your negative thoughts is to be aware that you’re doing it.
“If you hear a voice within you saying that you are not a painter, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” ~ Vincent Van Gogh
