How To Overcome Self-Doubt

How To Overcome Self-Doubt

We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. Carlos Castaneda

 

 

There are periods when there aren’t lightening bolts of inspiration that strike. Instead, our life can feel like the same-old, stagnant and mundane.

 

 

Our attention wanes, or we lose interest in what we were once doing, or get bored. It’s hard to snap out of it.

 

 

But boredom is often just resistance, another clue we are ready to change.

 

 

When we’re bored, we’re afraid…of something. We’re playing it safe. Tiptoeing around what we really want.

 

 

Usually, it’s something just underneath the surface that’s being covered up. We’ve lost contact with our feelings and we stop because of self-doubt. Somewhere our subconscious starts delivering self-defeating messages. They may be faint. They may be loud.

 

 

The trick is to become aware of the specific negative message that your inner-judge is telling you.

 

 

Is your inner-judge convincing you:

 

 I’m no good at this?

I can’t handle it?

I’m not sure what I’m doing (and that’s scary)?

It’s harder than I thought it would be?

Other people are better at this than I am?

It doesn’t matter in the bigger scheme of things?

No one understands why this is important to me?

I’m wasting my time, regardless?

 

 

What happens all too often is that we hear self-doubting thoughts and we believe them. We take them too seriously. We treat them as fact. We aren’t aware of what we’re covering up. We stop or we quit on ourselves.

 

 

There’s a difference between stopping and quitting. If we stop the flow of our creative energy, we can choose to become aware of the judgment that’s blocking us and return to what we’re doing.

 

 

If we quit completely, we become paralyzed because we haven’t tuned in to what our inner-judge is convincing us.

 

 

Whether you stop or quit, know this: Something inside of you wants you to step up to a whole new level because creativity is meant to overcome self-doubt to build a greater sense of self.

 

 

While the Buddha was meditating, he became aware of a voice calling to him. He named this voice Mara, and the voice took on a personification. Whenever Mara appeared, the Buddha would look Mara in the eye and say, I see you Mara. As soon as Mara was seen, he vanished.

 

 

Even on the Buddha’s deathbed, Mara came to tell him how great he was, how much he did for the world, how enlightened he had become, and how much help he had offered. The Buddha looked at Mara, said, I see you and returned to the focus of his meditation.

 

 

Even accolades are a distraction that can stop you from completing your creative journey.

 

 

Questions to ask:

 

 

Can I return to what I started that for whatever reason I’ve stopped?

 

 

Can I become aware of what your inner-judge might be saying and then simply say back to it, “I see you” and continue?

 

 

What if I wasn’t attached to outcomes and results?

 

 

The inner-judge is always searching for definitive results. It wants assurance of where we’re going so it makes it difficult to continue.

 

 

But when we stay awake and aware, we remain open to surprises. We go somewhere new, somewhere we haven’t been before.

 

 

We can’t do that unless we give in to moving forward. The only way to be awakened is to remain connected. That’s when the thunderbolts of inspiration come.

 

 

Wishing you freedom from your inner-judge!