What to Say to Yourself When Self-Doubt Strikes

It makes sense to experience uncertainty in some situations. If you have never attempted to do something, self-doubt is part of your survival instinct. Your ego wants to protect you from becoming physically injured and emotionally hurt, so it might try to convince you to sit on the sidelines rather than take action.

Sometimes, self-doubt results from a negative belief or an inner dialogue holding you back. It's questioning your ability when you are capable of making something good happen. At those doubtful times, you need to know how to talk to yourself to move past uncertainty and toward action.

Some of the highest achievers regularly doubt themselves. They suffer from impostor syndrome, wondering when they will be discovered for the frauds they believe they are. How do they move past those thoughts and make positive things happen?

Here are three things successful people say to themselves to conquer doubt and uncertainty and make things happen.

1.    "Fear Won't Keep Me From Living With Purpose"

What are your values? What beliefs give you purpose and meaning? What ideals do you hold above all others? You can silence your doubtful inner critic when you remind yourself of your values and live according to them, rather than letting limiting beliefs keep you from taking action.

2.    "Self-Doubt Is An Opinion, Not A Fact"

According to the Laboratory of Neuroimaging at the University of Southern California, you have around 48 thoughts per minute. Crunch the numbers, and you will see that this comes to between 65,000 and 70,000 thoughts per day.

(Some estimates have that number at around 6,000 daily, but that is still a lot of thinking!)

While all experts don't agree on the actual number of daily thoughts, they agree on two aspects of subconscious and conscious thinking. It is estimated that as many as 98% of your thoughts are repetitive, and most are negative.

Remind yourself that self-doubt is a negative, recurring thought that is common. Since you can consciously decide what you want to believe, see yourself as capable instead of incapable.

Self-doubt is just a thought; it is not a fact. You can write your script through the internal dialogue you speak to yourself, so decide that you can make great things happen.

3.    "I Have Conquered Doubt Before And I Can Do It Again"

Revisiting the times you overcame challenges gives you faith that you can conquer self-doubt. Ask yourself if your uncertainty is based on fear or facts. Answer that question objectively. Then, reflect on the successes you have orchestrated when uncertainty and doubt threaten to keep you from acting.