Do You Doubt Yourself?
To view the article on Medium click here.
Doubt sinks into the mind like fungi infecting a fruit from the inside out, creating confusion in an individual that is impossible to shake in the moment. Call it the agent of internal chaos. The outlook feeds off negative energy, working its way through your thoughts slowly, deliberately, clouding the sight necessary to make future decisions. The perfect petri dish for doubt is our mind, our thoughts the flawless hotbed for its poison. It’s a slippery slope when you give in.
“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.” — Marianne Williamson
In essence, we are afraid of ourselves. What we could be. Who we can be.
To overcome doubt, when left untouched for extended periods, is the real challenge. When it sinks so far into your mind that you begin to believe your subconscious, your gut feeling, that’s what I struggle with. Every action I take, every move I make is filled with a subtext of doubt. It’s more frustrating than anything, the lack of belief in myself. To not start, based on the assumption that we are not good enough, can drive even the sharpest minds to insanity.
As humans, we perceive doubt as negative, a manifestation of the mind per se, it’s a state of indecision, not indecision itself. Doubt is decisive. It’s a necessary state, to have doubt is to remain inquisitive. To question everything exhibits active intelligence — a vital skill to maintain throughout life. Indecision isn’t, it splits one into fragments and fragmentation leads to confusion and conflict, despair and disintegration. We have to be confident of who we are and the risks we are willing to undertake. At a fundamental level, we take a moment to recognise the trust in ourselves.
“Doubt, fully, but never remain indecisive. For the latter will lead to insanity.”
You can never be 100% certain of an action taken; there’s always the element of risk in everything. A part of us that thinks better of what we’re about to do or have done. In reality, it’s an adventure; the secret to a good life has to be in the ability to take calculated risks. Who wants to live in boredom, continuously executing the easy option. Where’s the growth, the fun. To use doubt to your advantage is to accept that you have a clear opportunity to reassess the situation. To take the time to understand the risks of your endeavour, remove your naivety. Choose to stop or pivot but do not go softly into that goodnight. Rage, observe the courage, not bravery, in yourself.
“Have faith in yourself, embrace doubt through curiosity.”