Do you want to know how to overcome self-doubt and insecurity?
Perhaps you want to be more confident in yourself and your abilities?
Do you often feel insecure and you’re looking for ways to deal with your insecurities so you can become a better person overall?
As a business owner, entrepreneur, or just a regular individual do you find it difficult to trust yourself and other people around you?
Are you a business owner, employee, CEO, or just a regular individual tired of struggling with self-doubt and insecurity?
Self-doubt and insecurity can ruin your life as well as your relationship with the people around you.
There are ways you can overcome your feeling of self-doubt and insecurity.
This is what this blog post is all about.
Read on to discover more.
How To Overcome Self-Doubt And Insecurity
As said earlier on there are effective steps to take to overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
However, before we consider what these steps are, let’s discuss what self-doubt and insecurity are all about.
What is self-doubt?
One is said to have self-doubt if you always second-guess your self and your actions.
Dicitionary.com defines self-doubt as a lack of confidence in the reliability of one’s motives, personality, thoughts, etc.
What does it mean to be insecure?
Insecurity can be defined as a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about one’s self and abilities.
It also means a feeling of lack of confidence in one’s self.
Overall, self-doubt and insecurity are all part of human experience.
We all experience self-doubt and insecurities about so many things and in different areas of our lives.
It’s ok to feel self-doubt and insecurity about certain decisions that we make and our abilities.
These feelings help you strive to be the best at whatever you do and avoid complacency.
More so, a certain level of self-doubt is necessary to help you acknowledge the fact that no one knows it all and that there’s always room for learning and improvement.
In other words, this little amount of self-doubt is the thin line between self-confidence and arrogancy.
Hence, self-doubt can be healthy when it makes you humble and helps you relate better with the people around you.
However, self-doubt and insecurity become unhealthy when it stops you from taking action towards your goals and other things that are important to you.
This leads us to another important point to consider.
Signs Of Self-Doubt And Insecurity
How to know that you’re struggling with self-doubt and insecurity?
There are certain traits or behavior patterns that show that a person has a feeling of self-doubt and insecurity.
You are struggling with self-doubt if you;
- Can’t speak up to people
- Find it difficult to prioritize your needs and wants
- Are always indecisive
- Compare yourself with other people
- Think negatively about yourself
- Feel self-guilt all the time
- You feel you don’t deserve the good things in life
- Are afraid of what people will say
- Are unwilling to take up new and challenging projects.
- Struggle low self-esteem
- Find it difficult to make decisions
- Easily swayed by other people’s opinion
If you struggle with insecurity here are some of the traits you’ll show;
- Pulling others down would make you feel good about yourself
- Always thinking negative about people around you
- You’ll be very domineering
- Tell lies about yourself to seem cool
- Always talking about yourself and your accomplishments to make people feel bad about themselves
- You feel like people owe you and should be loyal to you after doing them a favor
- Criticize other people but see yourself as a perfect person
- You don’t trust people around you.
Now you know most of the tell-tale signs of self-doubt and insecurity, what are the factors that cause self-doubt?
Why Do People Experience Self-doubt And Insecurity
There are so many things that could be responsible for the feeling of self-doubt and insecurity and they include;
- Traumatic life events or occurrences (such as divorce, sexual abuse among others)
- Bad childhood experiences (such as bullying, unsupportive parents, etc)
- Fear (mostly of failure and rejection)
- A negative belief about oneself
- Low financial and social status among others
- Comparison with others
- Past mistakes/failures
- Poor educational background/lack of skills
- Lack of achievements
We’ve discussed what self-doubt and insecurity are all about, the signs of self-doubt and insecurity, and the factors responsible.
In addition, it’s also important to consider why Is self-doubt and insecurity bad.
Dangers Of Self-Doubt And Insecurity
As said earlier on self-doubt and insecurity can keep you stuck and ruin your relationship with people around you.
Here are some of the dangers of self-doubt and insecurity so you can be inspired to work hard to overcome your self-doubt and insecurity.
Self-doubt and insecurity is bad for you because of the following reasons.
- Self-doubt and insecurity prevent you from living life to your fullest potential.
- It could also lead to mental illness such as depression, narcissism (excessive interest in one’s self) among others.
- Self-doubt and insecurity make it difficult for you to create lasting relationships.
- Self-doubt and insecurity keep you stuck and stop you from achieving your goals in business and life generally.
Now you’re aware of how self-doubt and insecurity affect you, let’s discover you can overcome it.
Techniques On How To Overcome Self-doubt And Insecurity
Self-doubt is usually characterized by that tiny voice in your head that reminds you of your incapabilities each time you’re about to take a major step in your life.
More so, insecurity makes you compare yourself to other people and leave you feeling inadequate when you realize that you don’t match up to their standards.
All these can ruin your confidence and stop you from achieving your goals either in business or life generally.
Here are some ways you can overcome self-doubt and insecurity, change the way you feel about yourself, and be a better person overall.
Acknowledge How Self-doubt and Insecurity Is Ruining Your life And Decide You Want To Change
The first thing you need to do to overcome self-doubt and insecurity is to acknowledge the fact that you have a problem.
Afterward, you’ll have to decide whether you want to change or remain the same.
For any change you want to make in your life to be effective, it needs to come from within you.
Just as it is with changing a bad habit, you need to recognize how self-doubt and insecurity is harming you and decide you want to stop it.
By deciding you want you to change and become a better person, you’ll be motivated to take action to change.
Thereby, helping you overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Practice Positive Self-Talk
Another thing you could do to help you overcome self-doubt and insecurity is to develop the habit of practicing positive self-talk.
How can you overcome that negative voice in your head that keeps telling you that you’re not good enough, you can never achieve that goal, etc?
You can do this through positive self-talk.
Self-talk is the process of engaging in personal internal dialogue.
So, instead of allowing negative thoughts fill your head thereby giving rise to self-doubt, counter those negative thoughts with positive self-talk.
Make it a habit to tell yourself more positive words every day or each time you sense the feeling of self-doubt arising within you.
Consequently, you’ll begin to feel more confident in yourself and your abilities.
Thus, helping you overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Practice Self-Awareness And Self-Love
This is another important step to take to overcome your feeling of self-doubt and insecurity.
Self-doubt and insecurity spring up from a feeling of inadequacy and incompetency.
However, when you learn to love yourself for who you are and accept the things that you cannot change about yourself, you’ll become a more confident and happier person overall.
This does not mean that you should become complacent and refuse to improve on yourself.
It also doesn’t mean that you should be selfish and be a narcissist (having an excessive interest in one’s self or physical appearance).
It just means that you should identify your strengths and thrive on them rather than allow your weaknesses to rule your life and make you feel unsure and insecure about yourself.
Take a self-assessment, ask questions that would help you identify the root cause of your self-doubt and insecurities.
Is it your lack of skills, lack of education, your financial status among other things?
Make a conscious effort to resolve the issues giving rise to your self-doubt.
More so, if the cause of self-doubt and insecurity is something beyond your control (such as a disability you possess among other things), learn to accept yourself for who you are.
Simply put, learn to improve those things you can change and accept the thing you can’t.
This would help you feel good about yourself and happy with your life.
Hence, helping you to overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Stop Comparing Yourself To Other People
This kills your confidence and gives rise to a feeling of insecurity.
Hene, if you want to overcome self-doubt and insecurity avoid comparing your self to other people.
Comparing yourself to other people would only make you think that other people are better than you.
Comparing your achievements to that of other people would also give rise to the feeling of inadequacy.
More so, it would also make you feel the need to measure up which is the greatest form of insecurity.
It’s okay to admire the success of other people and see it as a challenge to do better for yourself.
However, you shouldn’t let the success of the people around you make you inadequate and insecure.
People are unique and different in their own ways.
More so, things work for people differently.
Hence, instead of comparing yourself with people, learn to love yourself, and stick to what works for you whilst trying to grow and become better at what you do.
This way you can focus more on becoming a better person and achieving your goals instead of comparing yourself to other people.
Shift Your Focus From Past Failures
Having made so many mistakes in the past that led to failure, you might begin to doubt your abilities to succeed at anything again.
If you focus so much on the mistakes of the past and the failures you’ve encountered you’ll feel negative about yourself.
Thus, giving rise to self-doubt and uncertainty.
Hence, to overcome self-doubt and insecurity, rather than focus on past failures, focus on past successes.
What have you done well in the past?
How many milestones have you accomplished in the past in your business?
Each time you’re faced with difficult tasks or challenging situations, reflect on the tough challenges you’ve successfully overcome in the past.
This would help you believe in yourself and in your ability to see to overcome the tough situation you’re experiencing.
Thus, giving you confidence and helping you overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Take Action And Face Your Fears
As stated earlier on, one of the causes of self-doubt and insecurity is fear.
This could be the fear of failure, making mistakes, rejection, disappointment among others.
Furthermore, due to your fears, you make up excuses for not being able to do the things you ought to do.
You look for reasons why your plans won’t work.
Furthermore, you begin to build up negative thoughts in your head to protect yourself from your fears.
Due to this, self-doubt and insecurity begin to creep in.
To overcome self-doubt and insecurity, you’ll need to learn to confront your fears.
Are you afraid to start a business because you doubt that you’ll succeed in it?
Do you doubt your abilities to handle a project at work because you’re afraid of being ridiculed?
What are those things you are afraid to venture into because you doubt your abilities and you’re scared of failing?
Rather than allow fear keep you stuck, resolve to act on your fears.
For example, if your lack of skills or expertise is stopping you from taking that promotion in your workplace; acquire the necessary skills and go for it.
You doubt your ability to start and run a successful business; get the required knowledge, make your plans, and start.
By confronting your fears and succeeding at it, you’ll discover your ability to succeed in things you thought were impossible to achieve.
This will give you more self-confidence and the courage you need to take on more challenges.
Hence, helping you to overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Be Optimistic
Another way to overcome self-doubt and insecurity is to be optimistic.
Being optimistic means thinking positively (having a positive mindset).
Pessimism (negative thinking) and self-doubt go hand in hand.
Hence, to overcome self-doubt and insecurity, learn to be optimistic.
Optimism involves countering negative thoughts with positive words.
It also involves seeing the positive side of any negative situation.
Optimism makes you see your mistakes as a learning process and an opportunity to improve on yourself.
With this mindset, rather than doubting your abilities, you’ll be able to take on challenges confidently with the aim of learning from your mistakes.
Thus helping you overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Ask For Help
Having tried everything possible to overcome self-doubt and insecurity but nothing seems to be working, you’ll need to seek help.
You could seek help from people around you such as mentors, positive friends, family members, or partners.
Furthermore, you could have a support group of positive-minded people where you all can talk about your fears and encourage each other to be more confident.
More so, you all could engage in confidence-building exercises such as meditation and self-affirmation among others.
You could also seek professional help from a certified life-coach and counselor for therapies that could help you deal with self-doubt and insecurity.
Thus helping you overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
Wrapping Up
That’s it on how to overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
When it comes to dealing with self-doubt and insecurity, you should know that you’re not alone.
Even successful people struggle with self-doubt and insecurity.
However, they try to overcome self-doubt and do the needful to achieve their goals rather than allow self-doubt to stop them from taking action.
You too can learn to overcome self-doubt and insecurity by putting these tips into action.
Remember, consistency, and commitment are key to achieving any goal.
Overcoming self-doubt and insecurity is not a one-time thing.
As you progress in business and life generally, you’ll encounter challenges that would give rise to self-doubt and insecurity.
When you find yourself falling back into self-doubt and insecurity apply these tips to gain your confidence back.
Hence, be committed to putting these tips to use, so you can overcome self-doubt and insecurity and become a better person overall.
By learning to overcome self-doubt and insecurity, you’ll feel more confident to work on your goals.
More so, you’ll be able to take on new challenges.
Thereby, helping you improve on yourself and helping you live up to your full potential.
Even more, by learning to overcome your insecurities, you’ll be happier with your life and your accomplishments.
Thus, helping you become a better person overall.
Do you deal with self-doubt and insecurity as a business owner, entrepreneur, employee, student, or just a regular individual?
Take action now and use these tips now to overcome self-doubt and insecurity.
In what area of your life has self-doubt and insecurity affected you the most?
Please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
We would love to hear from you.
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