She was only a few days into her teenage when she came face to the fate that gave her a head start. Her heart beat callously against her ribs, as she paced to and fro, filling the atmosphere with her nervousness. A roller-coaster ride of doubts clouded her ability to focus on winning the 100 metres race. She worried less about the 3rd, 6th and 7th athletes but couldn’t get the fear of losing to the 1st and 5th athletes off her mind.
Two minutes after the race, with face fire-red with pain, she realized she could have performed better if only she had focused on herself and her ability to win.
People often go about their daily affairs with less effort in focusing on their abilities and attitudes to their success. The young girl had the potential to win the race but lacked the right belief system. She focused on the things she couldn’t change and unconsciously tucked away what she needed, to win.
When you pay more attention to your inability to be potent at a task, it drains your mental capacity at that task, which affects every form of your approach towards that task. This is the reality of self-doubt. It makes your potentials looks inefficient.
Let’s look at a few causes of self-doubt.
Anxiety.
Most times, being too anxious can make one, doubt his abilities.
Poor Preparation
When you fail to equip yourself for a task, even if you have the potential to be the best at it, that potential will be limited; it will fail to operate at its full capacity. Hence, you will doubt your efficiency.
Comparison
When you compare your potential to others, you will likely find yourself disregarding your abilities and doubting the uniqueness and effectiveness of your potential. This is exactly what affected the young athlete. It succeeded in making her belittle herself.
Limiting Mindset
When your belief system is unhealthy for growth, you will not birth healthy, winning and growth-enriching attitudes that will help maximize your potential. This stems from what you feed your mind more with because your mind works on the principle of repetition. Hence, the more you give it a diet of negativity, the more you get processed and unhealthy.
Self-doubt is a parasite that lurks around minds and destroys the potential to win, succeed and grow. Hence, if you desire to overcome it, you have to learn the habit of affirming the right and “doubt-defying” statements. Also, you will have to learn to focus on things you can change rather than things you can’t; your mindset on knowledge, growth, diligence, and winning or success at tasks can be changed. Hence, focus on it and see yourself maximizing your efficacies.
Here are some doubt-defying affirmations you can use.
Well said. Thanks for the good work dear. More grace to your elbow.