5 POWERFUL TOOLS TO ELIMINATE YOUR SELF-DOUBTS AND INSECURITIES
My self-doubts: writing and speaking
For many years, I flew airplanes. I was very good at it and became one of the top instructors in my country. During that time, I didn’t need to be good at writing or speaking. Those were not the skills required to be a good pilot. When I retired from my flying career, I wanted to mentor, teach, and coach people. I wanted to share what I have learned throughout these years. I knew I could serve and help people to have a better life.
But I had self-doubts and insecurities that were holding me back. I was dyslexic and couldn’t write or speak well. If I wanted to be a coach and be in the arena of the best, world-class coaches, I needed to master those two skills. On top of that, I was launching a new career based on the third language I have learned; English. So, for many years, I held back and didn’t make a move. I didn’t write much on social media, I didn’t step up in the community and I was afraid to start my own business. My self-doubt and insecurity pushed me to isolate myself. Then, one day, I realized I didn’t want to live like this. I decided to go full in and work on getting those skills to build my new career. Today, I will share with you 5 tools that really helped me to move forward and create the life I wanted.
1. Awareness of your thoughts
Meditation became the catalyst for being aware of my thoughts. The way I do that is to sit, meditate, and take small breaks during the day where I close my eyes and observe my thoughts, without judging or criticizing them. I let them flow through my mind. If you do this simple exercise, you will discover that you are not your thoughts, you are the observer of them. When you accept that you are not your thoughts, you can redirect your mind toward more positive and supportive thoughts. Personally, I accepted my dyslexia and switched my thoughts to writing newsletters, posts, and speaking in public.
2. Find the source and the triggers
Identify what is the source of your self-doubt or insecurity. Is it something from the past? Is it a situation, something you see or hear that triggers them? Knowing and understanding the source will help you let it go. For me, the source was the years in elementary and high school when I had an F on every writing test. People mocked me. In the 5th and 6th grade, the teacher often lost patience and hit me many times. I was afraid to go to school. Nowadays, the triggers for me are seating in front of my keyboard or speaking publicly. When I separate the source from the trigger, I overcome my self-doubt and can now write and speak! I have joined a group where I can practice both skills and get better at them.
3. You don’t need approval from others
In our society, we are so concerned about the opinion of others; we focus so much on their approval; we look at the “likes”, the “comments”, the “share” on social media. We think that whatever we do needs to satisfy and please everyone. Guess what; it is just your ego that wants that. So let it go. Do what makes you happy. For me, it was just letting go of the critics. Something I realized is that the ones who criticize me are often the ones who don’t do much in life, don’t take any risk, and don’t try to grow as a human being. Just look around you and observe who are the negative ones and what their life looks like; how many new challenges and fun experiences do they have! Now, look at your ambitious dreams.
4. Don’t seek perfection
I come from a country that builds the most precise and expensive watches in the world. In Switzerland, our culture is to focus on perfection. During my career, I have seen so many time projects that either never started or ended because of the “perfection” mindset. So, get over it. Jump in the water! Just do it. You will get better with time. You will gain more experience and be more confident. I make many spelling mistakes… So what! I am writing every single day hoping to serve and help people. Every day I am getting better. You don’t need to be perfect, you need to start and get out there. Perfection comes later.
5. Failure is part of the journey, be resilient
Do you think that the most successful people in the world always reached their status after the first try? No. Many of them experienced failed attempts before they succeeded. Consider every failure as a lesson learned, as an opportunity to be better at your craft. If you stay resilient, you will find the path to success, whatever success means for you. Every day of the year I write either a blog, social media content, a newsletter, or simply an email to a friend. Some of them are not so great and don’t bring the result I expected. So be it. I will get better with time.
Final words
One last thing I want to add. If your self-doubts or insecurities are an obstacle in your life, seek some help. Ask a professional; a therapist, psychologist, counselor, or even a good friend. There is no shame in it. We go to the doctor when we have physical pain, right? Mental health is as important as physical health. You don’t want to reach the end of your life and have regrets because you didn’t take bold actions or you didn’t break through your self-doubts and insecurities. Live your life fully and create amazing experiences. Break free from your self-doubts and insecurities.
YourHPcoach
Hubert
P.S.: Hey guys, Hubert here!
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