The Self-Doubt Hurdle

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Eureeka! Your brain is hit with inspiration.

All of a sudden, there’s a new pep to your step and the world looks like one big ocean of opportunity. Maybe you came up with a new idea or just a new philosophy on life and now you feel like there’s nothing that can stop you now!

And then…

Boom it hits.

The negative self-talk in the back of your head.

“Who do you think you are?” it says. “No one is going to listen to you or trust you or buy from you!”

You’re an imposter, trying to trick people into believing you’re something you’re not.

And in an instant that amazing feeling of inspiration is quickly zapped away.

So now what?

You might be wondering, why people have self-doubt to begin with? What purpose does it serve, other than ruining our dreams?

And the answer is, self-doubt played a huge role in our evolutionary biology. For example, back in caveman times, if you made a mistake, your brain wanted to make sure you knew never to make that mistake again, otherwise you could end up dead.

The problem is we don’t live in caveman times anymore, but our brains don’t seem to realize that. Therefore, the negative self-talk is on auto-pilot and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Or is there?

What if there was a way to make the self-doubt go away? Or what if there was a way to minimize the impact of the negativity in your brain and your life?

The good news is that there is a way to beat the negative self-talk.

The bad news is this isn’t going to be easy.

But here’s what you need to know.

The reason your brain says negative things to you is because its trying to protect you. And once you realize the reason behind the self-doubt is safety, then it becomes easier to know how to overcome this hurdle.

So here’s what you need to do first.

On a piece of paper, write down your great idea.

One of the big reasons the negative self-talk wins is because your idea isn’t concrete enough. Therefore, your brain is going to win the abstract game every single time, which is why you need to stop your brain from ruining your idea.

That is why you need to write things down on paper.

When you can see your idea on paper, it is no longer an abstract concept. It’s now real and that means your brain can’t just dismiss it so easily.

Create a pros and cons list.

Yes, your brain wants to protect you from you, which is why its giving you 20 things you need to worry about. But when you decide to flesh out your idea and you write down all the pros and cons, that tells your brain that you’ve already done all the worrying for it.

Negative self-talk lives in uncertainty.

Therefore, if you want to make your brain stop the self-doubt, you need to take away the uncertainty. And when you make your idea more well known and more certain, that’s when your mind has less to worry about and it will stop making you feel so anxious all the time.

Make a plan.

Your self-doubt is in hyperdrive because you don’t know what you’re going to do next. Therefore, the minute you create an action plan, your brain doesn’t know what to do with itself anymore.

“Oh, there’s a plan?”

Your brain wants to fight against you wasting time on abstract thoughts. And every little “idea” you have is nothing more than just an “idea.” That is why your brain wants you to second guess yourself and start focusing on more important thoughts.

But when you create an action plan, it is signaling to your brain.

This is important, so stop getting in my way.

The truth is your body only has so much energy and your brain is trying to manage your energy levels all day while you’re awake. So when you have a Eureeka moment! and have inspiration, it only feels good in the moment until your brain catches back up to you and says, “hey we need to focus on more important things!”

That’s why you need to create an action plan.

When you make a plan, it tells your brain, “I need more energy to make this plan work.”

And now, instead of your self-doubt working against you, your brain turns down the volume on the self-doubt and starts to turn up the heat on your other muscles.

The biggest problem with jumping the self-doubt hurdle is that its not a one time thing. The truth is you’re going to have to jump this hurdle many times over the course of your life and the biggest frustration most people feel is, “why do I have to deal with self-doubt all the time?”

The answer is, that’s just how human beings are hard wired.

Everyone deals with self-doubt. Its a universal human issue, therefore there’s nothing wrong with you when you think you’re an imposter. There’s nothing wrong with you when you beat yourself up.

The problem is not realizing there’s nothing wrong with you.

The fact is human beings have been dealing with self-doubt for a very long time, which is why teachers, professors, psychologists and self-help gurus have been talking about how to overcome it for centuries.

And this newsletter is just one more attempt at helping people overcome the negative self-talk loop going on inside your mind.

But here’s the good news.

It doesn’t matter where you seek help, as long as whatever you find helps you jump over this hurdle. Therefore, I sincerely hope this edition of the Jumping Hurdles newsletter helped you beat your self-doubt hurdle!

Whether it helped or not, I hope you feel like the self-doubt hurdle is important to talk about with other people, which is why I’m leaving a comment button below, so you can share with people about how your own self-doubt hurdle has prevented you from reaching your goals and dreams and how you overcame those hurdles.

Leave a comment

I haven’t been too personal in this newsletter before, but I think that was a mistake. And the only reason I never shared too much was because of my own self-doubt hurdle.

See, I started this newsletter back in 2021. Back then it had a different title. And within a month, 200 people had subscribed to it. That is amazing, given the fact that I’m not an expert in social media or 21st century technology.

Despite the early success, I then lost my way.

And because of that, I stopped publishing articles and podcast episodes.

Maybe you’re in the same position. The truth is the reason I wanted to start a substack newsletter was to help people overcome life obstacles. After all, I have spent the last 25 years of my professional life helping thousands of teachers, parents, and kids reach for their dreams.

And that’s what I want you to think about too!

What is your purpose? And does your new idea serve that purpose or not?

Because if the answer is yes, then don’t allow the self-doubt to stop you.

The simple fact is we all are going to run into hurdles in life. There’s no way to avoid them, but the difference is whether or not you’re going to allow them to stop you or not. And I allowed my self-doubt hurdle to stop me from publishing this newsletter.

So here’s the final take away.

Don’t let self-doubt to defeat you. Follow the three steps to beating self-doubt and jump over this hurdle. As you know, this won’t be the first or last time you have to deal with this issue, but the more you learn how to jump over self-doubt, the easier it gets in the long run.

I lost 20 subscribers because I stopped publishing this newsletter. I didn’t lose 20 people because they didn’t like this substack or they didn’t like me, the fact is when you stop pursuing your dreams - you turn off the lightbulb that’s leading your way.

And when there’s no lightbulb, people can’t follow you.

Hopefully that helps you see what you couldn’t see before.

Everyone has a purpose in life. Yes, you are here for a reason. Therefore, your job is to figure out why you’re here. How are you going to make the world a better place?

That is why I decided to dedicate 25 years of my life to education. I’m a former teacher, principal and superintendent and I spent my whole career trying to figure out how we can help kids find their true purpose in life.

Because once you know your purpose - everything else falls into place.

And the minute you know your purpose, the joy and fulfillment you feel is unmatched by anything else in the world. Think about it for a second. Do you know what you’re meant to do here? Do you know the impact you’re supposed to have on other people?

Because if you don’t, that’s why the self-doubt hurdle can seem bigger than it really is.

I lost my purpose, which is why I stopped publishing this newsletter. I forgot what I was meant to do, and so I allowed the self-doubt to stop me from pursuing my goals and dreams.

But not anymore.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Jumping Hurdles newsletter. And I hope you no longer feel alone in the world. This newsletter is here to help you and everyone you want to impact overcome the hurdles we all face in life.

Until next time, this is Doc saying “be well!”