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Low Self-Esteem
Are You Confusing Self Doubt With Self Esteem?
Are You Confusing Self Doubt With Self Esteem?
You may know for sure that you have the knowledge and experience to succeed, but there still may be nagging doubts that you can’t or won’t succeed online. These doubts can be confused with low self esteem, but they’re very different in how they factor in to results and are a sign of a lack of self confidence.
When you have high self esteem, you feel good about yourself. You may be physically fit, very intelligent or are known for being a hard worker who gets the job done. Self doubt may creep in when you’re faced with something new or different such as an online marketing business.
Even those who have been in the business long enough to have gathered a reputation of success can have doubts about their abilities to bring their businesses to the next level of success.
There’s always something new to learn and you must be ready and willing to put the time and effort behind your ideas. Self esteem comes from positive self-talk that brands you as a person you can believe in to achieve the outcome you want. This results in confidence and self respect.
Self doubt can crush all of that by focusing on past failures, comparing yourself to other marketers and giving in to fear, and this can have a knock-on effect by making you feel low self worth; talk about a double whammy! One way to fight self doubt and let your self esteem take over is to take action.
That’s the only way you’ll ever gain the experience you need to reach the business goals you’ve set for yourself. You’ll gain confidence as you progress through the smaller goals to reach the larger ones, and this will boost your self esteem and push the lack of confidence and self doubt into the background.
Self esteem is knowing your capabilities and self doubt only sets up obstacles for you to overcome to reach your goals. A little bit of both (self doubt and self esteem) is natural and can be good for you if viewed in the right way.
Your self esteem can push aside self doubt when it threatens to paralyze you and ruin your plans for the future. After all, you’ve succeeded with many things in the past and can do it again.
Reach back into your mind and remember the successes you’ve had in the past. If you’re new to Internet marketing, you may have to remember successes in other areas of your life, but as you overcome the self doubts associated with marketing, you’ll be able to feel good about yourself in that area, too.
Your self esteem will carry you far in life. The self doubt you may feel when starting a new business can be put to rest by taking action and gaining valuable experience that silences any questions about what you’re capable of.
Check In With Yourself To Destroy Self Doubt
Self doubt can creep into your psyche without you even suspecting it’s there until the first niggling thought makes itself clear. You must be aware of your thoughts and how you’re always reacting to weed them out before they grow and take over your creativity and destroy your goals.
Doubts can run wild in your mind, making you question your abilities about anything new or different. If you’re prepared, you can recognize the doubts for the lies they are and let your knowledge and common sense get you through.
When you check in to reality you’ll realize that the negative thoughts are occurring for various reasons. For example, you could be lost in comparing yourself with others in marketing.
It may make you feel inadequate and doubt your ability to succeed. Make a firm decision and stick to it. When self doubt about what you’re trying to accomplish creeps into your thoughts, decide to either carry through with your goal or trash it and go on with something else you’re more certain of.
If you do decide to go on to something else, don’t think of it as a failure. It was a learning experience that taught you a lesson and you aren’t wasting any more time on it. If you decide to go through with the plan, take action immediately.
Making a fast decision may seem impulsive, but most likely the decision is based on intuition and the knowledge that you’ve prepared enough for the journey ahead. You can always fine tune your plan as you progress.
At least you’re taking action toward your goals. Replace negative self doubt with positive thoughts. Choose any method that works for you. Meditation, journaling, affirmations, listening to music or reading a good book or simply chatting with positive-minded friends may give you the boost you need to move on.
All of us find ourselves dealing with self doubt at some point in our lives. If you let it get the best of you by feeding into it and believing the lies you’re telling yourself, it can destroy even the best of intentions for success.
Learn to recognize and weed out the crippling, negative thoughts and get on with achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself. Begin the learning process by becoming aware of your thoughts – check in with them a few times a day. You’ll soon be able to discern the “keeper” thoughts from the “discard” pile.
Give Yourself Credit For Your Accomplishments
Being humble has always been a hallmark for kindness and esteem. But you can be humble while still giving yourself credit for your accomplishments. When you’re proud about what you’ve done, the building blocks of self esteem become tighter and tighter and eventually, you learn to trust yourself and your decisions.
As an online entrepreneur, patting yourself on the back is a required trait. Every success that’s passed on to others will make them sit up and notice you – and respect you for your hard work.
If you can’t toot your own horn, it’s going to be difficult for others to know what you’ve accomplished – especially in an online environment. And don’t simply give yourself credit for professional achievements – personal achievements are important, too.
You may have lost weight over a period of time or achieved another personal goal that you’re proud of. Those are triumphs that are brag-worthy. While you don’t have to talk about yourself and your achievements until people are bored, it’s okay to use it as a way to motivate others – and yourself.
Rewards are an important part of building self esteem and collecting the building blocks necessary for success. When you do achieve a long-sought after goal, reward yourself with something you can look forward to on your journey.
Even a day off spent with family or getting something for yourself that you’ve always wanted can be perfect. When you reward yourself, you’re reinforcing your self esteem building and making it easier to move on to the next project.
Online entrepreneurs seem to have a problem with defining themselves as worthy and successful. Instead, they think about failures rather than successes and avoid telling their fellow marketers and lists that they’re proud of what they’ve done.
When you praise yourself and what you’ve accomplished to other online marketers and customers, they’re likely to begin conversations and want to know how you did it – and be genuinely proud of your triumph.
Giving yourself credit for accomplishments can open a whole new world of feeling good about yourself. And when you feel good about yourself, the world becomes your oyster, and you can make your dreams and goals come true because you aren’t telling yourself that you can’t.
Gandhi once admonished people to, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” When you change for the better or have little or big successes that you’re proud of, let the world know. You could become an inspiration for others!
Self esteem and self doubt affect the way you think and if you are living with doubt you need to start to think differently. If you want to know more about developing a positive success mindset, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂
Low Self-Esteem? 6 Tips To Overcome Self-Doubt
Did you know that a whopping 85 percent of people have low self-esteem? This issue affects their personal and professional lives, including their careers, their health, and their salaries. In other words, self-doubt and low self-esteem can keep you from reaching your peak potential.
These personality traits appear to be more common among women. They develop in childhood and either exacerbate or diminish with time.
Is this because of the demands of women to always look a certain way and if they don’t they are not considered the norm? Possibly, but in this modern world of 24/7 connectivity and social media, the pressures on men are also increasing so there may well be an explosion of self-esteem issues among men as well. And, I think we are beginning to see evidence of this already.
If self-doubt plagues you, whether male or female, check out these simple tips to boost your confidence and trust yourself more:
1. Accept Yourself
Self-doubt is part of being human. Embrace it and turn it into a strength. When used correctly, this personality trait can help you make better decisions, instead of rushing things. Think of it as a tool that guides your actions and keeps you from making costly mistakes.
Just make sure you don’t overuse it though because self-doubt can also make you question your sanity and decision-making abilities.
By accepting yourself and who you are, you can really help yourself to overcome low self-esteem and build confidence.
2. Know You’re Not Alone
Even the most successful people have doubts. They often question their actions and wonder what the right thing to do is.
Focus on building your confidence and self-esteem. You might never get rid of doubts, but you can stop them from taking over your life.
Talk to others about how you are feeling, especially those who want to lift you up. I know this may be difficult for the men out there, but it really does help. It isn’t manly or macho to suffer in silence.
Stay away from negative people because they will always try to bring you down and this can have devastating effects on your feeling of self-worth. This can be very difficult if these are close friends or, even worse, family, but it must be done for your own benefit.
3. Get the Facts
Your doubts don’t necessarily reflect the truth. Most times, they mirror your fears and emotional struggles. Think about your achievements and how hard you worked to get where you are today. Be proud of yourself and admire your capabilities.
Whenever you’re in doubt, get the facts straight. Research the problem in question, weigh the pros and cons and ask for a second opinion.
We live in a world where image is everything and the truth can easily become obscured, so take your time to look at the evidence and this will often give you some clarity and peace of mind and can banish self-doubt instantly.
4. Acknowledge Your Strengths
Make a list of things you excel in. Write down your skills and accomplishments. Accept praise from others gracefully and acknowledge your talent.
Celebrate your strengths every single day. Make positive affirmations and remind yourself how much you’ve done so far. Stop thinking of what you could have done better.
This is not the same as being boastful although some people may misinterpret it as such but there is real strength in realising that you have achieved many things in your life and you should be proud of that.
5. Choose Your Friends Wisely
Negative people can drag you down and ruin your self-esteem. Nothing will ever be good enough for them. That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people who support you and listen to you instead of judging.
This is closely linked to tip number 2 above where you were advised to remove toxic and negative people from your life, and if that is impossible (perhaps they are family members), to at least remove them from your immediate sphere of influence.
6. Define Your Values
Lastly, define your values and the values you live by daily. Once you establish those, you will have a more realistic perspective of the current situation. Focus on the things that drive your actions and are at the core of your beliefs.
Overcoming self-doubt is a lifelong process. Stop questioning your own decisions. Don’t waste time overanalyzing – trust your actions and put your plans in motion.
OK, so there are 6 ways that you can boost your self-esteem. Put them into action and see what difference they can make to your life.