“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
– J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Our lives are a reflection of our beliefs. Most of us know this, and yet, we cling on to old negative beliefs – even when they hold us back.
Discarding them and creating new beliefs seems to be a Herculean task.
Yet, if we stopped to think about it and ask ourselves, “Where did we get these beliefs from?” … we’d realize that most of them were ingrained in us by our parents, teachers and other ‘well-meaning and sensible’ adults when we were young.
In most cases, these self-limiting and defeatist beliefs will impede your progress when you decide to become an entrepreneur. You’ll be setting yourself up for failure from the get-go.
Let’s look at some of the most common beliefs that are injurious to your goals…
This is probably the biggest fallacy of the lot. This misconception creates a catch-22 situation. You want to get into business to improve your financial standing… but you need money to get into business – and that’s money you don’t currently have.
So you’re doomed.
But is this reasoning valid? Do you really need money to start?
In the same vein, nothing is stopping you from starting off small and climbing the ladder of business success. It’s resourcefulness and not resources that you need.
Do not count yourself out just because you lack the finances. Rest assured that enthusiasm, confidence, passion and hard work will help you find the resources you need, and you’ll be able to employ them to forward your business.
And when you do start to see some financial reward, don’t take it and spend it! During the early stages of your business it pays to put it back into the business, whether that be with outsourcing the stuff you don’t like or can’t do, or investing in tools that can move your business forward quickly.
The world loves a winner and tends to put them up on pedestals. The media gives them coverage. Books are written about them and so on.
Parents, teachers, etc. often tell us to model successful people and read biographies. The goal is to be like these larger-than-life people who define the epitome of success.
Millions of people dream of being the next Michael Jordan or the next Elon Musk. Or the next pop star… and so on.
And yet, if you asked Michael Jordan who he wanted to be, he’d most probably say that he wanted to be Michael Jordan.
They’re so focused on being the best they can be that they don’t have time to try and be like someone else.
Using a role model to inspire you is a start… but if you want to truly see success, you’ll need to lead rather than follow. You’ll need to put yourself in the limelight and be willing to be seen by the masses, rather than quietly skulking in the shadows.
You’ll get the accolades and recognition, but you’ll also get brickbats and hate. This is par for the course. Just remember, leaders lead. You must lead if you want massive success.
Now I know that many people reading this will not want to become leaders, but if you truly want to succeed at the highest level, you simply MUST step up and become a leader in your niche.
A lack of patience has sounded the death knell on more goals/dreams than any other cause.
The current society we live in encourages impatience.
Instant notifications, text messaging, microwaves, instant meals, entire 22-episode seasons of Netflix shows presented all at once, etc. have made us believe that anything can be had fast.
We want results and we want them now. Preferably yesterday.
Life, however, has quite a different set up. Any worthy goal will take you time to achieve. Usually, it will take you longer than you believe. SO, you must have patience, lots of patience!
Like Jeff Bezos said, “All overnight success takes about 10 years.”
You can’t shrink the journey to fit into a 90-minute Hollywood movie. There is no rousing soundtrack to inspire you. Success is an ugly, dirty fight where you’ll have to claw your way to the top.
It has ALWAYS been that way.
You may wonder, “Why is this happening to me? Why is it so hard?”
The truth is that it doesn’t just happen to you. It happens to every entrepreneur who wishes to level up. This is the turbulence you need to get past until you reach cruising altitude.
And it will take you time. So, if you lack patience, it’s time to tell yourself that you’re in for the long haul.
Try breaking down what you want into smaller chunks. Not only does this make your chances of success much more achievable, it also allows you to have some quick wins along the way which can satiate the desire for instant gratification that plagues so many of us nowadays.
Now that you’re aware of these 3 negative beliefs, you can take steps to fix them and be on your way to success.
Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and overcoming negative thoughts and self doubt is a small part of this. So, if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂
Negative thoughts are the nemesis of creating a successful business – and life – for yourself. It’s difficult to drown out the thoughts that corrupt your thinking and prevent the flow of energy to make yourself better, but there are some ways to calm a racing mind and stop the flow of negativity that threatens to bring you down.
Perhaps you just need some quiet time – time for yourself to ruminate on the positive things you’ve accomplished. Meditation is one way to achieve the quiet time you need to get your thoughts under control.
Whether you meditate in the forest, next to a babbling brook or in a quiet place in your home with the television and other devices turned off, the quiet you’ve created can be a catalyst for more creative and positive thought patterns.
When you’re meditating, you may want to try positive affirmations as a way to quiet your brain and push out negative thoughts and feelings.
An affirmation can be as simple as repeating to yourself that you’re stronger than all of the negative thoughts that come your way and that you can and will overcome them.
Journaling is also a good way to get your negative thoughts out of your mind, onto pen and paper and see them for what they are.
It’s a fact that writing is an exercise that seems to reinforce and help you understand things better than typing or even speaking. Journaling helps you work out problems that may have cluttered your thinking in the past.
Reinforcing the positive messages you receive from yourself or others is an important and viable way to drown out negative thoughts.
The above methods of affirmations, meditation and journaling are valuable tools to ensure that negative thoughts and feelings don’t remain in your life and that you can continue progressing to a more positive inner state of mind.
When weeding negative thoughts out of your life, make sure you surround yourself with positive people whenever you can.
It’s easy to be influenced by people who always spout negativity and seem to want everyone around them to feel the same way.
Of course, it’s impossible to feel upbeat all the time. Life is sure to get you down once in a while. But find a way that works for you to silence the negativity and stop being so hard on yourself.
The fallout from self doubt can be devastating and render you incapable of continuing to make rational business decisions. It’s like flailing yourself with a whip day in and day out – a torture so blistering that all you can think of the pain it’s causing.
When you let the exhausting task of doubting yourself take over your life, you’ll be less likely to seize opportunities and have a more difficult time in beginning or finishing tasks that could bring you success.
Moving forward can be difficult as the voice of self doubt becomes louder and drowns out the reality of who you are and what you’re capable of.
Standing up to the chatter and telling the chaos and loudness to stop can help you break the destructive pattern of low self esteem.
It’s like turning the flame down under a pot of soup that’s about to boil over. You take over control of your thoughts rather than letting your mind overflow with doubt and take those thoughts where you want to go.
This time could be different if you don’t allow the voices to take control. Each time you leave your comfort zone and ignore the self doubt torture, you come closer to realizing a positive outcome to your efforts.
Self confidence will replace self doubt and you’ll finally be able to focus on your future success rather than past failures. Silencing the exhausting torture of self doubt will also boost your optimism about the future.
You’ll become more confident about your abilities and motivated and enthused about your ideas. Take action even though you don’t feel like it.
Freeing yourself from the loud and destructive self doubt voices – if only for a few minutes – can calm the voices and help your mind find clarity and creativity.
You can always tweak the immediate actions you take later on. The real task of the moment is to get feedback, knowledge and experience so you can build your self-esteem and empower yourself to success.
Conquering self doubt frees you to stay on the course and reach the goals you’ve planned for yourself. Don’t let the voices of self doubt exhaust you to the point of abandoning your future success.
Beginning an Internet marketing business with a product launch that’s much less expensive than some of your successful colleagues (who love to post their earnings from one launch that would pay your bills for months) can help alleviate some of your self-doubt.
Starting on a small scale – perhaps a $7 product instead of a $97 one – can mean less work to get it off and running and a launch that can teach you a thing or two.
The feedback and knowledge you get from beginning with a small launch is invaluable to help you move up to higher ticket items.
You’ll likely build your list with each small launch, too – meaning that when you do get to the big ticket launches, you’ll have more marketers who will buy from you. With each small launch, your self-confidence will build and self doubt will begin to wane and destroy your lack of confidence; you will feel empowered.
Even the small launches may fail, but that’s a good thing, too – when you use the knowledge you gained to set your focus on something else or to use another strategy because the current one isn’t working.
You won’t have lost much time and energy if you discover these truths from a small launch. Self doubt is often made up from failures of the past, but your small successes can provide positive thoughts about the positive outcomes you’ve realized.
The positive feedback you receive from small successes may serve to set you up for huge success. There’s always something new to learn in Internet marketing.
You’ll soon discover if something works – or not – and can quickly tweak or discard it at your discretion. Little will be lost if you haven’t invested a great deal in something you lack knowledge about.
Correcting your course along the way is the same thing pilots do when they’re approaching a bit of unexpected bad weather before reaching their destination.
Look at the charts again, learn from the experience you’ve gathered during the small ventures and correct your course so that you’re firmly on a safe and steady path again.
Learn from other marketers. Follow the business path of others to possibly discover more ways you can promote yourself and become successful with your own enterprise.
It’s sometimes easy to get lost in your own little world of strategizing and promoting, but you may become stagnant if you don’t allot some time for learning from others.
Trust your instinct and values when making decisions about your business. There are many shady marketers out there who might turn your head with promises of fast money, but if you stay true to your own values, self-confidence will become the antidote to any self doubt you may have.
Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and overcoming negative thoughts and self doubt is a small part of this. So, if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂
Self doubt can be a troubling and persuasive voice that holds you back in a number of ways. It can hold you back from seizing opportunities that come your way and also makes getting started or finishing things harder than they need to be.
So what can you do about it? How can you overcome those times of self-doubt so that you can move forward once again?
Can you reach a state where you never doubt yourself? That is probably unlikely as even the most confident people will suffer from this during their lives but overcoming self doubt can be incredibly liberating and allow you to unlock your full potential, so it is definitely a skill worth mastering!
Here are 7 ways to help you to stop doubting yourself. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, as there are many ways to tackle this issue, but at least these will point you in the right direction.
Many ‘gurus’ will say “Do not doubt yourself, you can achieve anything you want” but that isn’t really practical advice is it? It’s just motivational speak.
Hopefully these 7 tips will give you practical guidance to eliminate self doubt from your life.
Even the most confident person you can think of has an occasional bout of self doubt. The trick is to recognize it for what it is and then get on with the business of being successful.
That’s how successful entrepreneurs beat the self doubt plague. Consistent self doubt is as crippling as clinical depression and you may soon find yourself in a rut that’s difficult to extract yourself from.
As a fledgling – or seasoned entrepreneur, you have a lot riding on your ability to stay focused. Your ultimate level of success and satisfaction with your chosen career depends on it.
Self doubt can cause indecision and procrastination – both lethal detriments to your ultimate success. Yet, every challenge you face in your quest as an online entrepreneur brings with it old hauntings from your mind that may prevent you from overcoming the challenges and achieving your goals unless you can get a grip on them and see them for what they are – lies.
The higher you climb on the ladder of success, the more self doubt you’re likely to have. What can you do to alleviate some of these obstacles and direct your energy in a more productive manner?
It begins in your mind and progresses to taking action as you learn you really are capable of facing and overcoming any challenges that come your way. First, you should know and be comforted that you’re not the only person (successful or not) who has suffered from self-doubt along the way.
It’s part of the plan that you’ll use as the map to the magic kingdom of success. It’s perfectly okay to set lofty, long-term goals. Just make sure you set attainable, short-term goals, too – so you can experience success in small increments along the way.
Short term goals are important because they provide continuous realization that you are moving along quite nicely and are well on your way to meeting those long-term goals. It lets you bask in the sunshine of the smaller wins, while waiting for the big payoff at the end.
I hope the 7 practical tips in this article help you to manage the feelings of self doubt in your life and remove their crippling effect on you so you can start to achieve at the level you want.
Overcoming self doubt and achieving what you want in life all comes from having the correct mindset and this is why many entrepreneurs and business owners work on their thinking to achieve at the highest levels.
If you want to develop a good mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
Obstacles are something that everyone who has ever lived had had to deal with, so it would be a good idea to learn how to handle obstacles, wouldn’t you agree?
Sadly, many people doubt themselves and their abilities. When it becomes a chronic situation, it can hold people back from getting what they want.
However, confidence will break through the barriers caused by obstacles.
First of all, you need to recognize when an obstacle is holding you back. Sometimes, people make excuses for their situations and pretend that they don’t exist ad this is understandable.
For instance, you could be faced with a family member who has a substance abuse problem. It’s difficult to approach the person and people ignore that a problem exists. They just keep pretending as if the person does not have a problem with the hope that the situation will resolve itself.
The problem is that sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the issue won’t resolve anything, and the person who is suffering may be crying out for help and is actually looking for someone who has the courage to stand up to their addiction.
But, if they know you care and you keep at it to confront the situation, they do hear it deep down, especially if they really are looking to get help.
You do have to be aware that if they don’t really want help, your efforts will not amount to much, unfortunately.
Self-doubt can also cripple you when others don’t have confidence in you.
For instance, if your manager has reasons to doubt your abilities, he is constantly going to be harping on at you about your work. This may cause you to doubt yourself and the situation will continue in a nasty loop.
In such cases, you need to find out why he feels this way and try to work with him to help figure out what you can do to alleviate the situation. Just having this meeting can show your manager you have confidence which could be the catalyst to turn around the situation.
But, once you gain the confidence, you will find there is no stopping you. Dealing with most obstacles will become easier for you which will lead to you succeeding more often.
Many people find that after they get past a certain situation, they wondered why it took them as long as it did. It doesn’t matter, though.
As long as you eventually gain that confidence, you can make happen whatever you need to.
So you know that obstacles are an unfortunate fact of life, but think of this…
Suppose you are given a choice to live a life without any obstacles? Would you take that if it were possible?
You may be tempted to jump at the chance. However, it is highly likely it would not measure up to your expectations.
Several years ago, one television program focused on only good news. It looked for good news in the local community and even in other places. The show did not last because people seem to be more drawn to bad news. This is an unfortunate fact of human nature!
Therefore, subconsciously, we welcome obstacles so that we can figure out how to overcome or solve them.
I realise that may sound counterintuitive, especially when you are faced with an obstacle in your life and are struggling to overcome it, but it is true nonetheless.
Just think about an obstacle course. Why do these even exist? If we weren’t so inclined to solve problems, these never would have become popular. But we still participate in them because of the challenge involved.
When we get past some obstacle, we get a feeling of elation, which increases in proportion to how extreme the obstacle. Getting past the obstacle may be instant or involve some time. It could be mental or physical, or both. It doesn’t matter. Whatever the situation, we welcome the challenge.
This is unfortunate because we all have the capability of solving most situations. Even when the obstacles are dire, people who approach it in a positive manner will have a much greater chance of overcoming them.
What is certain is if you don’t try, you will fail, and that obstacle will become part of you in a negative way. It could destroy your life if you let it.
Obstacles are a part of life and as you have seen from this article, they are necessary for our survival. They may be difficult to come to terms with.
However, when we get to the point of overcoming them, we have tools we can use to make our lives better. This can extend to helping others as well.
So, they aren’t really obstacles at all, but rather chances to grow and improve your abilities and self-confidence.
Reframing obstacles like this can be incredibly powerful and requires the correct mindset.
If you want to find out how to develop a strong mindset, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
