Self-doubt: About And How To Overcome it As An Entrepreneur

Self-doubt is the lack of confidence in one’s self and his or her abilities. This is often experienced by everybody in every facet of human life- students, teachers, doctors, lawyers, business men, entrepreneurs alike.

This psychological condition is bound to happen to anyone and can lead to the folding of nice business ideas, shatter dreams of students, causes depression and sometimes cause people to commit suicide and engage in other dubious acts.

In this article, we would be looking at the causes of self-doubt and ways to overcome self-doubt as a business man or an entrepreneur.

There are so many causes of self-doubt and they include:

Comparing one ’s self to others: often times, we as humans tend to compare our achievements and statuses with others especially those who we are into the same business. a student would like to be the first in his or her class and if he or she does not be the first after so many trials, then self-doubt sets in thereby causing serious depression. This student is seen to put less effort in studying because he no longer trusts himself or his abilities.

As an entrepreneur, a comparison can cause you so much pain and might even lead to your folding up your business.

Previous great achievements: you as a business man might have made ground-breaking achievements in the past but presently, you are no more making much achievement. This will no doubt begin to make you have mixed feelings about your abilities and begin to doubt yourself.

This has happened to me once as a business and entrepreneurship blogger and I knew how disturbed I was. We would see how I was able to overcome this in a bit.

Past mistakes: this follows from the facts that if we have failed previously in a business, deal or the likes, we tend to doubt whether we would succeed in the present one. This is natural and so, you are on the right track- all you need to do is to see the brighter side and the trust in your abilities would be restored.

Having big goals: yes! We all know that setting goals to be achieved within a period of time is good but if the goals are too big, it might make you start doubting your abilities and lose trust in yourself.  If peradventure the speculated period of time elapses and you do not achieve the goal, you would begin to doubt yourself.

Imposter syndrome:  this syndrome also known as imposter phenomenon or imposter experience and is the feeling of being over-evaluated, not being able to take on our achievements, and feeling like a fraud. This is mostly seen in women than men and this tends to make someone feel his or her achievements are as a result of luck, feeling unintelligent, incompetent and lazy.

This syndrome tends to make people have doubt about their abilities and skills and is characterized by negative self-talk, shying away from attentions, constant checking of a work he or she does, over working oneself, etc.

If you are undergoing this emotional moment of self-doubt, just continue reading this post and you will get tips on how to overcome it.

Below are some of the ways of overcoming self-doubt in business:

Write down your strengths: yes! Writing out what you can do or what you have already done in your business that makes you stand out from your competitors is a sure way of overcoming self-doubt. Your achievements should help make you aim high and not to draw you back.

Take up a pen and paper or a notepad and write down your successes, strengths, achievements, etc. even if they are very small and make no much sense. When you’ve written them down, then you can work towards improving them and making sure you maintain them.

Write down your weaknesses: knowing your weaknesses is also a very good thing towards overcoming self-doubt. It is said that a problem identified is half-solved. After writing down your strengths, also write down your weaknesses and start tackling them one at a time.

Start by tackling them according to their scale and with time, you would see that your confidence level will increase and you will bounce back.

Avoid comparison: although making a comparison is a good thing as it makes you struggle the more, it can also make you lose confidence. You should know that you are unique and your abilities are also second to none. Just do your best always and don’t compare yourself with others.

Finding out that you are unique will enable you to bounce back and regain your confidence level.

Breakdown your larger goals into small pieces: yes! As we mentioned earlier, making large goals can make self-doubt set in. try to break down your larger goals into small pieces and take them one after the other. When broken down, achieving them would be easier and with each one achieved, your confidence level is increased and this, in turn, would make you go for other pieces with so much vigor.

Take enough rest and treat yourself: overworking yourself would make you break down and this, in turn, might lead to self-doubt. Take enough rest and overcome stress, depression and other conditions that come with it.

Also, celebrate every victory you achieve because it would make you feel good about yourself. You can call members of your team over for a dinner to celebrate the newly achieved feet.

Avoid excuses: if you fail, accept you have failed and avoid making unnecessary excuses. Excuses can create barriers to your being successful and so, avoiding it would make you come out of self-doubt. For example, if you get little or no sales, do not say that your customers don’t want to buy or any other excuse, change your marketing strategy immediately and continue your business.

Talk to friends and family: when you have any problem, try to get someone very close to you know about it before it gets out of hand. It is often said that a problem shared is half solved. Get to tell people you trust about your problem and let them help you with suggestions on how to get out of it or even help you get out of it.

It is also important that you seek evaluations from people. Ask questions about how people see your business or what they think about you and your business. This will ensure that you stay on track at any point in time. Constructive criticisms are very vital because, without it, you might get yourself into serious problems in the future.

Get more skills: yes! As an entrepreneur, you ought to advance more in your field of endeavor and when you advance, your confidence level increases too. If you are an entrepreneur and you don’t improve your skills, then you are on the path to destruction because self-doubt will set in and your business will fold up with time.

You are unique and the barrier between you and success is yourself. Believe in yourself and your business would be a successful one. Never compare yourself with others and make sure you capitalize on your strengths, talk to family and friends, etc. and you would be glad you did.

We would like to hear from you, make use of the comment section and air your view.

Thanks for reading.