Dealing With Doubt in Business
Just like with fear of failure, everyone deals with doubt. As women, we are especially susceptible to overthinking and doubting ourselves and really shortchanging ourselves and our expertise. Everyone has had to deal with fear and doubt in their businesses and life and feeling moments of doubt is completely normal. You are not alone in the slightest when it comes to that.
Here are some ways to deal with the doubt:
Look back on things where you have had success.
When you are feeling like you don't know if you can take the next steps or figure something out, this can help to reassure yourself. It can help remind yourself that in the past you have succeeded at various things (they can be totally unrelated to your current business, by the way) and because you have succeeded in other ways before, then that is just proof that you can succeed again.
It's also important to write or journal out things that you are feeling doubtful about. Right next to it, write a few words that would flip it around. For example, if you are doubtful that you can figure out how to do your email funnel, write out something reassuring on the side like, “If other people have figured it out, how hard could it be?” Or “If I am able to figure out other tech things in my business or other jobs then I could certainly figure this out. I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to put something out there. I can always tweak it later.”
Remember that if a bunch of other people have been able to figure this out, then you can do it, too.
Think of things around the house. For example, let’s say you don't know how to mow your lawn. There are other people that may not be the brightest people on the planet that have been able to figure out how to mow your lawn, and you can, too. There are online tutorials for basically everything nowadays for free. If you needed to mow your lawn and you didn't have a lawn mower, and didn't know how to do it you could look it up and realize, "Hey this other person did it. I'm going to follow their instructions and I'm going to be able to do it as well.”
Get support.
Support is huge. Find other entrepreneur friends who you can lean on, confide in, and who can give you professional feedback on the things you are doubting. Another option is to hire someone like a coach, consultant, mentor, or strategist who can look at the things you are struggling with and feeling dubious over and help you with the mindset around it. A coach, strategist, or mentor can also help you wade through that and help with implementation.
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
Remember that struggling with doubt from time to time is normal, but you have to work through it to get to your dreams. If you are finding you are having a hard time overall with feelings of doubt and unworthiness in your business, check out my post on self-worth as an entrepreneur for more tips on how to improve that mindset.
Have you encountered or used any other great tips for dealing with doubt? Be sure to drop them in the comments below or share them in my free private Facebook group!
