How to Never Lose Trust in Yourself
Stop self-doubt from controlling your life
There is plenty of creativity in you. You simply have too many things going on inside your head.
Those “things” are most commonly other people’s ideas. They are other opinions, worldviews, and beliefs that are impacting the way you see your creative self.
All of a sudden you entertain thoughts like, My idea isn’t good enough. My perspective doesn’t matter.
You’ve lost trust in yourself.
It’s not because you’re incapable of generating powerful concepts that could change someone’s life. It’s because you fill the canvas of creativity with your own self-doubt. And it’s controlling what you produce, even what you contemplate on producing.
You simply need to stop and clear your head. Then you’ll see the road you’re on without all the fog.
Recognize that failing is only temporary
People who see major breakthroughs take major risks. They understand that doing so brings the possibility of great rewards. But they also understand the potential of failing and have accepted it.
Most of us tie our identities to our shortcomings. We pin them to the wall and look at them each day we open our eyes. It’s as if we want to remind ourselves that we are only as good as our failures.
No wants should fall and stay there. They should immediately strive to get back up. What helps, though, is having a clear and identifiable reason for getting up again.
When you don’t see the point of getting up where you fell, you’ll stay there. But when you realize that blunder helped you learn more about yourself, you’ll pick up where you left off.
Coming up short lasts for a moment.
Giving up lasts for a lifetime.
Living in a way that acknowledges the need to replace areas of stagnation with work you love is the best way to improve your life and regain creative trust in yourself, though it won’t be easy.
You’ll have to get rid of the idea that settling will help your situation.
Settling consents to the notion that our lives should remain in its current phase.
There are times in your life when quitting seems like the best way to go. The pressure builds and we lose sight of what to do next. But that’s precisely when you should dig deeper.
The only way you’ll discover the chaos going on inside is if you lay it all out. Ask yourself what your real values are, what truly matters to you, and who you want to be five, ten, twenty years from now.
Sometimes we never uncover the answers we crave because we never ask.
But even when we explore what we feel is the most important thing to us, there comes a point when things get tough. The weight of adversity doesn’t go away just because “do what you love” takes precedence.
Comfort is the ball and chain of those who say they want to do better but never do anything to do better.
You will still have to fight through the temptations to settle with where you are. And to keep your trust level where it should be, you have to keep moving despite those temptations. It’s the ability to remain consistent that builds confidence.
And while the growing pains will stay with you, they will never compare to the joy of progress.
For some people, living a mediocre life is okay. The question for you is: Are you one of those people?
Comfort is the ball and chain of those who say they want to do better but never do anything to do better. But what can I say, it’s easy to fall into a framework of living comfortably when you rely on culture to define what’s best for you.
For others, the main goal is to do something that expresses value. Something that brings meaning to the chaos.
When you settle, you consent to the notion that your life should remain in its current phase. You establish the idea that it should never progress. That’s how you lose sight of the fact that change is good, especially when you prioritize personal growth.
The real reason people settle is that they’re terrified of taking risks.
They justify their need to remain where they are by being as “realistic” as possible. Yet, sometimes change presents unrealistic propositions. And the progress that comes from that doesn’t always seem common.
To settle is to stagnate your progress. Nothing changes that way. Everything remains the usual, a cycle of unending self-pity.
Do more than you speak
Another consequence of self-doubt is having more words and less action. People on the lazy side are prone to speak more than they do. And their words are almost always negative.
How you speak influences how you will live your life. But if words are all you present, you won’t move any closer to your desired goals. You’ll forgo any possibility of reaching them because you weren’t willing to move, as scary as it may have been.
The difference between those who achieve more and those who don’t is found in their willingness to take steps toward what they wanted. And, yes, they fail — a lot. But they also learn, a lot.
You must learn to trust yourself.
You must realize life is too short to settle for anything less than the meaningful things that stand out to you.
Just like your work environment, a cluttered brain causes chaos.
If you want to be more impactful as a person, pay attention to what you consume and how often you consume it.
There are lots of people who don’t understand that their actions are influenced by their consumption. Instead of setting aside time to create, they spend more time looking at what other people have created.
That’s not bad, in and of itself. But it gets dangerous when your input surpasses your output.
That’s when you start to double-check your work to see if it matches up with someone else’s. You start to question your ability to produce quality content that’s also practical.
The funny thing is we don’t comprehend most of what we overconsume. We’re just addicted to consuming. We think of it as being productive when we’re actually hurting our productivity.
Then when we’re face-to-face with an empty screen or piece of paper, all the chaos rears its ugly head again. We can’t pull ourselves together long enough to make a complete sentence.
The problem isn’t learning. The problem is how we often consume to distract ourselves from creating.
Granted, you’ll find more ideas the more you explore different topics. But you should be smart about how you explore them.
Would you rather read 100 books in a month and not grasp the main idea in any of them, or read 5 books in a month and change your life because you grasp the main idea?
The problem isn’t learning. The problem is how we often consume to distract ourselves from creating.
Anything worth having will take a ton of energy and attention to detail. But for those who really want to see progress, it’s worth every ounce of difficulty. To them, there’s beauty in the struggle.
The moment we accept that and carry on with the intent to grow, we’ll come to see settling as the worst possible option.
We’ll never be who we are meant to be if we continue to condemn our creativity.
What you’re doing is failing to water a plant that is thirsty for life. You can’t count on everyone out there to trust your ideas. But you can count on yourself to do that.
The power of your persistence must stem from your ability to trust yourself. Then self-doubt will no longer control your life — self-trust will.
Kevin Horton is a photographer, student, modest book-worm, and wanna-be web developer with a new-found love for writing. He writes helpful words about creativity, productivity, and the enjoyably simple life.
’Til next time. Thanks for reading!