The dreaded what if’s

“Oh god, what if I totally fuck this up.”

“What if no one likes my work.”

“Everyone is watching, what if I mess this up”

For most people, the idea of self-doubt is ever present. And if this isn’t you, then you’re either a liar or a sociopath. I spent years thinking, I shouldn’t think this, that I was weak for thinking negative thoughts and self-doubt, but I’ve learnt to reframe my thinking.

Essentially when I look back at my life, the things I’m most proud have been just after thinking this, and pushing forward and either finally presenting that work I was worried about or doing that sporting event I wasn’t sure if I could complete.

One of two things happens.

Either it went great, and I vanquished all those thoughts and felt an over whelming sense of achievement. (Create more podcast, I’m looking at you)

Or it went wrong, and all my worst suspicions came true, (working at Heta, please stand up), but you know what happened, everyone rallied around me, people supported me and i realised that all this negative thinking was in my head. I was in total control of those thoughts.

Now, I’m not suggesting that these thoughts have gone away, far from it (starting a company is riddled with self-doubt) but I use these thoughts as a sort of gut directional guidance system. Normally if I’m stressed about something, it’s because I know it’s right, it will be out of my comfort zone, and it will be hard. BUT, that ultimately when I look back I will feel so proud that I did something hard and I tried! In the short term it’s loading additional stress on yourself but in the long term you build trust in yourself that you can achieve things you didn’t think were possible.

So, self-doubt isn’t nice, but it’s a valuable tool and resource to push yourself forward and drive yourself to do things that you never thought you could.

And the worst thing you think could happen is never as bad as you think it will be.

Promise ;)