Building the Evidence to Conquer Self-Doubt
We all have moments of self-doubt, crises of confidence, or worst of all full-on imposter syndrome. Our minds play tricks on us telling us we aren’t capable of doing something, or we just aren’t good enough. The best way to fight this is with facts. It’s a trick called building the evidence to build confidence. It helps you develop self-efficacy which is just a psychology term for believing in your ability to achieve your goals.
Recently I was starting to doubt myself – almost heading to a case of imposter syndrome. What stopped me was pure self-awareness and taking action. Before, I would allow myself to continue down a path of self-doubt for days or weeks. But now, I know that if I take action and start building up the evidence that I am capable of doing what I do, then it helps to stop the self-doubt or imposter syndrome in its tracks.
Self-doubt and imposter syndrome
As I’ve started a new career, I am confronted with a whole set of new challenges in a space that is unknown territory to me. There has been the joy of doing what I love along with the challenges of being a solopreneur. There have also been the lows of self-doubt. Do I actually know what I am doing? There have been moments when I have wanted to say: “Help, get me out of here!”. Of course I know what I am doing, but it doesn’t stop these thoughts from creeping in occasionally.
When you start doubting your capabilities, it is difficult to motivate yourself to achieve your goals. You spiral into comparing yourself to others and their achievements, questioning if you will ever get that breakthrough idea or client, and feeling a bit helpless. It can be a pretty miserable and hopeless place, especially if it escalates to full imposter syndrome.
According to research, 70% of people will encounter imposter syndrome at some point in their life. It is most common amongst high-achievers and women. Although men probably experience imposter syndrome far more than is reported but possibly don’t admit to it as openly. I have experienced this numerous times throughout my career so have become more aware of what my triggers are and when self-doubt or imposter syndrome is starting to hit.
Self-doubt and imposter syndrome are often a confidence game. You can’t gain confidence in something unless you do whatever needs to be done.
Start building evidence
The way to start conquering your self-doubt is to prove to yourself that you’ve got this by taking action. Ask yourself what is one small step I can take that will move me forward? I don’t know about you but putting one foot in front of the other tends to make me want to take another step.
Each step you take acts as a piece of evidence. It’s why it’s called building evidence to build confidence. You keep collecting the facts that you are capable. I like to think of these actions as building blocks. Each time I accomplish something, I visualise adding a building block to whatever I’m creating.
Here is a simple process that I follow whenever self-doubt strikes:
Step 1:
Give yourself a hug. Life is hard enough without your being hard on yourself too so show yourself some compassion.
Step 2:
Do the thing. Whatever it is that you are doubting yourself on, just start doing it.
a) If you are struggling to get going, then start with small, manageable, and specific steps.
b) You might already be doing ‘the thing’ so look for evidence of where you are doing it well. Keep building that evidence and adding to it.
Step 3:
Keep track of what you’re doing. You can keep track of your evidence through an activity log or task list or by writing it down somewhere. This way you can show yourself at the end of the day or week the evidence that you are doing whatever you have set out to accomplish. You can’t doubt the facts in front of you.
The final step is crucial because you can no longer doubt yourself when you start seeing hard evidence of your progress or achievements in front of you. It could be writing down a compliment from a colleague on a presentation that you gave or logging every time that you worked towards a particular goal. They might seem small or insignificant in the moment but as they start stacking up – like building blocks – you will see your self-doubt diminish, your self-confidence grows, and your life starts thriving.
Path to self-efficacy
As with anything, building the evidence requires work and consistency. In order to continue on this path of conquering self-doubt, you need to keep building the evidence. Remember, the small steps count. They build momentum. You might think that you aren’t making progress but when you look back on your week, you will find that you actually have. It might seem slow at first but focus on the fact that you have started taking action. Actions start to compound, and the results will surprise you. You just have to keep showing up for yourself.
