I was thinking this morning how easy it can be to slip into self–doubt when things aren’t going so well. The dragons in the brain go towards worst case scenario and love to disasterise everything. Everyone struggles with this at times and even the rich and famous have their moments.
Just last week I was chatting with a young doctor who, to everyone around her, is talented, hardworking, intelligent, charming, resilient and successful in every way. Yet in the process of making big life changes, she was suffering from depression and self–doubt. These negative thoughts were crowding out her enthusiasm and excitement for life and killing her self-confidence.
The question is if even the most successful leaders experience periods of self-doubt, when their confidence levels waver how do they manage to reach sustained levels of success and personal satisfaction despite this?
Well, I can’t speak for them, but I have a three-pronged defence mechanism that I use which you might find helpful. It goes like this: firstly, I take time to strengthen my personal vision. It helps here to have a purpose that is bigger than myself. By this, I mean finding inspiration in a goal beyond my own personal success, such as caring for my family, or my staff or finding passion in making a difference to the world in some way. This takes my eye off my own challenges and puts it outwards to helping others.
By Catherine Wijnberg – Founder and CEO of Fetola
