8 Mental Disciplines More Powerful Than Self-Doubt Our actions alone have the power to change our beliefs.
By Sherrie Campbell Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Success, happiness and fulfillment boil down to how we think. We cannot live in self-doubt and have positive or successful life experience. We have lives full of great things and people, but when we come from a negative, selfish or paranoid mindset we miss out all the good at our fingertips. Our beliefs about life become the exact mirror experience we live. The good news? It is not hard to change our thoughts about life. It requires only one thing, and that one thing is mental discipline. Because actions follow thoughts, once our beliefs change, the entire way we live changes. To follow are 8 mental discipline practices guaranteed to abolish self-doubt
1. Language
Self-doubt is the ancient language of lies. The more self-doubting we are, the more lies we tell ourselves.
To overcome self-doubt, we must learn to speak positively over our lives. We must take notice of what is going well. If there is good in our lives, it means we manifested it. Instead of speaking a language of fear and defeat, we must speak the language of possibility over every deal, over every new customer, and over every relationship and contact we have.
The more we speak the language of positivity into our lives and over everything we govern, the less doubt and the more success we experience. When we speak positively over our lives, it changes our vibe. People want to work with other positive people.
Related: 5 Habits of Successful People
2. Compete
We can believe our self-doubts, or we can compete with them. Our mind might say "You can't do that" or "That will never work, it's too big, it's too massive."
Really? Is that true? How would we know, unless we got out there and took the actions necessary to prove those beliefs true or not? We all have doubtful thoughts. It is part of the human experience. Instead of allowing them to govern our lives, stand up to these petulant, nagging bullies. Test the edges of your thinking by competing with them and seeing who or what wins.
We all have times when we want to give up. Why give up, though? We have a great advantage when it comes to our defeatist thinking. Any time we choose we can take action to prove our self-doubts wrong. Thoughts may not always be under our direction, but taking action always is.
Related: 5 Ways Leaders Can Promote Mental Strength in Employees
3. Blessed, not stressed.
Nothing will soothe self-doubt more than to wake up and say "I am blessed."
When we're moping around feeling doubtful, we only see and experience our stress. Most of us become so focused on the problems that we ignore the blessings right in front of us. If you're challenged, focus on being blessed. Every challenge that hits our core is a blessing. The kind of growth we gain from our hardships, challenges and obstacles is the exact growth we need to become more successful.
We must not curse our doubts or challenges, we must see them as the blessings in our bummers. These doubts and challenges become the seeds of new opportunity.
Related: 10 Motivational Habits That Drive Millionaires
4. Change focus.
When we feel pressured, our doubts have the most power. We must change our perception when we are under pressure to earn, win, close the deal, get the number or please the boss. We must change our focus from earning to serving. When we become more other-centered; caring more for our customers, helping our bosses, supporting our peers, we are more successful and less doubtful. The pressure gets taken off of getting our number, closing our deal and switches our approach from receiving, winning and getting to giving, helping and offering.
Serving comes from compassion, hope and support. When we work from this mindset, deals close easier because the people we're serving sense we aren't there to "sell" them, but rather to assist them in achieving their bigger picture. People enjoy working with us much more when we're not desperate and pushy. Others prefer to feel that we are connecting with the intention of creating a genuine, long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
Related: To Be Happy, Give Up These 10 Habits
5. Live forward.
We need to live our lives as if we already have what we want. If self-doubt plagues us, we must adopt positive and abundant thinking as our regular mode-of-operation. Our mind doesn't know the difference. Our mind does what we tell it to do. If we leave our mind unchecked, it will go negative in an instant.
Live forward in positive belief about who you are and what you want. Take control and tell your mind what you want it to believe. Live your life as if youe already have what you desire. This change in attitude creates instant positive change in our lives, both financially and emotionally.
Related: 4 Distractions You Must Stop Stressing Over If You Want to Succeed
6. Catch it, check it, change it.
Negative thoughts build quickly upon each other if we are not mindful to watch them. If we lose control of our thoughts, we are must remind ourselves of the reality of our situation and acknowledge we are simply caught up in a reactive downward spiral.
When we find our thinking veering towards the negative, we must catch it before it tumbles out of control. Once we catch the negative pattern, we must check it for truth, and then change our thought pattern by re-wording everything we are thinking to positivity, opportunity and possibility. The quick use of these Three-C's is often enough to get ourselves headed in a more productive direction.
Related: You Can Reprogram Yourself to Be a Positive Person and You Should
7. Positive laws.
We cannot live a rich life thinking poor. Our success is a direct reflection of our beliefs. This does not mean we do not feel down, hurt or fearful. We need to feel what we need to feel, and maybe sink in a bit if we can't help it, but then we make the dogged and determined choice to let the negative state of mind pass by choosing to get up and take action.
If we follow positive laws, and train ourselves to get back up and believe even deeper in who we are and what we want, we cannot fail. As the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz says "if you stay on the merry-go-round long enough you're bound to catch the brass ring." The only way to fail, is to give up.
Related: 5 Powerful Ways to Become Your Best Self
8. Reverse
In this formula, we work from the outside in, instead of the inside out. To reverse negative thinking and self-doubt, we must do the exact opposite of what we're thinking. If we feel negative, we need to start thinking positive. If we feel like giving up, we need to take positive action that will move us forward. If we feel like this could be the end of something, we need to start hunting for new opportunities.
When we do the opposite and have success, our actions alone have the power to change our beliefs.
