• Use positive, empowering frames
• Focus on what you can do about the situation, not outcomes

Personal examples:

• “I’m the most inexperienced person here.” → “I’m a go-getter; what I lack in experience, I make up for it using effort and persistence.”
• “This failure shows that I’m not good enough.” → “This setback shows me where I can improve. If I learn its lessons, I’ll do better next time. ”

Despite using affirmations and visualizations daily, my crippling self-doubt returned in tsunami waves whenever I faced a setback.

This was because I was deriving my self-worth from things I couldn’t control.

In general, you cannot control:

• The past
• Other people
• Event outcomes
• Birth circumstances

You can control:

• Your plans
• Your efforts
• Your response
• Your consistency
• Your mind and body

Focus on the second list.

Self-doubt will always come back.

You will always be in new situations that create new fears.

You will always meet new people to compare yourself to and feel inferior to.

In fact, if you're not doubting yourself every once in a while, it could mean that you're not growing!

So:

• Treat self-doubt like your health. Both require consistent, long-term maintenance, not a one-time fix.
• Treat mindfulness like an exercise. Do it consistently to reap the benefits.

And when your self-doubt comes back from time to time, don’t beat yourself up over it.

Remember, it’s not a failure, but a learning opportunity ❤️

You might like my newsletter, Tea for Thought!

I'm on a mission to implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.

For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 12 years of personal struggle with self-doubt.

Come learn with me :)