Before we dive right into how you can release self-doubt, let’s make one thing clear – we all face it. Irrespective of where you’re at in your career or business, we’ve all got a rather well-trained inner critic who often sneaks in and begins to tell us why we couldn’t or shouldn’t do something.

So what causes self-doubt? 

The root cause of self-doubt can be related to trauma, past failures or experiences of rejection, a negative belief that might have been planted in our subconscious mind since childhood or in our adult years, or it can even be a habitual pattern of thinking that we are just used to.

When my clients come to our sessions and share they’re struggling with self-doubt, I always tell them they are in control of their mind and they often gaze at me and say: “but how do I do that … it is so difficult.”

“It isn’t easy.”, I respond, “but this is where your biggest power is – in consciously observing and guiding your mind to think what you want it to think. “

Our mind is a tool that we can control and guide. We can learn to work with it so that it can help us create emotional states that empower and inspire us. We can learn to release negative beliefs and instil self-belief. Mind guidance is a skill that all my clients are taught and today, I want to share a few simple tricks that you can start using right away to begin to develop it too.

Trick one:

Every time you begin to feel self-doubt, check in with yourself immediately and identify the thoughts that are causing it. You can even write them down. It is important to say to yourself that “these are just thoughts” and begin to question whether they are actually true. The quickest way to “weaken” the emotional impact of a negative thought is to question its validity. You can begin to state all the reasons you can think of that show you these thoughts are not true.

Trick two:

Use mantras or questions. My favourite question to use when I catch myself feeling self-doubt is: “Kristina, is this helping you? Where is this thought leading you to?” When I ask myself this question, I instantly realise I am not helping myself by thinking in such a way (exactly the opposite – I am self-sabotaging) and I begin to intentionally change my self-talk. 

When I am coaching a client around this, I help them identify the questions or mantras that work for them. I usually get them to give me different examples of what they could be saying to themselves until we discover the mantra or question that would trigger a self-doubt counteractive response and support them in quickly shifting the negative thoughts. 

Next time, you begin to feel self-doubt, take a moment to observe your thoughts and experiment with a few questions or mantras that you can use to get rid of it. And, if you are looking for personalised support, my 60-minute one-to-one coaching sessions are designed to help you shift negative thinking and instil self-belief and confidence. You can learn more about them here.