What is the #1 killer of bloggers and their blogs? Is it heart disease? Smoking? Cancer? Car wrecks? No…it is not believing in yourself and falling prey to self doubt. Self doubt is actually believing you are not capable of achieving your goals, dreams and aspirations. Giving into the feelings of low self worth to the point that you believe the voices in your head telling you that you are not able to do it…people are not going to like it…you should do it like that other guy…why would anyone want to read what I have to say…the stats are not where I want them to be right now…I should just quit…not like I am really losing anything anyway…it is probably better off…it is just too hard…
Your mind wanders. It is a natural part of being human. The problem arises when self doubt starts to take over and you get into a spiral of negative thinking that eventually leads to lack of productivity and eventual surrender. 99% of blogs that do not make it is not because of lack of talent or willingness to succeed. 99% of blogs that fail…fail because they give up too early (typically right before it starts getting really good) and give into the thoughts in their head…the guy down the street…the family member that doesn’t understand.
Overcoming Self Doubt In The Pursuit Of Success
The world is filled with people that will want to bring you down. It will always be easier to be a critic than create…and the critic is always louder than the creator. It is your job to rise above the noise and believe in yourself and your capabilities. No one is going to jump down from the heavens and give you the confidence needed to make it in this world. If you really want to make it big…stop being another statistic…and start writing your own rules in life…you are going to have to find that confidence from within. You are going to have to believe that you are good enough…strong enough…and capable of making your dreams a reality.
If you give in and make your naysayers right…you are the only one that loses. Celebrate your small successes along the road. Every success is another step forward in your pursuit. Fight off the feelings of self doubt by focusing on the positive. Every blogger, entrepreneur and successful life connoisseur started with an idea. They did not start with success…
As you go through the day, think of ways to bring positive light to your achievements. Continue to grow your dreams by focusing on those achievements and lay out the steps for the next. Everyday is not going to be perfect. There are going to be roadblocks along the way, but through believing in yourself and ridding your life of the thoughts that bring you down…you have a fighting chance at hitting your goals and achieving the life you want to live.
All around you…you can see those that give in. They let the world determine their worth. They give into self doubt. That is not going to be you.
Image by rbbaird
7 comments
Self doubt seems to creep up on me once in a while. I wonder if I’ll really ever make any real money with the blog. I see other people having more success than me. Etc.
Luckily, I never give in because it seems like after that something really good will happen like a new advertiser or I’ll have a company send me something cool to review. I guess it’s the smaller achievements that help me continue to run the marathon.
I think some people want to give up early because they don’t have the encouragement to continue on with their blogs. They often think why spend so much time writing content when maybe no one will bother reading it?
I know i started off that way, but I am now writing just for the love of writing, and hopefully others will benefit from reading it in the process.
It makes writing so much easier, and not so much a task.
I really needed this post. I’ve been having some serious self doubt and lack of confidence over my blog the past few days and it was inspiring to read your post. Thanks Rob 🙂
Excellent point, Robb. I just posted a video post mentioning this same thing, but included 3 other “killers” but most people who interacted shared self-doubt as the biggest killer of all.
Hi Rob,
“Consider for a moment the inordinate amount of time the average person spends focusing on the things in their life they don’t like. It will strike you that there are a multitude of phrases that affirm this mentality.
Statements like ‘there is no free lunch’ or ‘nothing comes easy’ easily support and justify the negative state of mind these folks maintain. This attitude has become so normal, it’s as if we live in the middle of an epidemic of doubt, an atmosphere of limitation!
There is nothing more limiting than your own thinking. If you believe your life is full of limitations, then you are probably living a life with limited opportunities, which then reconfirms this belief to you – so you then feel even more strongly justified in your limited expectations.
It all seems a bit mindlessly repetitive, doesn’t it?”
It is more than just thinking positive….it’s all about thinking with intention!
Do you focus on success or failure?
I was in a great need of this post. Thanks for sharing and Thank You for everything Robb.
Thanks for this post, Robb. I’m a rather new blogger, and self-doubt is something I keep having to keep at bay. I know how much I help my customers offline, and the purpose of our blog is to answer all their questions (most are web newbies). But I often wonder how to be seen in a sea of blogs with similar information. What I write about is written all over the internet, but every blog post I create is in answer to a client’s question. So it’s a funnel of information for our clients. But that self doubt creeps in when I think I’m being redundant. I just have to keep remembering that my clients don’t know how to find the information in those other places, and that’s why they’ve come to us.
I’m really enjoying reading your blog. It’s great information!