Doubts

Have you ever been covered in an avalanche of doubts?

One minute, you're plugging along at work or home or even your hobby, doing your thing, happily going about your business, then all the sudden, these feelings start creeping in that make you second guess your every move.

Are you...sure that's a good idea?

Geez, that seems risky. 

What will people think of you when they see that? 

Are you sure you know what you're doing? 

Hey, that conversation you just had? That last thing you said? Well you thought it was fine, but I'm not so sure...

Where does that little voice come from? How is it that you can be fine, confident in yourself, and then suddenly, debilitated by a tiny voice in your head? One little doubt leads to another, then another and suddenly, you are straight up buried in an avalanche of negative thoughts.

Buried.

I was struck by doubt today.

I was on Pinterest, reading some articles about writing, checking out some tips for bloggers. Trying to decide what I wanted to write about next. Just casually browsing and thinking. Then all the sudden, there it was.

It started small: Man, no one really read your last blog post. 

Well that's because I posted it right before the Royals game! I'll re-share it later, I worked hard on it and I'd like to know what people think.

But did you realize, you've had fewer views on each subsequent post? Maybe you're just boring. 

No, I'm pretty sure I just need to keep writing! I took a break for a bit, so that's why. Had some bad timing. Nothing to worry about.

Are you sure about that? Are you sure you're not wasting your time with this writing thing? Maybe you should give it a rest.

I'm doing okay. I think. Man, I don't know...

It takes just one little doubt, one instance of second-guessing, and before you know it, the floodgates are opened and the doubts are rolling in.

It didn't take long for me to go from feeling confident and excited about my writing to feeling that maybe I was just wasting my time and needed to quit. And that's just crazy. Of course I'm going to have ups and downs, highs and lows. I'm on a journey here! Not everything is going to go perfectly. But I'll never know what I'm capable of if I give up before I even really get started.

So today I'm telling you: When the doubts start creeping in, don't listen. I'm not sure exactly where that little voice in your head comes from. Maybe it's from you, maybe it's from someone in your life who has criticized you in the past, maybe it's based on a past experience and actually has some truth to it.

Whatever it is, shut it down before it poisons you. Don't second guess yourself. Don't let fear paralyze you.

Break free.

Doing great things requires risk. And yeah, you'll fail sometimes. Not everything you do is going to be amazing and perfect in every way. But if you give up, if you let fear paralyze you, you'll never know what could have been.

Get up, shake off those doubts, and go on your way.

You are made to do great things.

Don't let some punk voice in your head tell you otherwise.

Break free!