How to Overcome Self Doubt and Boost Self Confidence

Overcoming self doubt is a common problem when trying to become successful in life. Self doubt can creep in to anyone’s thoughts, and luckily, there are some ways to overcome self doubt and unlock your full potential.

Lately, I’ve been dealing with some self doubt and anxiety in a few areas of my life.

One of those areas is becoming a better indoor rock climber and becoming stronger over time.

As I’ve started to progress as a rock climber, there have been numerous times where I get into sticky situations on the wall, and I doubt my ability to make it to the next hold.

I look up to the next hold, a mere two feet above me, and begin to feel uneasy about my current situation.

When I’m bouldering, this is understandable, as I can be over five to ten feet up in the air.

But the interesting thing is, when I push through my self doubt in those moments, I’m usually able to do the move I didn’t think I could do.

My body physically could make the move, even when my brain was telling me no.

This has been happening to me for the past few weeks, and now that I’m aware of this self doubt, I’ve been able to overcome and push through some of the existing barriers to become better.

In this post, I’m going to share with you some tips on how you can overcome self doubt, boost your self confidence, and unlock your full potential. 

By the end of this post, my hope is you will have some actionable steps in your life to overcome self doubt.

Overcoming Self Doubt and Anxiety Around Not Being Enough

Before going into the tips for overcoming self doubt, I want to revisit my experience with rock climbing.

A feeling I’ve had repeated over the past few weeks has been a feeling of discomfort when I get into tricky situations.

One such example was when I was climbing a 5.10- route, which kind of snaked up the wall, and had an overhang at the top.

At the top of the route, you have to stick your arms into a crack, create tension in your body, and lift both feet onto higher holds to get to the next good handhold.

The first few times I tried this, I wasn’t confident enough in my ability, and didn’t trust myself to be able to execute the move.

The last time I did this route, I made a less than full effort and fell off the wall (I was completely safe, but had to climb up a little bit to get back to the same spot).

Holding on, I told myself I had to give it 100% and trust my strength.

Even though it felt awkward, I gave it my all, and executed the move. It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it was, and I was ecstatic about my success.

Why couldn’t I have done this the first time? Why did I doubt myself? What could I have done to be more confident the first few times around?

These are questions I keep asking myself, and I think I’m finally getting closer to the answers.

Now, let’s talk about some tips for overcoming self doubt, increasing your self confidence, and unlocking your full potential.

7 Tips to Overcome Self Doubt and Boost Self Confidence

Unlocking your full potential and getting over self doubt is possible with the right set of steps and tips. Below are 7 things for you to consider when looking to increase your self confidence and get on the way to achieving your goals.

1. Become Self Aware of Your Abilities
2. Practice the Power of Positive Thinking
3. Talk to Others about Your Situation
4. Realize Setbacks and Barriers are Temporary Steps to Your Goals
5. Keep Working on Your Skills
6. Experiment With Different Approaches
7. Remember Consistent Actions Added Up Lead to Massive Success

Let’s now dive into each of these in more detail below.

1. Become Self Aware of Your Abilities

Self awareness is the first step towards becoming a success and reaching your goals.

By reading this article, and recognizing your self doubt and self confidence can be improved, I can tell you already have a good sense of self awareness.

Self awareness of when you are struggling is the first step to improvement.

Next, a self awareness around your current skills and abilities is also important.

Is your self doubt a function of:

• Needing more training?
• Not having the proper knowledge?
• Needing a more diverse set of experiences and perspectives?
• Having external pressures?
• Needing more time to work things out for yourself?

By answering these questions, you can figure out where you need to improve for reaching your goals.

If there are legitimate barriers to your progress, then maybe you can remove self doubt by addressing these barriers.

If the barriers are in your head, then maybe it’s best to work on your mindset and boost your confidence through affirmations.

2. Practice the Power of Positive Thinking and Affirmations

Your brain is incredibly powerful. The thing about our thoughts is that they can quite literally create and shape your reality.

If you believe in yourself and believe in what you are doing, you can make it happen.

By using affirmations and positive thinking, you can manifest your wants and dreams into your life.

By saying “I can do it” and “I’m a confident person”, you will become someone who can do whatever you want in your life, and you will become confident.

Using positive thinking can help you on your way to becoming more confident in your abilities.

3. Talk to Others about Your Situation

While I believe everyone can find the answers to any question they have, sometimes getting a second (and honest) opinion from a friend or family member can help with self doubt.

Not everyone is an expert on everything, but many people have a wide set of experiences and perspectives on life, and can give you insight into what you could try to improve your situation.

4. Realize Setbacks and Barriers are Temporary Steps to Your Goals

Success and achievement does not happen from going from point A to point B.

When making plans, it is always nice to lay things out in a linear manner, but in reality, nothing is linear. As Murphy’s Law states, what can go wrong, will go wrong.

But, if you have the mindset that setbacks are temporary and necessary, then you can accept this failure and move on to the next task.

Right now, I’m dealing with some elbow tendinitis, and can’t always give it my all at the gym.

But, I recognize this and am allowing myself to rest and recover.

I know I’ll be back to 100% soon, and then I can continue to progress to my goals.

5. Keep Working on Your Skills

As Stephen Covey says in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, sharpening the saw is important before making a cut.

What he means by this is that through learning, experience, and growth, you can improve as a person to become more successful in what you are looking to accomplish.

If you are stuck in a rut, going back to the basics can give you confidence to proceed. Maybe taking a break and reassessing the next day is the best move.

Sometimes taking a step backward can lead to two steps forward with a new skill or perspective in hand.

6. Experiment with Different Approaches

Similar to the last section, experimentation and gaining new experiences can help with whatever task you are struggling with.

I love experimenting with different things at work when it comes to my programming and coding, and also I’ve looked to do this in other areas (diet, eating habits, exercise, and side hustles).

When you experiment, instead of taking some one else’s instruction, you make original connections in your brain for yourself.

Those first hand connections are so powerful and can help you make even more original connections in your brain for your next tasks.

7. Remember Consistent Actions Added Up WILL Lead to Massive Success

Success is simply the sum of simple daily disciplines and actions.

When starting off, it’s very tough to see any progress.

However, the power of compounding is incredibly powerful.

Think about pushing a massive rock – at first, you can barely push it. But, after pushing more and more, all of a sudden, the rock starts to move and turn over on itself.

As time goes on, you barely have to push.

That’s the power of compounding and consistency.

So many people fail to get to that breaking point, and instead give up.

You need to commit to consistency and action if you want to find success and master your life.

By committing to action and doing, you will be able to figure out what is best for your situation and get on to achieving your dreams.

Eliminate Self Doubt and Get on to Achieving Your Dreams Today!

Getting rid of self doubt and boosting your self confidence can seem like something which is impossible, but I can assure you that you can make it happen for yourself.

Improving a little bit on your mindset and habits each day can help you get towards getting that promotion at work, breaking through a fitness barrier, or helping you become more social.

Cultivating self confidence and having a strong, positive image of yourself in your head might not happen over night.

But, by working on boosting self confidence and removing self doubt from your focus, you can improve.

Thanks for reading!

Readers: what do you do to eliminate self doubt and boost self confidence? Which tip for boosting self confidence will you use?

Erik