Why Overcoming Self-Doubt is Your Most Important Job

Overcoming self-doubt is your most important job as a writer.

Don’t think so? Answer one question: Do you believe that with hard work, determination, and persistence, you can succeed in achieving your writing goals?

Your answer determines your fate.

You may not believe that. Success depends on other factors like luck, you may say, the market, who you know (or don’t), and your innate writing talent.

All these factors can indeed come into play when it comes to your writing career, but they do not ultimately determine your future.

There’s only one thing that does: overcoming self-doubt.

How Overcoming Self-Doubt Determines Your Writing Future

Self-doubt is a common challenge for most writers, but often we don’t understand how critical it is to overcome it.

Self-doubt can make you believe that you can’t make your writing dreams come true, so why keep trying?

If you ever start thinking like that, take it as the danger sign that it is. See it as a giant red light flashing fiercely in your face with an accompanying very loud and irritating siren.

The second you begin to believe you aren’t good enough, talented enough, smart enough, or whatever-enough to achieve your writing goals, you’ve lost the fight, or you are at least in danger of losing it.

“Consider that continuing, despite various obstacles, to persist at something requires personal will and determination,” writes psychologist Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. in Psychology Today. “And these invaluable assets can be mobilized only when you believe that putting in enough effort will virtually guarantee a positive outcome. [Emphasis mine.] Absent this conviction—that simply committing to, and persevering with, an undertaking will likely lead to success—you’ll probably stop well short of your goal.”

In other words, it all comes down to what you believe. Do you think you can do this? Or have you allowed failures, discouragements, a difficult market, and time management struggles to convince you otherwise?

The Subtle Destruction Self-Doubt Wreaks on Writers

You may not even realize how much self-doubt is hurting you. That’s because it operates in the shadows. Like a ghost or a spirit, it hovers at the edges of your consciousness, causing you to think negative thoughts without understanding where they’re coming from.

Meanwhile, those negative thoughts stop you from taking action, and taking action is critical to advancing in your career.

You may put off submitting your work to an editor or agent because of self-doubt, wasting precious time allowing your story to sit in the drawer. You may decide to submit your story to a contest “next year” because you’re just not sure it’s “good enough yet,” robbing yourself of the opportunity to see what your story might be able to do.

Every action you take in your writing career, no matter the outcome, creates experience. It teaches you something. You learn and then you do better the next time around.

If you don’t even try, however—and self-doubt will do its darndest to make sure you don’t—you won’t get any of these benefits. Instead, you’ll go nowhere, and that makes self-doubt happy. Unfortunately, it also increases the risk that you’ll begin to believe you can’t do any better, so why try?

Three Steps in Overcoming Self-Doubt

Your own belief in your ability to succeed is what drives action. Self-doubt kills action and leads to failure.

That’s why one of your most important jobs as a writer is to overcome self-doubt and maintain confidence in yourself.

It’s not about bolstering your ego or self-delusion. It’s about encouraging your strength, keeping your motivation high, and reminding yourself that you can do this if you really want to.

If you’re struggling with self-doubt right now, try these three strategies to overcome it.

1. Recognize Self-Doubt When It Appears

Because self-doubt operates in the shadows, it can be difficult to recognize its appearance. You must get better at this.

Your best clue: negative thoughts about yourself. The second you start thinking that you’re not good enough or talented enough or that you’ll “never” be able to stand out in a difficult market, recognize those thoughts as symptoms of a self-doubt attack.

2. Look to Find What Triggered Your Self-Doubt

Once you realize that self-doubt is harassing you, try to find out why.

Typically, something triggers our feelings of self-doubt. Maybe you got a bad review on your novel, did poorly in a contest, or received your tenth rejection. Perhaps an editor said something that stung a little too much, or a family member casts doubt on your writing dreams.

Determining what caused the self-doubt can help put it into perspective. This isn’t about your overall ability or writing talent. This is about one occurrence that shook your confidence a little bit.

3. Take Action Toward Your Goal

There’s a quote by Vincent Van Gogh that I love: “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”

When self-doubt attacks and says “you didn’t place in that contest because your story’s no good,” take action in the direction of your goal by immediately finding an editor or coach to help improve your story.

When self-doubt mocks you saying “you got that bad review because you’re a bad writer,” immediately go read all your good reviews.

When self-doubt says your tenth rejection means you’ll never get published, submit your story to another 10 publishers or agents.

Self-doubt hates action, so take it as soon as you can and watch the self-doubt fade into the background.

When Overcoming Self-Doubt: Boost Your Confidence Daily

In addition to these three steps—which you take when self-doubt is attacking—it’s also important to regularly stoke your confidence.

Just like you would exercise every day or regularly brush your teeth, you must care for your writer’s inner self on a daily basis. Here are some ways you can do that:

• Regularly re-read any good comments you’ve received on your writing.
• Listen to interviews with other writers—you’ll hear how much they struggled too, and realize that struggle is common in this line of work.
• Invest in your writing and marketing education. Nothing boosts confidence like gaining skill.
• Exercise regularly—it improves your mood and boosts your confidence!
• Be kind to yourself. When you go through a discouraging time, give yourself a break and do something that makes you happy.
• Take action toward your writing goals even when you don’t feel like it. Action precedes emotion, not the other way around.

For more help on overcoming self doubt, check out the video below!

How do you overcome self-doubt?

Note: To boost your writing confidence, see Overwhelmed Writer Rescue. Only $5.99 for the ebook!

_{Source
Seltzer, L. F. (2015, May 15). Anxiety and self-doubt: Perfect recipe for underachievement. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-the-self/201505/anxiety-and-self-doubt-perfect-recipe-underachievement}

_{Featured photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash}