One night last week after everyone had gone to bed, I sat by myself fully immersed in a self-doubt session. What if my latest e-book is a dud, what if my articles aren't up to scratch, what if I'm doing the wrong thing, what on earth made me decide to follow this path anyway (duh hello, you did...), what if, what if, and more what if? The ‘what ifs’ haunted me for quite some time that night.

So what did I do? Well, I recalled all my achievements, great and small, how far I've actually come through making mistakes, great and small, and learning from them. Satisfied with what I came up with, I dusted myself off, gave myself a stern talking to and was right as rain the following morning.

Self-doubt means to lack faith or confidence in oneself. However self-doubt can be used as a powerful 'call to action' tool.

• Work with self-doubt; use it to your advantage. If having a self-doubt moment or two get some feedback from people you value.

• Know that you’re not alone when having a self-doubt moment. An element of this is experienced by some of the best known people on the planet – from top athletes, to movie directors, to writers etc. The secret is to keep going, learning from what didn’t work and working on how to make it better.

• Learn to have faith and belief in your ability – recall and link to past experiences where you’ve been successful, from the small to the large, making note of any negative mind chatter.

• Write at least five foolscap pages of what your self-doubt means to you. Write an equal amount of pages of how you will challenge your self-doubt (and that negative mind chatter) and send it packing.

• It’s okay to cry or tear up some paper into a million pieces then jump up and down on them (this can feel really good) as long as it’s short-lived. Once a self-doubt cleansing has been completed, time to brush off and get back to it. This tip works particularly well for me…

• Strike up friendships with people who have a positive influence on you and let go of those that do not.

• If stuck in self-doubt mode, it’s time for a bit of attitude re-adjustment.

Ask yourself “What’s important about my self-doubt?”

Continue asking yourself this question until you can go no further.

When you’ve reached your final answer ask yourself “What can I do about this?”

• Be in the present moment. This where you can focus on actively doing the now stuff instead of lamenting the past or yearning for something in the future.

• Access inner peace. Sounds clichéd I know, however having this enables one to keep coping and going whilst chaos reigns supreme. The peace I speak of is not (although it's all very nice) about harps, angels, or relaxation music, it’s about accessing a state of being that will help cope with the ‘business as usual’ happening around you.

Self-doubt can be a powerful tool. Having a self-doubt moment or two means an opportunity for a bit of strategic planning has presented itself to you. It can also be used as an opportunity to double check your facts and figures. From experience, as soon as all the boxes are ticked, the effects of the self-doubt moment will start to recede making it much easier to get to sleep.

Michaela Scherr
www.michaelascherr.com