Give yourself permission to be in doubt for as long as you need to — but then take steps to change it.
Some folks will read that sentence as another way to describe the “fake it ’til you make it” philosophy, which can leave us feeling hollow or disingenuous. I’m not quite suggesting that. What I am suggesting is this: doubt can be a powerful motivator and a brilliant lens. You see, what I usually find is that people who doubt do so because they can’t see the path–not because they can’t see the end. In fact, I would argue that the only way to have doubt is to see the end. Otherwise, what are you doubting? Everything?
Many people confuse the two–the ‘path’ vs. the ‘end’–or simply assume these are one and the same. But they are absolutely not. The path is a thousand little steps, most of which can’t be seen until the previous 1, 10, 100, 997 have already been taken. And as MLK once famously said, “We need not see the whole staircase to take the first step.” Our path from doubt to confidence doesn’t live in the elimination of the doubt, it lives in the string of successes found in every little step we take.It lives in action. You take enough of those steps and the little successes add up. Get enough success, no matter how small the win, and doubt starts to feel outnumbered.
Doubt, fear, weakness, whatever you want to call it–that isn’t your enemy. Inaction is. Doubt can’t live long in action, but inaction will give doubt immortality.
