How to stop second guessing yourself in business
Tips To Feel Confident In Your Business & Yourself
by Adrian Karzon
Well, that title above is probably a little misleading, as I don’t think any of us ever completely stop doubting things that we do, be it personal or business, however I have learnt that there are things that we can put in place to help make that pesky little self-doubt that sits on our shoulder be a little quieter.
The hardest thing to learn I have found is not to overthink things, if we can do this it removes the “what if’s” that can have us paralysed in a negative spiral of indecision.
When I found myself no longer trusting my gut instinct and instead constantly ruminating on decisions, I realised it wasn’t just impacting myself it was impacting my team, who relied on me to lead them and make decisions in a timely manner. So off to Mr Google and self help books I went, I can tell you there is so much information on the topic I found I was now second-guessing which method I should try!! However, I found some really helpful simple ideas that have worked really well for me, so I thought I would share them to save someone else jumping down the rabbit hole like I did.
Write a pros and cons list
This method has been around forever and ever, the benefits of doing this is it allows us to start thinking objectively about the decision and helps to remove some of the emotive thoughts we may be having.
Consider a different point of view or redirect your thinking
You shouldn’t give all your thoughts equal footing, some thoughts definitely do not deserve to be given a response, however you can redirect your thinking or gain an alternative interpretation with a little self-coaching to challenge yourself to find a differing point of view. Using phrases like: “How can I make the most of the situation” or “If I was to give my best friend advice if they were in this situation, what would I say?”
Talk to yourself and interrupt that inner critic
Once you find that your brain has led you down the path to negative thoughts, consciously look to prompt yourself to say “stop”, take charge of your inner voice. If you find that the negative voice is still there consider redirecting your thoughts by doing the following:
Accept the situation
When we beat ourselves up about a decision, we waste valuable time and leave our team waiting, a much more productive approach is to accept that there isn’t always a right or wrong answer and that none of us have a crystal ball that tells us exactly what the outcome of every decision will be. Accept the facts to also be the way that they are, that you can’t change them, adjust your perspective.
One for the road…
Although we can’t control all of our thoughts, we can look to try harness our habits by practising some of the above tips, you will notice that the negative self-doubt that pops up will be come less and less frequent.
A last great tip I read in a self-help book, was to schedule time to allow your brain to overthink, by doing this, it is less likely to interrupt you with those thoughts at other times during the day.
I hope I have saved you a little time in front of Mr Google with my tips above, I have found that I now more at peace with my decisions, by accepting that they are neither right nor wrong. I would love to hear from anyone who has other great tips also though!