Have You Become Your Own Worst Enemy? Strategies for Overcoming Self-Doubt

It's one thing to hear negative talk about yourself from your enemies, but quite another to come to the realization that you're your own worst enemy because of what you do to undermine your self-confidence and sabotage your efforts.

You may have experienced so much self-loathing that you come to believe what you're saying. That's a dangerous place to be because you'll be frustrated, indecisive and unmotivated to follow a path that will lead you to success.

Imagine talking to a good friend or child with the same negative and hateful words that you use to talk to yourself. If you love that friend or child, you'd never think of using those tactics.

So, why do you berate yourself? The answer is that the demoralizing voice inside your mind has its own game plan - and that is to make you doubt yourself so much that you fail miserably.

You certainly wouldn't want a friend to fail because of what you said. When you begin to acknowledge and understand the power that the thinking process has over you, it's time to do something about it.

To overcome your own self, you have to be able to discern which inner words are unrealistic and begin to discard them from your vocabulary. During the self-analysis process, ask yourself if you appreciate the small things in your life.

It's great to have grandiose goals and dreams such as a new house, car and plenty of money in the bank, but have you thought about the pleasure of a cool breeze on a hot summer day or the way the rain makes the world seem clean again?

Those are the small things in our lives which must also be appreciated for what they are and what they add to your life. When you learn to appreciate the smaller things in life, the satisfaction and pleasure you feel can make the negative thoughts easier to see for what they are.

When you're focused on the important things in life, such as your health and all of the blessings that have come your way, it's more difficult for negatives to take root in your mind.

Selling yourself short by practicing negative self-talk can damage and perhaps annihilate your full potential. You'll hold yourself back from experiences that can make you happy and fulfilled and make excuses about why what you want to do will never happen.

Try not to focus on things you have no control over and concentrate instead on your capabilities. Pat yourself on the back once in a while. When it comes to Internet marketing, every day you show up to serve is a day worth celebrating!

Learn How to Drown Out Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts are the nemesis of creating a successful business - and life - for yourself. It's difficult to drown out the thoughts that corrupt your thinking and prevent the flow of energy to make yourself better, but there are some ways to calm a racing mind and stop the flow of negativity that threatens to bring you down.

Perhaps you just need some quiet time - time for yourself to ruminate on the positive things you've accomplished. Meditation is one way to achieve the quiet time you need to get your thoughts under control.

Whether you meditate in the forest, next to a babbling brook or in a quiet place in your home with the television and other devices turned off, the quiet you've created can be a catalyst for more creative and positive thought patterns.

When you're meditating, you may want to try positive affirmations as a way to quiet your brain and push out negative thoughts and feelings. An affirmation can be as simple as repeating to yourself that you're stronger than all of the negative thoughts that come your way and that you can and will overcome them.

Journaling is also a good way to get your negative thoughts out of your mind, onto pen and paper and see them for what they are. Journaling lets you get and keep in touch with your deeper inner self and create an awareness that you haven't experienced before.

It's a fact that writing is an exercise that seems to reinforce and help you understand things better than typing or even speaking. Journaling helps you work out problems that may have cluttered your thinking in the past.

Reinforcing the positive messages you receive from yourself or others is an important and viable way to drown out negative thoughts. The above methods of affirmations, meditation and journaling are valuable tools to ensure that negative thoughts and feelings don't remain in your life and that you can continue progressing to a more positive inner state of mind.

When weeding negative thoughts out of your life, make sure you surround yourself with positive people whenever you can. It's easy to be influenced by people who always spout negativity and seem to want everyone around them to feel the same way.

Of course, it's impossible to feel upbeat all the time. Life is sure to get you down once in a while. But find a way that works for you to silence the negativity and stop being so hard on yourself.

Finding the Right Balance Between Desensitizing Yourself and Taking It Too Personally

Criticism is sometimes difficult to manage. Constructive criticism, however well delivered, can hurt as much as the intentionally cruel criticism, but if you view both types the right way, it can be very helpful to you in your business ventures.

Some people seem to let criticism roll off their backs. Others lash out when they're criticized and may hurt what they're ultimately trying to accomplish. The best way to view criticism is with a balance between desensitizing yourself too much so you're unfeeling - and taking it too personally that it discourages you and sabotages your efforts.

Online criticism can be especially cruel because it isn't done face to face. You don't have to deal with the reaction of the other person, so you feel freer to criticize with harsher words.

A person may be in a bad mood when he criticizes your efforts and take it out on you undeservingly. Your first reaction might be to lash out at the person with some harsh criticism of your own.

The best way to fight that first reaction and keep yourself from reacting in a way you'll regret is to take a minute to give it some thought. Take a deep breath, step back and take no reaction at all until a later time when you've cooled down and are thinking more clearly.

Fight the negatives with positives. If someone has criticized you in a way that is rude and unjustified, finding a kernel of honest feedback in the criticism can turn it around so that both you and the person who criticized can learn from it.

Criticism can provide you with a unique opportunity to improve - and to show others that you have a unique and positive way of looking at and measuring feedback. When you thank others (especially those who criticize harshly) for their feedback, it will likely surprise them.

Your attitude may turn them around in their thinking and win them over to become fans. Even if the person doesn't react positively to your own positive attitude, you'll feel better about yourself.

Learning from the criticism you receive can make your business thrive. You may only learn a small bit of truth from the criticism, but it may spur you on to make a greater effort in your online endeavors.

Never let the words of others result in a heap of self-doubt. Take their $0.02 and apply it wherever you feel it's worthy and then discard the rest. Stay above the fray and accept criticism with grace and diplomacy rather than giving in to your first reaction.

Let Go of Your Ego That Says a Spotlight Is on You

Finding yourself in a room full of people and suddenly getting the sinking feeling that every eye is on you is a nightmare that most of us have lived through. You instantly begin to doubt how you appear and begin to examine yourself for smudges on your face or a clothing malfunction.

It's likely that you were mistaken that everyone was suddenly looking at you. It was actually a form of self-doubt that creeped in at just the right time to make you feel you were in a spotlight of scrutiny.

You might react in a couple of ways during a scenario like the one above. Panic might make you instantly doubt yourself and frantically begin looking for the problem others are seeing.

Or, you might wonder, but decide to dismiss everyone else and return confidently to the conversation you were once enjoying or whatever you were focused on at the moment. Rather than your fear of failure, it may be your ego that's causing you to think everyone in the room is looking at you.

Your ego may also be detrimental in business, too. You might worry that even success will bring more people to the table to watch you - which means even more self-doubt creeps in.

The same ego that assumes people are watching your every move is the same one that fears ridicule if you happen to falter or fail with a project or idea. Until you let go of the ego and self-doubt that accompanies it, you're wasting precious time and energy on worry or frustration.

One way to bash the downside of your ego is to stop the need to win every battle and be successful with every venture. When you're winning, there's no need to consult your inner voice about the actions you've taken to get to the finish line.

Losing, on the other hand, makes you stop and think about what you need to do next time to make it happen. Competition is always present in Internet marketing ventures, but you don't have to think you need to knock it out of the ballpark every time or else people will make fun of you.

Losing a challenge or being wrong about a product or person is a learning experience which can help your future success. Rather than letting ego take over and ruin your life and your business chances, focus on improvement in all that you are and strive to be. Be happy with what you've accomplished so far and take action to improve and grow.

Translate Your Excuses When Self-Doubt Rears Its Ugly Head

Excuses stem from self-doubt and may occur when you least expect it. For example, you may be on the verge of a big launch that you've worked on, thought about and strategized for a very long time.

All of a sudden (maybe in the middle of the night), you break out in a cold sweat and thoughts of failure that you can't squash. Fear can take over your mind, body and life before you know it - unless you can weed out the legitimate fears from those originating from unfounded doubts about your abilities.

Although the groundwork of journaling, affirmations and meditation is helpful to assuage these doubts, fear is bound to occur. Rather than giving in to doubts right away and slinking away in the night, be honest with yourself.

How much of the self-doubt is real - and how much of what you're feeling and thinking are right out lies? When your thoughts and fears are legitimate, you should automatically start thinking of ways to turn things around.

By getting your fears out into the open, you can carefully examine them for legitimacy. Your fears may stem from thinking you're not an expert in what you're trying to accomplish.

If there's something you don't know, it's fairly easy - with all the powers of the Internet - to find answers. Many times, it's the experience you get from trying (and even failing) that pushes you toward the status of expert.

And even the thought of being an actual expert in your field may cause you fear and concern. What if you fail or let people down? Think about the worst that can happen if your latest venture fails miserably.

You may lose money and your time and effort may fall by the wayside, but you may also have learned a huge lesson. Try to look for the positives in any failure. They can help ensure your next success.

It may help you quiet your own fears and doubts by realizing that everyone has them. Even the most successful among us have been humbled by negative thoughts that creep into their minds. How they handle the fears and how long it affects them separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

The best way to stop making excuses and get on with the business of being successful is to replace those self-doubting thoughts the minute they enter your mind. Experiment with what method(s) work best for you.