16 Clear Reasons Why You Should Not Doubt Yourself

There are many instances in my life where I began doubting myself. When I was first starting to be a blogger, I doubted my skills so often, which prevented me from going full throttle in reaching my goals. Right now, I am living happily, and looking back; I couldn’t have done it without trying to control my self-doubts. Thus, to help more people, I have decided to list why people should not doubt themselves.

The main reason why we should not doubt ourselves is that we can be wrong. Many of us tend to underestimate our abilities that prevent us from reaching or even starting to reach our goals. Furthermore, self-doubt brings the fear of failure or the feeling that we can’t control things which is bad for our general well-being.

In this blog post, I have listed 16 reasons that came from my experience as a Blogger, YouTuber, and my research on why you should not doubt yourself. My hope is for you to start believing in yourself after finding these reasons. I wish you good luck in any aspirations you have in life.

1. Removing Doubts Builds Courage and Will

The more you try to stop doubting yourself, the more courage you will have.

This is because once we have some success, we begin to build courage.

The thing about doubts is that it prevents us from proving ourselves. Proving ourselves is a sure way to boost our courage.

For example, my self-doubt prevented me from making my own YouTube Channel. But when I was able to start my own channel, I slowly began to gain courage and try new things.

I proved to myself that I have what it takes to have a beginner’s mindset to start doing something new.

That’s the good thing about not doubting yourself. It slowly builds your courage to try more things. It helps us break free from our limiting beliefs.

Furthermore, our willpower increases as we practice building confidence. The more confidence we have, the more we can respond better to doubts.

In here, I said to respond. I did not say to stop.

This is because confidence is accepting everything in us, including our weaknesses and doubts.

This leads us to reason number 2.

2. All of Us Have Self-Doubts

You are not the only person in the world who has self-doubts.

Everyone has doubts. Everyone tends to doubt themselves.

Even the people who you look up to and the people who seem perfect tend to doubt themselves.

But what separates them is that they know how to respond to these doubts.

Since we all have doubts, what we need to do is to accept them.

So, respond appropriately to your doubts. Believe you can stop doubting yourself like how other people did.

All of us have different challenges in life that require us to face our doubts. This includes the successful ones.

If they can face their doubts, so can you.

3. We All Have Our Timelines

One of the things that stop people from believing in themselves is their past mistakes.

It may be that they are failed once, or they might feel like they are left behind.

While they see others succeed, they feel like their life is stagnant and boring.

But here is the thing. We all have our timelines.

For example, Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, started being a chef at age 40.

He achieved success late, but it did not stop him from reaching his goals.

So, it would be best if you believe that we all have our timelines. Our past failures should not really define who we are today.

Failures are a good source of experience.

If the source of your doubts is being left behind or the feeling that you aren’t enough, then think again.

Maybe, it is now your turn to turn your life around.

Here is my YouTube video where I explained more about this topic. I hope it helps you gain back your confidence.

4. Most of Us Tend To Underestimate Our Abilities

The thing about our self-doubt is that we tend to underestimate our abilities.

For example, we might think that we are not ready to work on our goals, but the truth is, we have all that is necessary to start.

People tend to wait for the perfect moment where they have all the skills necessary to achieve their goals.

The thing is, it doesn’t happen. The stars will never fall in line for you to start.

The doubt will always be there.

Even after writing hundreds of blog posts, I still have doubts about writing my blog posts.

But it doesn’t matter anymore. I already built my courage to start.

My doubt will always remain, but I can try to adjust and learn as long as I constantly prove myself.

But my point here is that we often underestimate our abilities while in doubt. The truth is, our perfectionism can be an enemy if we take it too seriously.

That’s why I always say that we should listen to our doubts, but it is not our responsibility to follow them.

As I have already said, we all have doubts.

5. We Can Be Wrong

Here is something you can ask yourself when you doubt yourself.

What if I’m wrong?

What if you doubt your writing skills, but you can do your job well? What if you are good at playing the piano and you’re just underestimating yourself?

As humans, we all make mistakes. We are emotional creatures, after all. We try to think that we are very logical, but the truth is, our emotions are more profound than our logical thinking.

The problem is those “what ifs” will be there as long as you didn’t try, much like my doubt of what if I created my YouTube channel, which I had for years.

What if you’re wrong? What if your personality is lovable?

What if our doubts are wrong? Should it prevent us from trying?

What if our doubts are wrong? Should it prevent us from trying?

Jason Ong

6. Sometimes, You Just Have To Believe in Yourself

Since you already know about the chance of being wrong, you have to understand that you have to believe.

Believe in yourself. If you want to achieve something, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

It might take months, years, or even decades to realize your goals fully, but you will get there.

If there is one thing that pushes us to our limits, it is our belief.

Sometimes, you have to believe in yourself. Believe in your abilities. Believe in your ability to learn new things.

7. Everyone Makes Mistakes

It is essential to understand that we all make mistakes.

If we failed the first time, we have learned our lessons, and we could try again.

Our past mistakes can cause us to doubt ourselves. But remember that everybody makes mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes shows that the people who succeed just learned how to stand up again after failing.

Thomas Edison failed 1,000 times to make the light bulb. If he gave up and doubted himself after just 2 tries, then he would fail.

It took 5,127 attempts for James Dyson to build the first vacuum cleaner.

Imagine the world we will live in if people give up after 1 or 2 tries.

Since everybody makes mistakes, it should not prevent us from doubting ourselves.

We need to understand that we should own our mistakes and try again. Self-doubt will always be there, but it should never prevent us from reaching our goals.

8. Doubts Prevents Us From Using Our True Strengths

Here is why you should not doubt yourself. It prevents us from looking at our strengths.

For example, I wouldn’t find out that I can speak on camera if I doubted myself in starting my Channel.

This is special for me since I am a stutterer by birth.

I wouldn’t make hundreds of blog posts if I doubted myself from the beginning.

These doubts prevent us from using our best. It prevents us from using our true strengths.

So why do we doubt ourselves? If we want to see the best version of ourselves, we should stop ourselves from doubting.

9. Doubt can Affect Our Social Skills and Relationships with Other People

One reason why you should not doubt yourself is that you might become very negative towards other people.

People generally don’t like being around the negative ones. They don’t like being with people who would always question their abilities to succeed.

We all want to be around somebody supportive and positive, especially if we talk about our goals.

If we always doubt ourselves and others, how can we have a good social life? How can we have a good relationship with our peers, friends, partner, coworkers, and many more?

Being positive is one of the keys to healthy social life. Thus, it is one of the things to think of before becoming too negative.

10. Doubt Prevents Us From Doing Our Best

Constantly following our doubts prevents us from doing our best.

The thing is that doubt prevents us from trusting ourselves.

This leads to less effort in doing our best since we start believing that we can’t finish what we are doing.

For example, if you want to be a singer and doubt yourself, how do you expect to do your best while studying.

Our doubts bring us a sense of failure even if it is still not there. This makes us lose our confidence or our belief in our abilities.

If we can’t do our best, our chance of success will also decrease.

11. Overcoming Doubt Allows Us To Prove Ourselves

Sometimes, it is our doubts that allow us to prove ourselves.

If we have doubts, we can try our best to prove that it is wrong.

For example, you can prove that you are excellent at public speaking by trying to face your fears.

And proving that your doubts are wrong is just good. It will make a new you that has more courage, ability, and confidence.

So try to face your doubts.

12. Mistakes Are a Good Source of Learnings

So what if your doubts are correct and you failed?

Mistakes are a part of life. The good thing is that mistakes provide an excellent source of learning.

As they always say, experience is the best teacher.

We all make mistakes, and that is alright. Even if we fail, the new skills and life experiences we will get are well worth the price.

Most experts became experts because they made a lot of mistakes.

13. Doubt Prevents Us From Getting Results

Doubting your abilities prevents you from working on your goals.

If that’s the case, how can you expect you’ll get results?

Results come from doing. If we don’t do something because of doubts or fear of failing, it is the same as failing.

How can we expect to raise or change our current situation if we don’t do something about it?

Our doubts prevent us from doing our best. It prevents us from starting. It prevents us from achieving things.

We can’t expect any result if we don’t start doing things.

14. Doubt Can Be Good or Bad and We Should Be Strategic

Doubts can be good or bad, depending on how we use them. We should be very strategic in how we use our doubts.

In my other blog post, I explained why self-doubt could be good for us since it can be a form of self-check to make sure that we are ready to handle challenges.

Think of self-doubt as a tool. A tool can both be used for good and bad. For example, the internet allows us to learn new things to help our well-being, such as reading this post.

But the internet also has numerous things that we should be wary of, such as too much playing games, too much social media, and many more.

My point here is that doubts can both be good or bad depending on how we use them.

As I have already said, we all have doubts. We can’t remove it from our lives, but it doesn’t mean that it is always right.

The way we respond to these doubts is what matters. Maybe try hearing it out or try not following it.

For example, I was able to build this website despite my doubts. I pushed myself while knowing that I lacked website development and writing skills. I started YouTube without skills in speaking in front of a camera and editing videos.

Thus, take these doubts as a form of self-assessment. It can be wrong, but at least you have something that lets you know if you have the skills to handle things or not.

For more information on how doubt can benefit us, I recommend you read my other blog post regarding the topic. I know that it is a good way for you to have a better relationship with your doubts. Here is the link: Is Self-doubt a strength or weakness?

15. Life Starts at the End of Your Comfort Zone

I don’t remember where but I once read these lines somewhere.

While reading this quote, I started to think deeply about what it means.

Upon reflection, I found out that it is talking about our doubts.

Our doubts keep us in our comfort zone. However, staying there won’t bring us anything.

Staying in the comfort zone will only bring us our usual routine and everyday life.

We can’t expect any changes.

But life is about the highs and lows. If we don’t allow ourselves to try things, how can we be sure that we live the life we want?

Sometimes, we need to get out of our comfort zone. It is our doubts that prevent us from trying things.

When I got out of my comfort zone, I made my first blog, my YouTube channel, traveled to different places, talked to other people from different cultures, and many more.

It made my life better.

16. Doubt Prevents Us From Starting

Lastly, doubt prevents us from starting.

The thing about reaching our dreams is that the hardest thing to do is to start.

This is much like how I feel blank or without anything to say while starting to write this blog post.

Of course, my doubts will always be here. It is an emotion that all of us experience.

However, Success is our ability to respond to these doubts.

For example, since I am near the end, I feel satisfied and happy that once again, I was able to suppress my doubts and start working.

Remember that the most crucial thing in reaching your goals is to start.

So don’t doubt yourself. Try to take a deep breath and start doing instead of thinking.