Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Find your inner belief

Hi all! I’m back with a side kick who’s going to help me beat that annoying Mr Self Doubt. Who is this side kick? Drum roll please. I would like to introduce Mr/Miss/Mrs Self Belief. For me, my pal is called Pinky Self-Belief, and she’s ready to tackle Mr Self Doubt.

During my writing journey, it has been difficult to find Pinky Self-Belief. She shouts to be heard, but Mr Self Doubt stomps through with a marching band, which can make listening to her a constant struggle. So what do you do? Well, Mr Self Doubt may be louder, but he is not stronger than Pinky Self-Belief. All s/he needs is for you to block out the negatives and focus on her/him. So how do you do this? Where can you find her/him? Well, today I will be helping you find your own Self Belief companion.

So let’s start with where you can find your Self Belief companion:

• S/he is the voice that encourages you to submit, write, and edit.
• S/he is the voice that praises you for any success. This includes anything from an impressive line in a sentence to being published.
• S/he is the voice of reason after a rejection. The one that lets you know that you can do better, or that you might not have found the right place to submit your work to.
• S/he is the determination to keep going.
• S/he is the voice that says you can and you will.
• S/he is the voice that allows you to understand the feedback you receive, especially the negative ones, and know how you can improve.

As stated before, it’s not that easy to focus on finding Miss/Mr Self Belief. So, here are some ways to focus on your Self Belief companion:

• The days you don’t feel like writing, grab a pen and write down why. Share your emotions with the paper. Let them ooze out of you, and free the mind from the negatives.
• When you receive a rejection, before you tear yourself and your story apart, study the feedback, if you receive any, and go through the story again. Chances are you will see what the issue is and then the voice of reason will kick in.
• Remind yourself why you write. Sometimes in your quest to be published, you forget the reason you write, which is simply for the love of it.
• Read your most successful stories. These can be stories that you love the most, or ones that are published. This will allow that voice to say, “See, you’re not crap after all.”
• Take a break and enjoy the great outdoors, or simply go for a walk to your nearest store. At times your mind needs a rest from having to churn out stories, and Mr Self Doubt thrives on a tired mind, so get out and breath some fresh air (as fresh as you can get). Enjoy being outside, and when you return you’ll find that your Self Belief friend is sitting waiting for you.

With everything in life, if you want to get anyway, you need to believe in yourself because a person who says I can’t will not succeed. You need to believe that you can be better, you can do better, and that one day if you continue to fight you will reach that goal. All you need is that Self Belief friend standing by your side, there to catch you when you fall and to push you when you think you can no longer go on. So find your pal, find them and hold them tight because without them success is unreachable.

To end this post, here is another inspirational quote:

“Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King Jr.