5 Ways for Actors to Combat Self-Doubt
- Doubt (Noun)
- 1.) a lack of confidence – DISTRUST
- 2.) an inclination not to believe or accept
- a claim met with doubt
- 3.) uncertainty of belief or opinion that often interferes with decision-making
“What would happen if you stopped doubting yourself?“
Someone asked me this question last week and it stopped me in my tracks.
I pride myself as being a person who chooses to do uncomfortable things that make me want to cringe all the time.
I don’t WANT to do them – ever.
I do it because I know on the other side of this wildly uncomfortable thing that I really don’t want to do…. Is growth.
Mainly growth in my confidence because I chose to lean in to my courage rather than crawl into my comfort cave.
HOWEVER – while I’m in the process of choosing to go face first into my uncomfortability – my mind LOVES to go into a spiral of unnecessary and unhelpful thoughts.
(Cue my insomnia)
And most of the thoughts have some element of doubt laced through them.
What if… it won’t work out?
What if… I’m not capable?
What if… I’m not GOOD enough?
What if… I can’t make it happen?
What if… what if…. What if….
So here’s the thing about self-doubt and our brains… 🧠 🧐
All of your doubts may flood your brain when you’re choosing to do something that challenges you….
Something that you’ve never done before – that’s totally new…
Something that you CARE about (and care about doing well in)…
They aren’t true. They are not facts. They’re FEELINGS that you have.
What’s happening when this doubt creeps in – it’s actually your “lizard brain” (or in more fancy terms – our amygdala) flaring up and giving you warning signals that something isn’t right.
Our “lizard brain” is tasked with keeping us alive – literally, its main function is to help us detect threats so we can continue surviving. And when it detects a threat it allows us to respond in an immediate and automatic way – without the rest of our brain processing this information…
So back in the day when our concern was, “Oh no – there’s a predator that’s hunting me!” We would either immediately go into a fight, take flight, or freeze.
But now the information flooding through our brains now is so much more complex and nuanced.
“Oh no – what if I am not capable of doing my best and taking on this awesome opportunity and what if I’m not good enough to make my dreams a reality and I’m confused on what step to even take next, how am I supposed to achieve greatness… etc;”
And that same part of our brain (lizard brain – amygdala) will get activated and try to give us an immediate emotional response to take away the “threat”…. But it ends up hurting us more than helping us.
It moves us into a state of surviving rather than a state of thriving.
What would happen if doubt didn’t creep in during your decision-making process?
What would happen if you didn’t trust your first thought that appeared but challenged its validity?
What would happen if you had unshakeable trust in yourself and your abilities? (And that even when you failed – because you will, it’s inevitable, you KNOW you’d pick yourself back up and be stronger because of it.)
✨ Ways to combat self-doubt ✨
| Action over information ⚡️You have all the information you need to make an excellent decision – trying to wait for the right answer to come about what to do next or continue investigating and collecting more information will not help you move forward – you’ll be struck in analysis paralysis. Action is what helps you move forward. Action helps silence your mind because you start DOING what you want to do – not just thinking about it. |
| Don’t trust your first thought ⚡️Sometimes what happens is our first thought will be, “What if I’m not good enough?” And then we’ll latch onto this thought and dig deeper into it – rather than pausing to investigate what other thoughts are there? Challenge yourself to move past your first thought and see what else is there – your first thought isn’t the “truth” just because it showed up first. |
| You’ve done hard things in the past ⚡️Remind yourself of when you were resilient and tackled a difficult decision or situation. When have you shown up for yourself in the past? When did you face your fears? Validate yourself that you have been here before and you passed |
| Be more afraid of staying where you are than where you’re headed ⚡️You know where you are. You know what it looks like and feels like. You know what to expect. If I were to ask you, “How would you feel if you woke up in a year and were in the exact same place?” You’d probably be terrified – because as humans we crave evolving even though it’s scary. We’d rather take on the unknown if it means we’re going to grow rather than choose to stay where we are. So – when you’re tasked with making a decision on what actions to take – remind yourself that you know not making the leap will keep you where you are – but taking it? You have no idea the level it could take you to – but you know it’s guaranteed to move you forward, even if it’s just a centimeter or progress – and hey that’s one more centimeter that you didn’t have yesterday. |
| You always got YOU ⚡️You started this journey of life with yourself and you’ll end it with you. You spend every single minute of your life with yourself. You are the greatest asset in your life – you have your own back. At the end of the day, no matter what happens – you got you. And what a privilege that is? Keep showing up for yourself, you got this. |
Self-doubt is natural and normal and it’s actually cool that it shows up because it means you’re choosing to do something that makes you uncomfortable.
Don’t try to eliminate it – try to combat it and challenge it.
Don’t let it dictate the decisions you make in your life, the chances you take, the challenges you battle head-on, or to dim the confidence that is brewing up inside of you.
Easier said than done (ohhh trust me I know), but I got your back. If you need some extra support, always reach out – you can respond directly to my emails.
And if no one told you yet today – I think you’re beyond awesome and totally capable of achieving the great things you desire. YOU GOT THIS 💛
If you are looking for support to combat your self-doubt and build your personal confidence while you’re building your career – set up a 30-minute consultation so we can chat through strategies for you to build your own confidence code and feel empowered as an actor and a person.
