Always in my life, I have doubted myself. It's why for the past 3 years, I have been learning to drive with no luck on actually getting to a test. It's why I sell myself short and have been known to settle for less than what I deserve.
Maybe it's because of all of the bullying I experienced right at the beginning of secondary school which caused relentless anxiety and panic attacks, or maybe it's because I just don't have the ability to believe in myself and never have done. Who knows. One thing I can say is that it's hard and sends me into daily brick walls and frenzies of over planning life in the fear that I'll never achieve the life I want.
Self doubt, for me, is always a personal barrier to great things. It always puts a ring fence around my biggest hopes and dreams, preventing me from achieving my true potential.
It is something that we all struggle with at points in our lives.
I also find that being doubtful of who we are and what we are capable of becoming eats into the energy that we have for other things and leaves us feeling deflated and worthless. It is a creature that sits on our shoulder and whispers to us that we are not, and never will be, good enough to reach the best version of ourselves. It throws curveballs in the form of 'what ifs ' and turns wonderful possibilities into missed opportunities.
It's not always something that we can control either. A big reason for doubting ourselves will be because of our environment and of the role models that have influenced our lives. Perhaps some of us have parents that are too critical of what we do, or friends that judge too harshly on our actions and words. Whether positively or negatively, these experiences shape our self esteem and our measure of what we're worth.
It is why kindness and the ability to occasionally cut others a little bit of slack is important, especially in a world that is often unforgiving and so poised towards perfection. We have to remember that everyone is fighting their own battles and that even those who appear to be confident in theirselves may simply be putting on a brave face in order to avoid giving into their own stream of doubts and fears.