How to Overcome Self-Doubt as a Business Owner

Learn to overcome self-doubt and see things from a different perspective so you can stop letting it hold you back

Does this sound familiar?

You started a business full of excitement, passion, and a vision to change people’s lives, but you’re left wondering whether your ideas are good enough, whether you have the skills to make it or not, or whether you’re making the right choices.

You feel a bit stuck, and you’re not able to make a final decision to get things moving forward because you’re constantly doubting yourself. Sometimes, you feel like you are not good enough, or even wonder if you’re on the right path.

Firstly, if you are experiencing self-doubt, I want to let you know that you’re not alone. As a mindset and confidence coach, I know that self-doubt is the number one reason that holds business owners back. Fear of failure, fear of judgement and fear of the unknown all appear as self-doubt, and these are three of the most common fears I support clients with.

Self-doubt is linked to fear which can activate a primitive response when you do something that takes you out of your comfort zone. Experiencing self-doubt says absolutely nothing about your business idea or your abilities as a business owner. Know that it is a normal part of the human experience and show self-compassion if you’re experiencing self-doubt. 

We cannot get rid of self-doubt completely, but we can understand why we experience self-doubt and learn to manage it. In this blog post, I am going to share how to overcome self-doubt as a business owner. I am going to share some useful tips and tools that you can use to manage self-doubt.

Why do we experience self-doubt?

The primitive part of our brain is designed to keep us safe and its primary function is only interested in survival – it’s designed to seek familiarity and doesn’t like the unknown. It tries to protect us from events it deems threatening as well as uncomfortable emotions linked to fear of failure. 

When you decide to do something new that pushes you out of your comfort zone – something that is synonymous with being a business owner – you can start to experience self-doubt because your brain wants to protect you from potential threats. These are perceived threats in modern society, but the primitive brain views them as being very real. 

Self-doubt can also come from past experiences. If someone told you that you weren’t good enough to do something or you were criticised in the past in some way, these experiences create subconscious beliefs which impact decisions and behaviours and lead to self-doubt. 

Give yourself permission to feel self-doubt; it’s perfectly normal, and you are not alone. But because self-doubt can keep you stuck, it’s crucial to learn how to manage it so it doesn’t hold you back. Use these following tools to manage self-doubt as you grow your business.

How to overcome self-doubt: 3 tools for managing self-doubt

1. Become aware of your inner critic

Have you noticed your inner voice? This voice is never satisfied. Even if you achieve something great, it reminds you of your faults and mistakes. This voice constantly judges you and questions your decisions. That’s your inner critic. An inner critic is a master at making you doubt yourself. 

Realise that your inner critic is not you. It’s the part of your brain that is trying to protect you from failure, embarrassment, and discomfort. Your inner critic will say whatever it can to keep you in your comfort zone. Even things that aren’t true. Your inner critic makes you doubt yourself and can lead to self-sabotage. 

First, become aware of the negative voice in your head. When you hear your inner critic telling you something negative, become aware of it, and know that it’s your inner critic speaking. It’s not you. 

Give your inner critic a name. Mine is called Negative Nancy. When you hear her in your head saying something negative, acknowledge the voice: “Not today, Nancy.” Then, you can choose to not listen to her. You can choose to believe that whatever she says is not true: “Nancy, I hear you, but I’m choosing to not listen to you.”

You have the power to stop your inner critic from controlling your life. When you stop believing your inner critic, you can let go of self-doubt and stop self-sabotage. 

You can also cultivate a voice of self compassion: a voice of your biggest supporter. The more you use this voice, the stronger the neural pathway will become and eventually that will become your louder inner voice. I’ve cultivated my supportive inner voice by thinking about how my grandparents would speak to me. They were my number 1 supporters, and this inner voice is now my default inner voice and much louder than Nancy.

2. Shift your perspective

All events in life are inherently neutral. Ultimately, you decide whether an event is positive or negative through a lense that consists of your thoughts, beliefs, and past experiences. So, you believe what you think you see. Can you think of an event that’s causing you self-doubt right now? This could be linked to a past experience.

For example, let’s assume that a past event made you feel that you weren’t good enough. Remember, we believe what we think we see. You thought you saw “I am not good enough” in that situation. However, what you saw was a neutral event but you created a belief of “I am not good enough” from that experience.

I want you to know that you are in control of the stories you tell yourself. You have the power to decide your interpretation of the events around you. This applies to all events in business, such as, not landing a client, or having an “unsuccessful” launch. 

You have the power to identify your current beliefs and create new ones. Also, you have the power to choose how you perceive ‘failure’. You can choose to view it as feedback and a learning experience that you can grow from.

It’s important to note here that as a business owner, you’ll be continually evolving and expanding and self-doubt may pop up everytime you’re doing something new. If you don’t land a client, or if your launch doesn’t go as expected, it’s important to learn from the experience, improve to move forward from there. This is exactly why I work with my clients on both mindset and strategy – so you can separate facts from fears and develop a clear strategy to set yourself up for success. 

3. Assess the facts

Your thoughts and feelings aren’t facts. Thoughts and feelings related to self-doubt can feel like facts, but they are not. Remember, experiencing self-doubt says absolutely nothing about your business idea or your abilities as a business owner. 

When you’re learning how to overcome self-doubt, it’s important to remind yourself of your wins and successes. I recommend keeping a ‘success’ journal of your wins and successes in business. Keep track of your wins, no matter how small they are. 

When you experience self-doubt, reflect on your progress so far. Look at all your wins and celebrate each and every one.

Also, remember your “why” for starting a business. Think about the people you’ve impacted so far on your journey, and connect to your long-term vision. Think about all the people you can help if you push past the self-doubt and keep going.

Journal prompts for managing self-doubt

These journal prompts will help you reflect on and overcome self-doubt. 

• What are the consequences of doubting myself? What is it holding me back from?
• What would I choose to do differently if I knew success was guaranteed?
• What are the facts surrounding this doubt? How do these facts compare with my thoughts?
• How can I act from intuition instead of fear?

Affirmations for overcoming self-doubt

Affirmations are positive and uplifting statements that help you overcome negative thought patterns, such as self-doubt. When you’ve acknowledged your inner critic, and chosen not to listen to her, repeating affirmations is a powerful way to rewire the neural pathways in your brain. 

Repeated use of affirmations create new neural pathways which support the highest version of you instead of reinforcing your fears. These affirmations can be used to create self-compassion to combat self-doubt. I recommend repeating these as much as possible, and whenever you’ve challenged your inner critic. 

• I believe in myself and my skills
• I have everything I need to succeed within me
• I learn and grow with every challenge

When you’re experiencing self-doubt, it’s helpful to seek out people who understand what you’re going through. Connecting with like minded women is a great way to overcome self-doubt, and learn how to master your mindset.

Remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. Join my free membership to connect with a community of supportive women.

Lastly, I want to note that growth happens outside the comfort zone and it can feel uncomfortable. Try to embrace the self-doubt and the uncomfortable feeling of growth as it’s part of the journey. The more you push past self-doubt, the more you’ll realise what you’re truly capable of.

If you would like support in creating a life and a business beyond what you currently think is possible, I’m here to support you. Send me a direct message on Instagram or send me an email and we’ll chat about what could be the right support for you. 

Thank you for reading my first blog post. Try these tools when you experience self-doubt and if you have any comments, thoughts, or questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

I would also love to connect with you on Instagram – follow me for mindset coaching and business mentoring support.

Love, 

Helen x