Protecting your well-being

This blog, I hope, will inspire you to be confident in yourself. I know that some of you, maybe a majority, will say that you are perfectly self-confident. OK if you are, great, well done, please maintain this, it's good to know.


Enough of you to matter, will not be quite so lucky and will on occasions suffer self-doubt. Sometimes this may become sufficiently large to impede your enjoyment or prevent you functioning as well as you might do. Let me proffer a couple of simple techniques to help overcome this sort of issue and trust that you will find them useful.

• Self-doubt often arises from your perception of what others think of you. For example I have always wanted to have some standing within the context of some people quite close to me. Sadly my perception is that this has rarely been the case for many years to my personal detriment. There is also probably some truth in this as they can act, at times, in a way that over-rides my views and opinions. Somewhere between my perception and the evidence of their behaviour is the truth. Why do I share this with you? - well simply this I have learned, more and more, through time and experience to stick to my inner belief and rely on how I feel about things relating to this. This is what I want you to do. Your views and opinions are important. Without belief in yourself it is hard to function. Give it a try and go with it. Accept that, whilst on occasions you will actually be wrong (after all you are human and being wrong is allowed) most of the time you will be right and it is right to do what is right for you. Take the risk and you will more often than not prove to be right.

• Give more credence to those that know you well and do apprecite you for what you are, for your views and for yourself.

• Self-doubt can also arise from negative inner focus. That is your mind concentrates on what you have not done so well rather than what you have actually done very well indeed. To counter this and get into the habit of positive thinking. Also to notice constantly all the times you do well (instead of ignoring these times), write a simple list out at the end of every day all the things that you have done well that day. Be thorough and note how good it made you feel. Believe me there will be loads to write.

• Reward yourself when you do something which goes particularly well.

It takes a few days (I've forgotten how many the experts say it is but something like 20 days) to build a new habit so you need to persevere and become easily familiar with a new way of thinking.

Self-doubt is quite normal and whether it to greater of a lesser extent in your personal make-up, it is worth acting to build your inner confidence as you will feel better, achieve more and be even more valuable you and to those around you than you are now.

Enjoy!