Transform Self-Doubt into Self-Belief

Do you often find yourself grappling with self-doubt? Discover empowering strategies to shift from external validation to internal fulfillment in our latest episode, featuring Dr. Sheena Howard, the founder of Power Your Research. 

Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research

Chapters

• 0:00 Overcoming Self-Doubt, Setting Personal Goals
• 5:50 Building Confidence and Self-Awareness
• 9:21 Enhancing Self-Awareness for Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Therein lies the problem. Since we've been conditioned for external validation through the educational system, we haven't most likely properly trained ourselves in internal validation, and I believe you get more internal validation when you set your own metrics for success. I don't want my work to be stuck behind an academic paywall. I want to leave a legacy, I want to reach my potential and I want to change lives. This podcast, power your Research, is my attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. My hope is that you use the lessons I share to make more money than what your higher ed job can ever pay you. I've done it, my clients have done it, and so can you. My hope is that you'll apply what you learn here and one day join the Power your Research program where you can work with me one-on-one. Today's topic is eliminating self-doubt. I've had a number of conversations recently with entrepreneurs and creators, and those who are building a brand talked to me about self-doubt, limiting self-beliefs and those types of things. I had a conversation with someone who is still working as an artist, but she's older, she's kind of in the retirement phase of her life and she told me that after all these years in doing the work. She still has lots of limiting self-beliefs and self-doubt and it actually made me feel a little sad for her. Now I've also talked to some younger creators and entrepreneurs that are dealing with negative self-talk, limiting self-beliefs. One of the first things we do in the Power your Research program, my academic branding company is we go over mindset and we cover things like this because you candoubt may even pop up from time to time for the rest of your life, but I think that there are levels to the self-doubt. I do think there are things you can do to make the self-doubt go away quicker and to silence those limiting self-beliefs quicker, and I do think those are things that you can work on quicker. And I do think those are things that you can work on. I do think you can train yourself to have negative thoughts less and train yourself for those negative thoughts to linger less. So if you may have been ruminating on not feeling confident and going to give a speaking engagement, maybe you ruminate on that for the entire weeks leading up to the speaking engagement. I believe that there are tricks and tips and lifestyle changes that you can use to minimize that. So maybe you only think about it every now and then, as you're leading up, to doing the speaking engagement. So here are three tips to dealing with self-doubt. Now, the overarching umbrella of all of these tips is, I believe you can outwork your self-doubt. You can outwork your self-doubt and this starts with the first tip, which is creating your own metric of success.

Speaker 1: 3:35

One of the problems that I see, particularly with academics, is we are so used to external validation Getting the degree, finishing your defense for your dissertation and getting a grade on a test and then a grade for the class. That is all external validation. That does not always mean you feel internal validation, and therein lies the problem. Since we've been conditioned for external validation through the educational system, we haven't most likely properly trained ourselves in internal validation. And I believe you get more internal validation when you set your own metrics for success. For those of you that are on a tenure track and you're trying to get tenure, that is something external. You're going to do the work to get tenure, tenure, and someone's going to give that to you. But what are the internal metrics that you can set for yourself in which you can validate your own self outside of what society is telling you success looks like, outside of what your peers are doing, in which you're comparing yourself and thinking that's what you want as well. Take a step back and think about what the metrics of success are for you that actually matter for you, and then go out and achieve those things so that you can validate yourself. Nobody can change the amount and frequency in which you are feeling self-doubt, except for you, and that's how you know. It starts with something internal, internal validation. I'm sure, as an academic, people are always singing your praises, and so you have to turn inward, give yourself space to figure out what internal metrics that actually matter to you, and that way you can work towards achieving those goals your own personal goals. Hey, everyone, real quick. I don't run any ads on this podcast, so I have to rely on word of mouth. If this podcast has helped you in any way, please share it with a friend and follow me, dr Sheena Howard, on LinkedIn, where I give more free content on building your brand as an academic. If you tell me you came to my LinkedIn from the podcast, I'll make sure I accept your request from the podcast. I'll make sure I accept your request.

Speaker 1: 5:50

The second tip is to get a clear path that aligns with your mission, vision and purpose Again. This is why we start out with mindset in the Power Year Research Program, because we start talking about the individual's mission purpose. Why do they want to increase their visibility, authority and income, and what is motivating them to want to do that outside of money? And so once you can set a clear path for where it is that you're going outside of academe and the external validation, you will have less self-doubt, even when things are not going perfectly the way you expected them.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Right now, a lot of us are feeling the squeeze with the recession. Maybe you're losing clients. Maybe you never even got the number of clients that you wanted. Whatever it is, if you know you're on the right path, you don't just abandon ship and try something completely different just because there is a bump in the road. You have so much confidence and clarity on the path that you have set out for yourself that you just simply see it as a bumpy road. But you know, if you stay the course, you are on the right path. And the reason why I can say this and why I know it to be true is because I had a tenant that didn't pay rent this month. I lost a couple of clients because they lost a couple of clients so they couldn't stay on with me. I've had people default on their monthly payment for my program and it all happened at once. But I knew that I was on the right path. So there was no need for me to freak out or panic. I just knew I had to continue to do what I do and focus on just doing it better. I didn't need to abandon path or think that all of a sudden now I got to go create another coaching program because I'm going through a bumpy road. And so it's the confidence and clarity which didn't even give the self-doubt any room to breathe, because I'm clear on my mission, vision and purpose.

Speaker 1: 7:49

And then the third way to deal with self-doubt. This is something I actually teach my creatives. I don't talk to my academics about this as much, those that are building brands with me, but creating your own user's manual is significant. And by user's manual I literally mean when you buy a new computer. It has a user's manual, everything you need to know to get the most out of that computer and keep it safe and keep it working. It even has an FAQ section. It even has a troubleshooting section if things are not working properly. Well, I teach my creatives and this is relevant for my academics building a brand that you need your own personal user's manual. You need that level of self-awareness.

Speaker 1: 8:39

What are the things that you can do to eliminate self-doubt when it creeps in? What are the things you can do to motivate yourself that you know work? And those need to be written down in a PDF called your personal user's manual, with your name on it, so that way, when the self-doubt creeps in, you just go to your user's manual, to the troubleshooting section, and you just go down the list of things that you know work to quell your self-doubt. It might be going to take a walk, it may be spending time with your kids, it may be going to visit your grandparents. Whatever it is, you need to know what that thing is for you.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So what we're talking about in the user's manual, in this third tip, is really self-awareness, and self-awareness comes by paying attention to yourself and documenting your finding and actually doing experiments with yourself so you can see what works and what doesn't work, so you can operate at your highest and healthiest level. Now I could do a whole video on doing self-experiments. That is not what this is for. By all means. If you would like to hear more about that, let me know in my dms.

Speaker 1: 9:51

But I hope these three tips help in dealing with self-doubt, because self-doubt can certainly sabotage you. It can sabotage the heights you can reach on your journey, it can make you give up too early, it can make you change course when you are supposed to change course, because it all leads back to confidence the confidence in yourself, the confidence in what you're doing, the confidence in the vision that you have set for yourself. So, if you're new here, my name is Dr Sheena Howard. I'm the founder of Power your Research, an academic branding company where I help academics and educators increase their visibility, authority and income without the expense of a publicist. You.