In last week's essay, I reflected on range, the totality of the capacity on which one can draw in leadership, management, and life. My focus was on extending one's range. I suggested this can be done incrementally but, at times, one must jump in with both feet.
The more I think about what I wrote, the less certain I am that I have it right. I fell short of the goal I set for myself of offering practical advice on how to venture into unfamiliar areas. As a consequence. I am experiencing a little self-doubt about my skills as an essayist. This has led me to consider what more I should have said.
Let me begin with the principal message I want to get across about this form of self-reflection: Self-doubt is an opportunity for personal growth.
Self-doubt is an emotion, one that we hope is balanced favorably with self-confidence, self-worth, and self-esteem. All these self-focused terms are inward looking, however. They can help or hinder individual efforts to expand one's capabilities, but their presence in the mind does nothing to bring this expansion about. What is necessary is to move from thought to action. Personal growth is not a spectator sport; it requires putting in the work.
Individuals who find their ability to act blocked by self-doubt need to find ways to overcome this inertia. Self-talk might provide the impetus to get the ball rolling in some instances, but there are limits to its effectiveness. If positive self-talk is what puts the ball in motion, negative self-talk can be the countervailing force that arrests progress. At some point, one must take the first concrete step toward accomplishing something tangible. Until then there is only vacillation between intention and hesitation.
To move from the inner dialogue of thoughts and emotions to the outward demonstration of intent one must commit. A commitment is an irrevocable pledge to dedicate oneself to pursuing a particular aim. It is final and decisive or it is not a commitment. The only verifiable demonstration of commitment is action.
Commitment is an act, not a word. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
The problem we often face when we consider a commitment is ruminating on all that such a promise entails. Although analyzing what one is getting oneself into has value, it is impossible to predict with accuracy all that will be encountered on the path one follows. This uncertainty contributes to inertia.
Those who doubt themselves shy away from making commitments. They remain transfixed by the swirling interplay among their conflicting thoughts and emotions, falling victim to inertia and incapable of imagining themselves as people of action. What they need is a way to get started, a nudge.
Begin anywhere. -- John Cage
A nudge in an inclination toward action. Let us return to the image of getting a ball rolling. If the ball is at the apex of an incline, only a little force is required to set it in motion in a way that allows it to build momentum.
I noted earlier the self-doubt that arose upon recognizing the incompleteness of my analysis in the article on range. I could have let that paralyze me. Instead, I recognized that the solution was to address the matter more fully in the essay you are now reading. As I write this, however, I have not made a commitment. The commitment occurs when I push the button to schedule its publication.
Until then, I have pursued measures that will incline me toward getting that ball rolling. I formulated an idea about what was previously missing. I made notes. I collected quotations. I wrote the first sentence. And the one after that. And so on.
All of these steps contribute to my publishing the essay. They are nudges that bring the ball closer to the apex from which it will roll downhill.
There are other nudges as well. I have an audience of regular readers, some of whom have told me that they look forward to seeing my essays each Monday morning. I feel an obligation to them to continue writing.
I recognize that there are far worse things that could happen to me than missing the mark on the occasional essay.
I enjoy the writing and look forward to getting my thoughts down. I have a schedule I keep that ensures that the writing gets done. It has become a habit.
I have come to see that the act of writing is a way of working out what I am thinking about.
All of these nudges lead me to make micro-commitments that allow for the project to come to fruition.
At the moment of commitment, the entire universe conspires to assist you. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When speaking of doubt in the context of spiritual practices, we often refer to the leap of faith required to overcome the limits of rationality or the lack of incontrovertible evidence. Commitment is the equivalent of this leap of faith when we need to overcome the inertia of self-doubt. It is the impetus that moves us from thoughts and emotions to actions.
The answer to the problem of self-doubt is found, then, in recognizing that there are small acts that occur within that very brief span of time we call the present. It is here that commitment focuses our attention and efforts. By leaving our failures in the past and concentrating on that small slice of work that lies in the few moments immediately before us, we exert the force necessary to leave any hesitance behind. Our success in accomplishing that unit of work provides momentum, enabling us to take on more and more.
This way of approaching work mindfully, incrementally, and in the present moment can be like a spiritual practice, one that finds its foundation in the virtues that action requires: courage, prudence, diligence, and perseverance. Avoiding the stumbling block of self-doubt on the way to commitment means we must work as well on perfecting the virtues commitment requires. Before we can work on other tasks, we must work on ourselves, acknowledging and addressing self-doubt. When we do, our virtues foster commitments and our actions reinforce our virtues. That is when personal growth occurs, a growth that powers a cycle that sustains itself.
Greg
I believe self-doubt is one of those things that makes us more fully human and causes us to take a moment to reflect. I am a person who believes action is vital and that decisions can be changed or undone if necessary. As I have taught my children, just make a decision. You can always change your mind if the direction is not the right one for you. You are too hard on yourself or perhaps this was whole essay may have been your illustration of how to handle self.doubt when it occurs? If , we'll done.