How to overcome self-doubt in yourself chosen path of Entrepreneurship?

​When you start something new of your own, you are not sure whether you are going in the right direction or not. You are empowered by the feeling of self doubt often as is it a right decision of your life or you have made a blunder to enter in the field of entrepreneurship?
All the entrepreneurs irrespective of their field of operations are engulfed with the feeling of self doubt. All the entrepreneurs are faced with the questions like:

• Have I taken the right decision?
• Was it wrong to leave the job?
• I could have prepared more before leaving my job
• I would be in the better position if I had chosen the another option
• My colleague is performing better than me

First, we need to clear the situation of uncertainty in order to overcome the feeling of self- doubt in our personality. The more efforts we make to clear the uncertainty the better our vision becomes that will show the path ahead and helps in overcoming the self-doubt about ourselves and our profession.

Clearing the uncertainty is theonly way to overcome your self-doubt

As I said in my previous articles that all things can be achieved with regular practice and discipline in life, similarly, one can overcome the feeling of the self-doubt if s/he implements the following tenets in the life:

(1) Find a mentor who can guide you in this journey

You have chosen a less traveled path as your career and it becomes mandatory to find a mentor who can guide you in realizing your long term goals and help you in clearing yourself doubts. You need a sensible person with whom you can share your success, failures and your ideas to be implemented to reach your destination.
It is not necessary that the person must be from the same industry, you can get help from the entrepreneurs who are doing businesses for sometime and have underwent the same phases of ups & downs in their career as you are undergoing & experiencing now. You can learn from their experiences and the struggles and implement the teachings in your profession to get ahead in your career path. You should take out sometime to personally meet and share their experiences with you. You will notice that you have not only found a mentor but also a friend in him who can sympathize with you and can understand your challenges. S/he can provide you the emotional support during your tough times which you require often in your journey.

(2) Set micro goals every day to realize your long term goal

I have entered into the field of the entrepreneurship with a great long term goal and I always wake up in the morning with this goal in my mind. But still, I do not feel motivated & energized to that extent which is required to accomplish my goal. I feel that achieving my long term goal is certainly a future thing and placing all my happiness quotient on it is absolutely a foolish thing to do. In order to make my daily routine interesting & meaningful, I need to break my long term goal into smaller goals and further break them into micro goals which can be realized & accomplished every day. When you accomplish your micro goals on the daily basis, you will feel the sense of achievement which not only clears yourself doubt but also elevates happiness quotient. For example I have a goal to write at least 600 meaningful articles in a year, grow my subscription by 50%, monetize the content with good affiliates and share them on the social platform. To achieve my goal I need to write at least 600/365 = 1.6 articles in a day or 16 articles in 10 days. I need to plan my day accordingly to achieve my daily goal and it's accomplishment will take me one step closer to my long term goal, clearing my self-doubt. The daily goals engage your mind in achieving them and eliminate any space for the self-doubt.

Breaking the long term goal into smaller & short term goals can add spice in your work life

You can also achieve your monetary goal by setting smaller and the micro goals for the day, week and the months. Let’s say, you set a goal to acquire a single customer in a month and for that you need to make a plan of the daily activities to acquire that single customer:

• Making your website more informative
• Listing your business in online business directories
• Calling & talking to the prospects on the daily basis
• Placing a relevant advertisement on your website
• Making your website more SEO friendly so that it can be searched & accessed by more people
• Networking with businesses in the same industry to promote your business
• Can time management on the daily basis get you that single customer?

(3) Entrepreneur must practice embracing delayed gratification

First, you are not a machine and second, it is not necessary that things will happen in a same way as you have planned it on the papers. There will be times when even the daily planned activities will not happen on time due to unforeseeable circumstances and your will feel that your plan is not working and leading to nowhere. You tend to get restless on these days. The best way to overcome these circumstances is to be patient and do anything, howsoever minute it is, related to your work and devote time to your work whenever possible. You need to delay your desire of instant gratification of accomplishing things and try do best in the current situation.
The small amount of work done in the tough circumstances will add up to your larger goal and it will definitely going to pay you later. Therefore, it sometimes better to delay your gratification to actually realize your long term goal. Achieving your 5 year goal in 5 year 4 months time is still a good achievement. Forgiving yourself every time you fail in achieving your goal will help you in starting fresh with more energy & confidence in you rather than reprimanding yourself every time you fail in your attempt puts you in self-doubt.
(4) Stop comparing yourself with others & do not engross yourself into too many optionsI have seen in my case that when I compare my work/accomplishments with what others are doing or have done puts me more in self-doubt than anything else. I need to understand that everyone in this world have their own journey which is unique in itself and cannot be compared with anyone's journey.
I find myself most successful & accomplished whenever I follow my mind and work towards it. The outcome which I get makes me feel good and puts me one step closer to my goal.
The other thing which I feel most confusing, putting me into self-doubt is having too many options for any problem. It makes my decision process lengthy & weak as I tend to over think in selecting the right solution. Therefore, I simply make decision based on my intuition and the experience and then I try to fine tune it along the way. I feel that too many options distract yourself from decision making and make you weak. You need to have just one or two good options in your life which you can follow diligently & sincerely that will push you forward towards success, clearing your self-doubt in this journey.

(5) Always take out time to relax and enjoy with your family and friends

Howsoever hectic is your schedule, always take out some time with your friends & family to relax and enjoy. It will rejuvenate your mind & help you in De-clutter all the unnecessary things. If you have achieved less in a week then do not compensate it by working on those days which are meant for your family and friends. This will not only kill your relaxing time but also make you less efficient who tends to work on holidays to get the work completed.
Spending time with your friends and family gives you fresh start for the coming week or a day which fills you with energy.

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