I still have those periods of tremendous doubt. They almost always come when I am on the brink of doing something I think I am not very good at or when I am unsure of myself. The strange thing is that if you live an exceptional life, you will experience those periods of tremendous doubt quite often. You get better at recognizing it, but that sinking feeling you get stays the same. You also get a lot better at understanding that that sinking feeling means you are standing at the threshold of another accomplishment. It is the price of being successful.
You will recognize it when you join a new group of people, a new club, get a new job, enter into a new relationship or start down a new path in almost any area of your life.
For me it is simple. When I do something scary, I never tell myself not to be scared. It is a normal, healthy thing to be scared when doing something scary. It took me a long time to realize that scary stuff did not have to be a noble undertaking to be worthwhile. Most of my scary stuff would not scare another person but it is so very important to me. A lot of times it is just being in a new place where none of your normal points of reference or support are.
Doubt and fear are kind of a checklist, a way for you to quickly assess what you are doing, why you are doing it and really if you should be doing it at all. I accept that they are part of the decision making process.
Never let doubts keep you away from a desired goal. When they threaten to turn you away from a goal you just need to recall the last time you felt like running away and did not and succeeded despite all the odds. At your relatively young ages you already have a lot of these experiences.
A successful life and one that is well lived is never a completely comfortable one.
Love Dad
