The Scenario
You’ve probably been to great seminars or sharing sessions where you are so deeply inspired by great speakers. As you leave, you are so determined that you are going to take the leap of faith and make the great change to your life, your business or your career. With the newfound energy, you can’t wait to get started.
With no time wasted, you talk to people and crafted a well-thought plan. You envisioned success but as you put down your thinking cap, a tiny voice whispered “This is not going to be easy”. As you take one more step, the voice said “Probably you need to reconsider, this isn’t going to end up well”. And by the time you are ready to start, you found that you no longer believe in your plan. You see doubts instead of solutions. Where your heart once felt light with energy, now it is burdened with stones of doubts.
You Are Defeated.. Before You Even Start
How To Overcome Self-Defeating Thoughts – 3 Useful Techniques
Low energy, shattered confidence, and doubts eating your self-worth. This is what happened when your mind sow seeds of doubts and you did nothing about it. You ended up in a self-sabotaging state without even realising it. And by the time you are aware of what’s happening, you are already on your knees and defeated.
Sometimes we are truly our own worst enemy when it comes to sabotaging ourself. Our mind when untrained is unable to note and capture the self-defeating thoughts when it started to creep in. Because the mind is originally in a heightened state of excitement when it sees the possibility and vision of success, it is unguarded for the negative thoughts that crept in. And when it starts to notice the negative thoughts, instead of viewing it objectively and discarding it, our mind react to it and that is the biggest mistake of all.
Getting Back On Track
Even when we are truly defeated and thought of giving up on the ideas we once thought great, there are ways to get the mind and energy back up to where it was, only this time with a guarded shield of armor.
Here are 3 simple techniques I have used to overcome self-defeating thoughts.
1. Acknowledging Defeat – Yes. I know it sounds strange and counter-intuitive. The reality is, our thoughts have defeated us. Acknowledging defeat but do not wallow in the self-pity state. In doing so, it stops any more of the negative thoughts. Mentally, it stops feeding energy to the negative thoughts. It gives back active control to rebuild our confidence and focus.
2. Visualise Success – When the flow of negative thoughts have stopped, we then visualize and invoke the emotions that empower us when we first dare to dream of success. Let the inspirational emotion flow in and bring our energy to a positive level.
3. Guard Our Dream – The next time those self-defeating thoughts starts appearing, make sure we have our shield ready. Make a list of what could go wrong realistically, and the contingency plan involved. Be positive and believe in success.
Making a come back after your belief and confidence are torn apart by your own thoughts is definitely no easy walk in the park. But it is definitely possible. Each of us has our own way of dealing with self-defeating thoughts. What’s yours?
I have experienced that before: getting excited about a new idea, planning it out, but then suddenly feeling like it might not have been such a good idea either just before starting or shortly after starting. Doubt is really an annoying emotion to deal with. For me, I’ve found watching motivational videos and listening to motivational speakers helps.