Mind Detox:Elimination of the Self-Doubt Mindset
We must purify the mind from the old patterns of doubt, fear, worry and impress it with the new patterns of love, prosperity and achievement.
Purification of the mind refers to an intentional self driven process of discounting thoughts of doubt, excessive worry and failure in relation to achieving an outcome. Thoughts of fear, worry and anxiety lead to the most dreaded state of mind and the thief of ambition, self-doubt.
“What happens if we miss this month’s sales forecast?”
“You will never achieve the level of success of your older sister?”
“I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Self-doubt reveals itself in many forms in our lives. These are all examples of ideas and thoughts that appear in mind as we begin new ventures and take on new pathways in life. If left unchecked by YOU, over time these thoughts form patterns which transform into mental constructs. We sometimes interpret things or create mental constructs to support our observations but often self-doubt obscures our lens.
“I am not a good singer, therefore I shouldn’t start a music business”
I have never been a good cook, so I can’t be a restaurant owner.”
She went to Yale University, so she is a better leader than me.”
Mental constructs are quickly developed and identified with in mind revealing themselves by way of events, circumstances and people that reflect the constructs. These are the patterns and constructs that we harbor in our minds that must be revealed and “purified”. Mind purification or the elimination of self-doubt, is an essential process in developing a new mindset to frame your life experiences.
In Buddhism, purification of the mind is understood as an intentional effort to cleanse the mind of unclean thinking patterns the negatively impact our beliefs, attitudes and actions. “If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows them like a never-departing shadow.” — Buddha. In relation to mindset, we refer to purifying the mind as an intentional activity to eliminate self-talk that expresses doubts, fears and insecurities. These “impure” patterns of thought over time drain our mental energy reducing our creativity, vitality and zest for life experiences.
Neville Goodard in “Your Faith is Your Fortune” states, “Doubt is the only force capable of disturbing the seed or impression; to avoid a miscarriage of so wonderful a child, walk in secrecy through the necessary interval of time that it will take the impression to become an expression.
We are all constantly faced with circumstances and events that place doubt into our actions. Doubt and uncertainty are related states of mind with both generating pause, delay and confusion. These states of mind can be debilitating for entrepreneurs slowing down the creative process, development of products and growth of the business. During our Mindset workshops at Genesis Block, we encourage founders to purify the mind of doubts, fears and limiting beliefs in order to condition a space for the success of their venture.
Negative inner self-talk and thinking saturate the mind with worse case scenarios creating a stressful non-productive environment. This chorus of negative emotion morph into an inner voice that often conveys doubts, fears and limiting beliefs. I can remember an incident when I was a 14 year old freshman in high school. I was tall, lanky and very skinny as a teenager and had avoided weight rooms at all cost and especially the bench press. My first day of gym class, our teacher ask for volunteers to bench the weight that he had setup for the class to demonstrate safe weightlifting techniques.
Of course, no one volunteered and he made eye contact with me and the next thing I know I’m under a measily 95 lbs with what appeared to be the entire freshmen class spectating. I struggled mightily to lift the weight on the bench and this negative experience spawned years of self doubt, limiting beliefs and anxieties related to athletics.
Negative attachment to singular events, if not released, prevent potential positive outcomes in future events. For example, attachment to that event leading to self-doubt in athletics which thwarted potential achievement.
Repetitive negative thinking and rehearsing worse case scenarios limits our creativity, zest for life and ability to experience joy.
According to researchers at University College London, repetitive negative thinking is linked to cognitive decline, a higher number of harmful protein deposits in the brain, and consequently a greater risk of dementia. The problem with negative self-talk is that it typically does not reflect reality, and so it can convince people, wrongly, that they are not only not good enough, but that they can never get better, paralyzing them into self-absorption and inaction.Negative self-talk (the inner voice) is the hidden enemy that disrupts the natural flow and pattern of your vision.
Mind purification essentially is the process of eliminating self-doubt.
Self-doubt is the leading killer of dreams, ambitions and new ventures. Countless great ideas and concepts that could have shifted the way we interact never saw the light of day because of self-doubt. Self-sabotage can express itself in many ways. Several entrepreneurs, even after achieving success, stubbornly held on to lingering beliefs that they were not ready for the market.
“ Was this a fluke”
“This only happened this one time”
“I know it worked that time but what if it doesn’t the next time”
“I feel like a fraud”
“People think I only got this promotion because of affirmative action”
“No matter how many degrees we get women have to work twice as hard as men to achieve success”
The Imposter Syndrome is a psychological term references patterns of thought that over time express themselves as behaviors where people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. This is pyschological phenomena is common in groups such as women, minorities, newcomers in industries and innovators.
Pauline Rose Clance & Suzanne Imes co-authors of “The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention,” discovered despite their earned degrees, scholastic honors, high achievement on standardized tests, praise and professional recognition from colleagues and respected authorities, these women do not experience an internal sense of success.
One women stated, “I was convinced that I would be discovered as a phony when I took my comprehensive doctoral examination. I thought the final test had come. In one way, I was somewhat relieved at this prospect because the pretense would finally be over. I was shocked when my chairman told me that my answers were excellent and that my paper was one of the best he had seen in his entire career.”
This is a clear example of despite external achievements, accolades and promotions self-doubt was the primary inhibitor of internal satisfaction. Recognizing your self-value and self-worth is the first step in overcoming the Imposter Syndrome. My favorite affirmation related to this topic is from podcaster Joseph Rodriguez. “I AM MY IDEAL NOW”.
You are not an Imposter.
