I was scrolling down my Twitter feed and stumbled across a chat between Deepak Chopra and Mark Pinto. Chopra is best known for his unworldly public encouragements and uses Twitter to engage with and advise his followers.
Obviously in search of guidance, Pinto asked Chopra how he could eliminate his doubts. Chopra then simply and quite profoundly responded with: “Doubt your doubts”.
Fascinating right? Moreover, I was suddenly hit with the realization that all the regrets that I’d ever had in life, were fuelled by doubt. The worst moments in my life were brought on in me stimulating uncertainty within myself. And it’s the worst that you could ever do. You’re capable of anything you really want.
There no real advantage to doubt. You’d think that self-doubt would save you from making mistakes; that it’s just a case of being cautious and sustaining stabiliy, but that’s not true. Doubt weakens you. It stops you from trying new things that could have resulted in something amazing. Doubt causes you to question your capabilities and instigates inactivity. You shouldn’t be asking yourself if you can do it, rather focus on whethere you’re willing to do what it takes to get you want.
I felt like my world had ended when my father died. I will never suffer a greater loss. And the pain of losing a loved one can often wound you, but what’s worse are the doubts that you won’t be able to recover from it, and those doubts will paralyse you.
A famous quote from Buddha reads:
There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.
So doubting yourself would be suicide.
