# Discovering and managing self-doubt I recently realised that most people operate under assumptions, beliefs and [[Intuition]] that are the result of narratives and stories we tell each other. It has made me hyper-aware of how I may be influenced by the stories around me, and caused me to worry that I may not be able to separate myself from them. I have begun to question many things. I question why I make the choices I do, why I have the desires I have, and why I think the way I think. I then also question whether I am being productive enough. Am i just another person fumbling through life getting lucky by absorbing the right narrative at the right time. And in a twisted way, since I've noticed that I question everything, I have become concerned that I am having difficulty forming beliefs I hold strongly! And since it's harder to learn or memorise things without taking for granted that they are true, I worry I am having difficulty with learning comprehension. My mind is interfering with its own ability to succeed. Recognizing these are problems that could exist will help me overcome them. Being overly concerned about it won't help at all. In the past I have always been able to come up with solutions to problems, or become comfortable with risks outstanding. I need to recognize that I will be able to manage this self-doubt too. We have to make decisions and deal with uncertainties and there is no avoiding it. The best thing to do is create frameworks, models and decision-making tools that help us overcome these doubts. They provide us with guidance in our actions, even if they are inevitably wrong. And we learn by updating our beliefs in light of what's happened. Even then, there will be times we won't have tools and we need to use our intuition. That's ok, as long as we recognize that our intuition is fallible - *we will get things wrong.* ## Related - [[Struggles with forming a belief set]] - [[Cognitive Crisis from questioning beliefs]]