Ever have that gut-wrenching feeling that your plan was destined to fail? All the preparation would go down the drain, and you would be left with nothing? Have you ever pondered the thought of having to start over after investing time, money, and a lot of emotional and mental energy into your future? If these questions caused a reaction, then at some point in time in your history, you experienced a level of doubt.
The larger question that needs to be addressed is: What did you do about it?
Having worked with numerous entrepreneurs over the years, I’ve found that witnessing how they deal with doubt has been very enlightening. If you asked them, some would give you a quick answer that they never doubted the outcome. Others would respond that it was a miracle that whatever they were pursuing actually worked out. Still digging deeper is where we can all find the trace of doubt and how to convert it into usable energy and commitment to affect a positive outcome.
As we work our way into the fall of 2025 and begin to review and reflect on our progress to date, so as to plan 2026, we can begin to either let doubt enter into the mindset, or we can convert past progress guided by doubt to plan more explicitly the roadmap to our future success. The alternative is to let doubt play a decisive role in the future, leading to non-productive planning.
There is nothing inherently wrong with having doubts about actions, plans, etc. Doubt can cause really important questions to be asked, discussed, and ultimately addressed in planning the future. Everyone should have a Plan B, or maybe even a Plan C, D, E, etc. Each alternative plan potentially addresses some doubt or anticipated roadblock/challenge.
What can happen is that rather than using doubt to enhance future planning, it begins to paralyze an individual’s or organization’s actions. If the individual or organization is unwilling to deal with the consequences, doubt can either pause the action or completely cancel it. When this occurs, doubt becomes the enemy of success, growth, development, and many other negative outcomes.
Every leader will at some point in their career live through a period of doubt. Many will experience cycles of growth followed by periods of regression and doubt. When these cycles of doubt occur, self-leadership needs to kick in. This is an opportunity to grow your self-confidence and self-worth by pushing through doubt and doing your best to address the challenges in front of you.
By using doubt as a coach, mentor, or guide, you can delve deeper into the challenges and find more complete answers to roadblocks. Invite doubt not only in your own mind but also in the team you have assembled around you. If your team is not invited to express their doubts, then in their mind, they still exist and can add more internal challenges than desired.
This week, open up your mind to doubt as a catalyst to create more fluid and open dialogue for your future success. Become more comfortable in dealing with doubt as a guide to success than a deterrent to success.
Looking for a Promise Guide to help you navigate the doubts in your mind, business, and team? Give JKL Associates a call at MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246 and let’s start a conversation.
Journey On!
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Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
