Confidence & Doubt

Can I do it? Am I capable enough? I don’t know! Will I be able to pull through it?

These are some of the most usual questions that enter inside our mind when we have to, take an important decision or when we have to take responsibility for any work or usually when we enter into the dawn of uncertainty.

People worry about all the things that could happen if we take a decision. We go into a world created by our mind in which bad things happen to you. We try to magnify the bad so much that it leads to the birth of the most dangerous virus – Doubt.

Now, Doubt is very prickly and shifty because, it is a manifestation of our own worries, stress, and flaws. It usually arises when we enter the realm of uncertainty by focussing on what could go wrong. Human beings are cursed with being into their minds so much that they forget that, the event is yet to happen. We are so worried about all the consequences of our actions that, we try to delay our decisions or even worse avoid it altogether. Doubt is such a formidable enemy of ours, due to its ability to turn us against us.

We have all seen those circus mirrors right that makes us too fat or short or tall or just weird. Doubt acts like a circus mirror taking one fault of ours and turning it so big or peculiar giving us a wrong image of what we are. We accept it because there’s always a tendency to magnify our faults and diminish our positives.

The change also provides a warm environment for this doubt to foster. A new city, A new job, responsibility, promotion, breakup, loss of loved ones, etc., shakes our monotony and we are forced to accept the changes and shift our tendencies. Change is essential for growth as we say all the time but it requires reinventing ourselves, and Newton said it first(In his first law of motion stating inertia, when blown out proportion to fit into our philosophy of life and changes). We have to adapt ourselves so we can embrace the grace of rapid adjustments in our life. We force ourselves to go back to those points in our past in which we have failed or to those flaws of ours that have always limited us. Doubt enters our mind and tries to diminish our self-worth by reminding ourselves of the times when we failed and establishing like that we aren’t good enough.

What should we do then?

Let me tell you about a story in our Hindu mythology from the epic Ramayana which helps us understand how we can triumph over doubt.

(Ravana had kidnapped Sita and had taken her to his golden city of Lanka besides the sea. Lord Rama had sent Hanuman and an army of monkeys to all directions to find his wife Sita. Hanuman, Jambavan and an army of monkeys are exploring the southern corners of India until they are pointed by Jatayu’s brother Sampati that Ravana had taken Sita to Lanka. Now everybody’s confused about how they will cross the sea to see whether Sita is really there.)

Lord Hanuman is sitting beside the sea with an army of monkeys behind him in a large cacophonic noise. Lord Hanuman looks at the vast sea with its gigantic waves and depth that makes it almost impossible for anyone to cross. He rests his face on his hands and looks dejected that even after crossing so many hurdles, they face an insurmountable task ahead of them.

Jambavan the wise old bear looks at Lord Hanuman. He sits beside him and smiles at him.

“What Happened Hanuman ?” he asked

Hanuman brushes asides his slumber by the calming voice of Jambavan.

Hanuman looks at Jambavan clearly trying to show a brave face.

“I don’t know Jambavan ji! We have an impossible task ahead of us. We won’t be able to cross it. All our struggle has just been a waste ”

Jambavan absorbed his words and thought for a second, then saying

“I have decided that you’ll be the person to cross this ocean ahead of us. You’ll cross this ocean and find a trace of Our Lord’s wife .”

Hanuman was shocked to hear those words. He didn’t have any faint idea about how he was gonna pull it off.

“I can’t Jambavan ji. Please find someone else, how am I supposed to cross this violent sea extending to the eternity? ”

Jambavan got up. He took Hanuman’s shoulders by his hands looked him in the eyes and began a speech that would change him forever,

“Hanuman you just don’t remember son but you have magic inside you. You have so much power that you can’t even comprehend. It’s a curse that has befallen you and taken hold of your mind. You forget how much strength you have. You once imagined the sun as mango and went up to seize it. There is nothing you can’t do, Belief in yourself and your faith in yourself will lead you always”

Lord Hanuman body filled with energy and he grew in size tremendously until he was about 30 feet in size. He lifted his hands upwards and began to fly towards the ocean in search of Sita ji.

Philosophy of confidence

So what’s the moral of the story?

Just like Lord Hanuman we all face doubts as dangerous, vast and large as the ocean. We tend to focus on it so much that we forget that there’s something inside us, that is the will to defeat all odds and eventually, it gets lost in the waves of self-doubt.

Confidence not only helps us to see the good in ourselves but also gives us the strength, to take on uncertainty by believing in our ability to take on any new challenges. We all have the tools inside of us that will help is illuminate all the dark paths of change and uncertainty.

It’s pure magic if we believe in it. A power so vast that creates a positive aura, or shield around us that makes us secure in our own abilities. Just for once look at your life in retrospect -your achievement, your work, your family and friends. You will notice that doubt is unnecessary and irrelevant. We just give fuel to the spark by thinking about it too much.

You know it’s funny because kids who are in grade 1 worry about how life would be in grade 5 ,a kid in grade 5 worries about how life would be in grade 9 or 10 ,a high school student worries about how life would be in college ,a college student worries about how life would be in the office and so on it goes . Our uncertainties never outgrow us, but our confidences belittle them enough, to what appears as an eternal ocean to a puddle on the road.

In the end, we just laugh at it as to why did we worry so much. So people always remember that you are good enough to take on any challenges however impossible it may seem. We just have to believe that there’s magic inside us – A power so strong that’ll make you fly which can turn a ‘ Can I ‘ to a definitely ‘I can’!