Self doubt vs Self belief : ‘YOU CAN DO IT’

You might remember this blog post I did titled ‘You can do it!‘ Well if you liked that, you might like these:


And here is another wee treat for you….:

I was teaching an adult to swim on Sunday night and after she was struggling to do something I’d asked her to do, she admitted to me rather hesitantly that she didn’t think she could do it. In fact she said she knew she couldn’t do it,. Whereas knowing her, and knowing the drill I was asking her to do, I was pretty sure that she would be able to. 🙂

is this kid eating sand?? 😉

I said to her that if she was trying something and she was telling herself that she couldn’t do it, it was more than likely that she wouldn’t be able to do it as her brain was telling her body that she couldn’t do it. So it and she would probably fail.

She was also apologising to me as she thought she was letting me down and asked if I was frustrating her. I said to her that my job was to use my skills and experience as a swimming teacher to do what ever it took to get her swimming. I needed to find drills which would work for her to help her progress and get where she wanted to be. And once she got there we’d both get a lot of reward and a a great feeling of achievement.

I believe I can do it (teach her) and she just needs to believe that she can do it too!

‘Not believing in yourself is like giving up before you even start.
Too many times I hear people who have little self belief say:
‘I can’t do that’ or ‘There’s no way I’ll ever be able to do that’.
Well, guess what… you’re right.
The only way you’ll be able to do something is if you believe you can.’

And an interesting point about how adults tell themselves they can’t do something you ask them to do…. they’re usually the opposite of what kids will do for you.

When you ask a kid to do something, they usually just do it! (or at least attempt it). Kids who have never put their faces in, and they don’t like to, but I ask them to do it and motivate them, support them and praise them once they’ve done it. The revel in the praise they get and they manage to do it, again and again.

If they can’t do something, you work with them lesson after lesson until finally (hopefully) they get it and they do it. They achieve what an adult would sometimes think they would never be able to achieve. Kids trust you and do as you ask because you’re their teacher and they think you know best. If you’re a good teacher who praises at the right time, and has a good relationship with them, kids will usually reward you with lots of effort and be able to do as you ask and improve.

And I must note that sometimes you find the occasional example of a child (usually an older child or a very intelligent younger child!) has self doubt like an adult rather than the self belief that most children have. In this case, you ask them to do something and instead of them trusting you and doing it, they question what you’ve asked (usually in their own head). Then they hesitate and either don’t try it, or they ask why they’re doing it or offer a possible scary outcome of the thing you’ve asked them to do…. (something like… if I put my face in, I’ll get sore eyes, or I won’t be able to breathe.

Learning to do new things (especially swimming) can just take time sometimes. Children seem to have all the time in the world, whereas adults tend to want things, here, now, or yesterday. Rome wasn’t built in a day and if you haven’t learned to swim by now, it might take you a bit longer than 10 or 20 lessons to get to grips with it.

You can make a success of it, you just need to keep trying and eventually you’ll get there.

And if you want a step by step plan for success, I would say that if you want to succeed at something like learning to swim, you need to:

1. Decide you want to do it.
2. Commit yourself to it.
3. Practice practice practice.
4. Remain positive, believe in yourself.
5. Take on board advice from experts who you trust.
6. And practice some more.

And you’ll more than likely achieve what you set out to do 🙂

So from now when you think you can’t do something, remember the child in you, and start believing in yourself.

Tell yourself you can do it, and feel proud when you achieve it.

Finally, here’s another quote to hopefully help bring out your self belief instead of any self doubt that might be lurking in there!

Be positive and confident and achieve great things. Let me tell you, 9 times out of 10, it works. And if it doesn’t you just need to keep trying and keep believing: You can do it!

Finally, here’s a quote from my You can do it! post. 🙂 Enjoy

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6 Responses to Self doubt vs Self belief : ‘YOU CAN DO IT’

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