Doubt

I want you to take a moment and think about what you are doing right now.

 Now, think back to before you clicked on this post, before you turned on this device, what was the first thing that came to your mind when you woke up today? Was your day already mapped out and this post a momentary distraction?

Or was it simply one in the numerous posts you have read passively since nothing is going on right now? So, to address this topic of the post’s title: doubt. At this point you’re wondering two things, first: why did this person chose this topic and second: why I am reading this post in the first place? 

Okay, I’m going to take a step back, since it’s clear I have thrown a lot your way and it might help if I give you some ideas to play with while considering your answers. Let’s start off simple, how do we define doubt? Don’t worry, this one I’ll answer by referring to…(drum roll) the dictionary! Yay! 

Alright, alright. The dictionary trope in 2018 you are silently asking; can you be anymore unoriginal? Well, maybe, but that not going to stop me from making sure I am not accused of paraphrasing. Regardless, doubt is defined as a “feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction”.

Now that the basics are done let’s jump into the good stuff, such as ‘why do we doubt’, and soon enough the first question I asked at the beginning of this post. 

Doubt is one of those nebulous concepts that we consider constantly even though we don’t consciously state that we doubt something. If I were a betting man, I would guarantee that throughout your day, no matter what your life is, you doubt something at minimum a dozen times. 

Now, if you want to be nit-picky, you CAN argue that infants and people in comas wouldn’t apply, but let’s be honest, posts that involve topics such as doubt are not well-received by those who can at best utter the words dadda or mamma, much less have conscious thought.

Getting back-on-track, though, it’s important to recognize the unique position doubt takes in our lives, since there are two mains paths that branch from it: curiosity and fear. The first path allows your doubt to give you some motivation to question whether that National Enquirer magazine you saw was telling the truth. 

Not only that, but through doubt, this hesitancy to accept something at face value allows us to take the due diligence to determine if a certain idea is complete bogus. I’ll give you an example: let’s say John told Sue that the moon turns blue on November 10th every year. Sue can choose to accept John’s statement as truth and trust that on that day the moon turns blue every year. 

OR, she can take the stance of believing the John is lying to her and she looks up what color the moon is on that particular day. This scenario is absurd to consider, but it illustrates that sometimes we depend upon people to supply us with information, even though it may not be true. That’s why doubt is important in triggering us to not immediately agree with information presented to us. 

Now, on to the other result of doubt that we are all familiar with: fear. One of the easiest determinants for people who struggle in life is through the continual presence of doubt in their mindset. As I said at the start of this, doubt is a normal part of life, but when it produces fear, it’s helpful to address what is causing this. 

Is it through your exposure to negative influences, with you being told you’re not good enough, that you don’t fit a certain criterion? Even though that statement is as broad as it can possibly be, it’s saddening how virtually everyone identifies with it. For millennia, we were only exposed to people physically near us and learned how to adapt accordingly.

But, for us in this increasingly interconnected world, it’s clearly impossible to deal with all that we face each day online. Today, we are exposed to horrors never conceived of less than a century ago. With this great innovation came a massive cost, but we can’t let that define how we think. 

There is nothing I can say to make this post change your life in any significant way, unless you allowed it to. That’s because doubt serves as a shield, which prevents bad information from coming in, but can also hinder you from doing something that matters. As it is this post is coming out months after I planned to release it, but I learned that if you want the world to change, you have to recognize that the only person capable of doing that is you. 

It’s as simple as that, doubt is a tool like anything else, since this can be an agent for change or an excuse for stagnation. The difference is which one you allow to be your reality. As for my question, you don’t have to answer just yet, ask yourself in this morning, what am I doing with my life today?