“If only I didn’t doubt myself then I’d be able to walk the length of New Zealand.”

That’s what I told myself over and over again when I was “trying to find” the courage to take on the adventure.

I thought my self-doubt was holding me back, stopping me in my tracks, and pointing to a belief that I just wasn’t good enough.

I finally got to the point where this thinking was driving me crazy and somewhere inside me wanted to prove it was all wrong. I’d put off doing the walk for three years, too consumed with self-doubt.

Enough was enough!

But my self-doubt didn’t vanish.

It haunted me as I took those first steps down onto the beach to start the trail. It followed me for months as I traipsed through knee-high mud, along gravel roads and over mountain summits. It sat on my shoulder and continually made its presence known. And it still does.

But I decided to choose to ignore that little voice that whispered in my ear. I decided to not buy in to or believe the vitriol. I decided self-doubt wasn’t a gun to my head.

And what do you know?

Turns out you can walk the length of New Zealand even if you feel you’re a pathetic weak excuse for a human being who doesn’t know what their doing and who doesn’t have the capability, experience, strength, courage, confidence to take on such a feat.

Turns out the negative voice in my head didn’t know what it was talking about. It wasn’t right. I proved that. (Up yours self-doubt!!)

So even though it still annoys the bejesus out of me now I try not to listen to it.

Because that voice doesn’t know who I really am or what I’m capable of. It isn’t linked to my ability. It doesn’t define who I am.

Self-doubt is just a reminder that there is a world of possibility beyond our limited thinking.

Don’t doubt the amazingness that is you.

#ownyourawesome

PS – Need a motivational speaker to talk adventure and bust the myths around self-doubt? I’m your woman. Message me!