Weeding self-doubt at its root

Doubt grows roots deep in your heart.

Like ivy, once it takes root, it starts to spread up the walls of your heart, and it grows faster than wild weeds in the garden of your life. If doubt is left unchecked, it will grow over every area of your life.  

Clearing out doubt from one area of your life may only cause it pop up in another area.  You must dig down deep to get at the roots, and if you don’t grab the roots of self-doubt, it will plague you for the rest of your life.

Self-doubt can also change the path of your life. It’s natural to avoid challenges when you start to question your abilities. And challenges are not always a bad thing. Sometimes, by avoiding challenges, you’re also avoiding opportunities in life. Self-doubt can trick you into avoiding great opportunities, because you’re not sure if you’re able to meet the challenges that go along with those opportunities.

You must master your self-doubts if you want to live a life of purpose, focus, and meaning. The first step to mastering your doubts is to admit your failures. Some people run from their mistakes. They refuse to own up to their failures, and this kind of self-deception creates the perfect soil for self-doubt to grow in the future.

If you continue to run from your mistakes or try to minimize them, you’ll never be able to pull out the roots of self-doubt. The first step in rooting doubt out of your life is to get honest with yourself about your mistakes.

Once you’ve been able to admit your mistakes, now you are in a place where you can learn from them. No one wants to go through the same mistakes again. And you don’t have to keep committing the same mistakes and failures over again endlessly.

A while ago, I wrote an article about learning from your failures. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn and grow when you make some big mistakes in life, and don’t let those mistakes hold you back in the future. If you really want to learn to grow beyond your mistakes, you’re going to have to discover the power of forgiveness.

You’re going to hurt people. So will I. ALL of us need forgiveness.  In an interview I did recently with Army Veteran and Missionary Dave Eubank, he readily admits that he’s made some big mistakes in his life. However, he’s also a man who has learned the power of forgiveness. He has forgiven people who have hurt him, and he has learned how to be forgiven by those he’s hurt.

Ultimately, it’s Dave’s profound faith that gives him the greatest understanding of forgiveness. He realized that without God’s forgiveness, he is helpless.  He learned early in life that true forgiveness from God only comes through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.

Dave Eubank is a man who bravely faces the future and who challenged the chaos when he began his personal crusade against oppression against the citizens of Burma (Myanmar). No one, including Dave, could imagine that his work would take him to some of the most dangerous combat zones all over the world.

He is a man who believed that everyone is worth rescuing, regardless of our race and beliefs. Though hardship, suffering, confusion, and endless dangers are hard to weather, Dave doesn’t let doubt hold him back. He continuously leads a team who operates on the frontlines of combat- even if that means getting caught in the middle of an ambush between ISIS and the Iraqi army with the innocent people of Mosul.  

While the rest of the world ignored the cry of the people left in Afghanistan, or doubted their ability to make a difference, Dave and his Free Burma Rangers decided to do everything in their power to show the Afghanis that their life has value. When the rest of the world watched with disgust at the people left after the withdrawal of USA and NATO forces from Afghanistan, he left his family and ran in to help.  

But Dave didn’t show up to the border of Afghanistan with a false notion of success.

He was very aware that his efforts might not fix the situation in Afghanistan, and he struggled with doubts of his success. However, he didn’t let those doubts keep him from doing something to help this humanitarian crisis.

Following your real calling in life helps you defeat doubt. Dave Eubank’s life is a story of encouragement. It is a reminder to move forward in the face of uncertainty and self-doubt. If you want to know how to rip self-doubt out of your life by its roots, look no further than Dave Eubank.