“Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.”
There’s a prowling force that can rob us of joy, confidence and hope, sending us spiraling from a self-assured state of mind to one of worry, self-consciousness and uncertainty. We read and hear a lot about fear and the ways to both combat it and use it to our advantage. We often don’t talk much about doubt. It’s worth opening up the conversation on this pernicious enemy, largely because it’s the secret battle all of us fight — and many of us are (ironically) to fearful to open up about.
According to Merriam-Webster, fear is, “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.”
Doubt is, “to call into question the truth of: to be uncertain.” It is also to demonstrate a lack of confidence.
Right there, we’ve identified the distinction — fear is emotionally-based and can overpower our mental faculties purely by virtue of how it influences our emotional life. Doubt is basically the manifestation of self-consciousness, uncertainty and intensive questioning of the truth — all when we’d be best left to take and accept the truth as we know it to be.
Of course, a certain amount of questioning is critical to living a thoughtful, discerning life. All of us should do this.
“All healthy human beings have an inner stream of thoughts and feelings that include criticism, doubt, and fear. That’s just our minds doing the job they were designed to do: trying to anticipate and solve problems and avoid potential pitfalls.” Source: HBR