Overcoming Self-Doubt: From Holding Back to Pursuing Your Dreams
Overcoming self-doubt can feel difficult when you want something deeply, but keep holding yourself back.”
Have you ever wanted something so much… but found yourself avoiding the very thing that could move you toward it?
You think about it. You feel the pull. Then the doubts creep in.
What if I’m not good enough? What if people judge me? What if I put myself out there and end up disappointed?
Eventually, you’re frustrated with yourself because the desire hasn’t gone away, but neither has the hesitation or the self-doubt.
When Lisa came to me, she wanted to write a screenplay and books. But
after a publisher rejected an earlier pitch, she hadn’t written in a long time.
She also wanted to share her spiritual wisdom through her writing, but worried about how people would respond.
Who do you think you are to write about this?
It wasn’t just about getting words onto a page anymore. It had become tangled up with whether she trusted herself to be a writer at all.
Experiences like this can become part of a learned pattern.
Rejection can start to shape what you expect the next time you try. You imagine more criticism, tell yourself you’re not ready, and put it off.
Avoiding it brings temporary relief, but leaves you feeling stuck.
When I talk about neuro-linguistic patterns, I mean the connections between what you think, what you say to yourself, and how you feel and act.
For example, “My pitch was rejected” can turn into “Maybe I’m not a real writer.”
And that belief can influence whether you sit down to write or keep putting it off.
Through our work together, including hypnosis, we explored the beliefs and emotional responses getting in Lisa’s way and worked on changing how she saw herself and approached her goals.
By the end, she saw herself as a writer and told me she was writing more than she ever had.
She began to see her spiritual perspective as an authentic part of her voice that she wanted to share, and started incorporating it into her writing.
As her confidence grew, so did what she could imagine for herself.
Book tours had initially felt like something she would shy away from. By the end, she was imagining sharing her books around the world, including travelling to London.
The possibility of rejection was no longer stopping her from moving toward what she wanted.
She could clearly picture herself as a writer and felt confident in her ability to pursue that future.
She joined a writing bootcamp, found an illustrator for her book, and connected with someone from a publishing company called Bloom.
To Lisa, these connections felt like synchronicities, like things were finally beginning to fall into place as she moved forward. Her heart felt full and she was excited and taking aligned-action.
And the changes extended beyond writing.
Lisa had previously struggled to see herself as someone who could earn a living doing what she loved and manage her money well. By the end, she expressed confidence in her ability to support herself.
She also reported that her Reiki and dog-walking business was bringing in more money than before, while she was making time to write.
Your goal might look different.
Maybe you want to finally start that business, confidently promote the work you already do, grow your income, or stop doubting yourself and holding back from pursuing your deepest desires.
Or perhaps you want to share your ideas, change direction, or return to something you’ve quietly put aside.
What have you been holding back from, and what do you tell yourself when you think about taking that next step?
If you recognize yourself in Lisa’s story, a free clarity call is a chance to talk about what you want, what’s getting in the way, and whether working together would be a good fit.
With love,
Michelle K. Rose
Hypnotherapist & Spiritual Coach Master NLP Practitioner · Reiki Master Teacher · Intuitive Tarot Reader
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