INFPs experience a lot of self-doubt, and that isn’t necessarily a problem. But what do you do when you want to start moving through that doubt? How do you get that process rolling?
You can look at it this way: doubting yourself causes you to pause, and then you start to ask questions like, “Am I good enough to do this?”; “Can I do this?”; “Do I have the skill to do this?”; “Is this the right thing for me to do right now?” And on and on and on.
I don’t have to give you all the questions. You come up with those very well on your own. But, the way that you start to get your energy moving and get yourself going through the doubt is to answer these questions.
And the way that you answer them is to take an action towards them. And the really good news here is that you do not have to be picky and you do not have to be anywhere near perfect.
Literally, any reasonable action will work here.
INFPs have a tendency to overthink. It’s very easy for us to start worrying about what is exactly the right action we should be taking. But when you’re testing out your self-doubt questions, you’re doing anything that answers that question.
If the question is, “Can I really write this book?” you might simply have a writing session with no other goal but to sit down and write something and to keep doing that on a consistent basis. Because eventually, you come up with a draft and you can say to yourself, “Oh, yeah, I actually can. I can write this book because I just did it. I now have a completed draft and it’s done.” And it was just a matter of getting yourself moving.
Or it could be something like, “Am I really good enough or am I really skilled enough to start this business?”
And the way that you start answering those questions is maybe to register the domain name for your website, and then maybe you start organizing what your services are going to be and what your pricing is going to be. Maybe you put out some content into the world, and you start getting feedback that indicates it’s really helpful.
Now you have concrete, specific feedback that is evidence that you are good enough, or that your business will be helpful to people. And you also have some structure for your business.
What INFPs have a tendency to do is to spin these questions around and around in their minds. So you pause in the doubt, and then you get stuck when you make it too mental.
When you take action, it gets your energy moving, and you can actually rely upon your experiences to inform your doubt questions. You’re using your actual experience to inform what you think about yourself and what it is that you’re doing.
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Amanda Linehan is the author of Productivity For INFPs. She is an independent author, coach, and INFP, who has published six full-length books and has been read in 113 countries. Amanda was a speaker at the INF Summit in February 2020. Learn more about her Productivity For INFPs Online Course on the course page.
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