Self Doubt & Fear of Failure

The following comes from an email sent out by Damian Ross of the "The Self Defense Company":

My question is how do you destroy self-doubt? What I mean is I want to be confident and I do try, but there is still always some worry that it won't work or I'll fail-how do I stop that? I tend to give my opponent to much credit and myself very little even if I try shaking it out of my system. Thanks Regards Bob from, Northern Alberta, Canada

Answer:
Bob, that is a very human and normal response. First, knowing that what your practicing actually works helps a lot. . . . When I was young I always had self doubt, especially in the street; even though I was an accomplished wrestler and karate tournament fighter. But once I began learning this method, my common sense and experience told me that this was the real deal. Finally and perhaps most important, you must practice and train harder. . . . Training consistently will erase most self doubt. Since we're human, you can't get rid of it all, even the biggest and the baddest till have a little voice in their head. What you want to do is minimize it and the only what you do that is through training. When trained properly you will automatically go into action.

I think that this is good advice. Before I started training in jujitsu, I harbored a lot of doubts about how I might do in a physical confrontation. My training in Shito Ryu karate did not do much to alleviate those doubts.

But my jujitsu training was different. I could feel the effectiveness of techniques both when I used them on my partner and when he used them on me. This gave me confidence in the system.

The WARSKYL self defense system gives me even more confidence. I designed it around the startle response and the simplest & most effective gross motor skills. These techniques work; I have seen and felt them. Moreover, they work with minimal training.

When you stop training altogether, however, you lose your edge. Then the doubts begin to creep back in. They are simply the messengers of the inner man, telling you what you already know -- you need to get back in training.