‘Doubt is the energy behind progress’
In this time of Covid-19, we’re in a period where we are filled with so many doubts: we doubt our future health and wealth; we doubt our future freedoms; and we doubt our recovery – will our community, nation and world recover from this horrendous pandemic?
Recently, I read a quote from, the American physicist, Richard Feynman. He said ‘Doubt is to be welcomed and not feared’. I mulled over this idea for quite some time. I thought long and hard about how doubt is most often seen as a negative. How doubt is frond upon as the lack of confidence can often result in a defeat. However, like Feynman, I don’t find doubting a negative concept and haven’t thought it negative for some time. I too see some positives in doubt. Actually, I’ve been working with doubt for a while and it has been an active component in some of my successes. In fact, I believe in the concept that ‘Doubt is the energy behind progress’.
For someone who believes in a positive mindset - whether on a sports field or in the business environment - this may feel a like a bit of a contradiction but it’s not. Here’s why… I approach a challenge with the confidence that, ultimately, I will achieve the result I desire, but there is always doubt attached. It might be that a particular tactic, or a particular activity may not give me the ultimate result that I’m looking for. However, the doubt that I have allows me to keep on testing and improving, giving me the energy I need to fuel my approach. If I went to market with a product, service or personality without some doubts about the methods, platforms, content or general connection with the audience, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly.
It is over confidence - dare I say it, arrogance - that prevents sufficient and insightful questioning, testing and, as a result, improvement. Think it through for a moment… It is the doubt that fuels the improvement and, ultimately, drives forward progress.
A belief in and acceptance of doubt can be more powerful than you might imagine - Great leaders may have doubts about winning a particular battle, but that they will ultimately win the war because of their utter confidence in learning from losing some battles along the way.
We are currently overwhelmed with doubts, but isn’t now the time to use that energy to question our next steps. We all suffer from business inertia- that’s to say that we do things in a certain way, simply because that’s how we have always done them. Soon, these things/processes/systems/approaches can end up being mill stones around our necks, a strangulation on profits and a barrier to progress. The Covid crisis can be your opportunity to make a change. Use this precious time to embrace your doubts and use the energy of doubt to question your approach, your projects and your activities so that you can begin to forge a path ahead of you, where you can progress and survive.