Topics like imposter syndrome and self-doubt don’t get enough air time, despite effecting a huge amount of people. With the pressure to push ourselves career-wise, while projecting an Insta-perfect life on Instagram, it can be really hard to admit that we don’t feel as confident or self-assured as want people to think we are. 

But the truth is lots of us have self-doubt, and it’s something that presenter and philanthropist Katie Piper would like us to talk about more. 

Speaking to Stylist.co.uk she says: “We all experience self-doubt, probably on a regular basis. It’s quite easy to scroll online and see negative things, and think: ‘Are other people doing better things than me? Should I be doing this? Should I have this quality?’ It makes you feel inadequate.”

Piper has struggled with this a lot, and as a result, has developed some strategies of her own to get through it. From journalling (bullet journals in particular have been praised for their anti-anxiety effects) to motivating mantras, here are Piper’s four tips on shaking off self-doubt. 

1. Visualisation 

“Self-doubt stems all from the mind, essentially it’s made-up. If you can use visualisation, you can have more self-belief. 

A good way to do this would be to journal. This might be through writing down things that have happened whether it’s negative or positive. Reminding yourself of when you once did something and then being able to refer back to it, to reinforce that actually ‘I can do this and I’m not a failure.’”

2. Verbalising 

“If I experience self-doubt, I would actually call a friend and I would talk it out because I would call somebody that would be honest with me, and would tell me where I have my weaknesses as well as my strengths.”

3. Affirmations

“Every time I see something positive or someone says something to me, I write it in the notes section of my phone. I take a picture of it and I print them out on a monthly basis and you can imagine how bad this looks. 

I actually stick them in the downstairs loo at our house, because our loo’s all tiled and that’s the place where you always spend a few minutes reflecting. So create a happy place within your home, where you can combat that self-doubt.”

4. Fake it ‘til you make it

“If you almost kind of lie to yourself and big yourself up, you can talk yourself into being able to do it. 

Essentially the body only ever achieves what the mind believes and I often use that myself in sport particularly, I run a lot of half-marathons for charities and when I’m at those final few miles and wanting to give up, I actually repeat that mantra to myself to get me to the finish line.”

Images: Instagram