All of the successful 1 people I know have one thing in common: an apparent lack of self-doubt.
I say ‘apparent’ because I’m sure they have good days and bad just like the rest of us, but very seldom do they blame who they are rather than what they’ve done. Attributing a slip-up to a mistake rather than a personal characteristic is what I believe to be the key difference.
Where you say:
—I’ve made a mistake. This really sucks. It wouldn’t have happened if I was [smarter, taller, stronger, louder, quieter, etc, etc…]. This always happens to me, or rather, I always do this to myself.
They say:
—I’ve made a mistake. This really sucks. It won’t happen the next time.
I use mistakes as an example, but it applies the same way to everything else. The road to you becoming a great designer, or a great teacher, or a great singer, or a great electrician it is littered with obstacles.
Finding ways to make sure that the biggest obstacle isn’t yourself is the real trick.
1. By success, I refer to the only two metrics that matter: happiness and personal satisifaction.