Doubt Will Lead to Failure

When humans start to question things or subjects in life, and it has been on their minds for some time, or it can be something they are uncertain about, it is called doubt. When humans started to question things we began to gain more knowledge and get the answers they wanted. Throughout this essay, we will look at how doubt impacted my life. Doubt is good for us sometimes, but doubt can also be very bad. 

Nobody likes taking tests, they are long and boring and extremely stressful. I remember always failing my tests in grade 6, I would always understand the topics we were being taught, but when the test was in my hands it was like all the information would leave my brain. My parents thought it was because I wasn’t studying hard enough, but I would always stay up late studying, and sometimes I would wake up 3 hours before school to memorize the notes. None of it worked. 

One day my mom went to the school's office and set up an appointment with the school social worker to see what we could do with my grades. I explained to the social worker what would happen to me during tests, and how nothing was working out for me. Then, the social worker told me “Don’t think too hard, trust yourself.” Hearing that made me think about every time I had taken a test and would overthink every question when I should’ve been trying to stay calm and trusting my answers. By the time I had gotten this advice, we had finished all the PAT exams, and we wouldn't have any more tests that year. Finally, when it was time to take an exam in grade seven, I studied a lot. I had forgotten what I was told and stressed about the test, I was worried that I would fail this test and every other test after it. My mom could tell that I was worried, so she told me what the social worker had told me “Don’t think too hard, trust yourself.” It felt weird having my mother telling me this, she had always been very strict and serious about my grades, when she told me this I felt a rush of serotonin. I finally felt calm and didn’t doubt myself about the test. I got a 98% on the exam. 

In Language Arts class we listened to a song called “Head full of doubt” by The Avett Brothers. When we were watching the video we were supposed to make connections from the music video to life. The connection I made was to that piece of land. When the land finally starts to get bigger and more important, it reminds me what it feels like to live without doubt. You start to believe in yourself and you feel more confident. Yet when you start to feel bad for yourself and you start to doubt yourself you start to become less successful.

In summary, doubt is normal, we have it to protect ourselves and evaluate things. Sometimes we doubt ourselves a little too much, but when we doubt ourselves too much we overthink the simple things. By doubting myself before tests, I was getting bad grades and failing pretty much every test, but when I finally started trusting myself I started to get better grades. I’m not saying you should never doubt yourself. I’m simply saying that if you constantly put yourself down and hesitate with things, you’re not going to get your goal. We need to start trusting ourselves and our decisions.