Moving Through Doubt into Great Change

I've been battling recently with Doubt. It has not been pretty and certainly hasn't felt very good. But today I made a discovery and want to share it.As you know, this blog is where I explore change - how we make it easy or hard and what we can do about it.As you might imagine, change seems to create doubt. Or at least bring it to the surface. Is the change I'm making good for me? Will this help? If I change jobs am I doing the right thing? Will my family be okay? Could I have done something differently with that situation so I wouldn't be where I am now?And then I thought, what's the difference between wondering and doubting? After all, each of those questions can come from a place of wonder, of exploration, of consideration. So, what takes them to a place of doubting? The answer is Judgment.When  you are wondering  you are in a place of reflection. You are considering your actions, what has come and gone, and evaluating how you are measuring that thing in your life. You are working on giving something meaning - was this helpful? Did it hurt? Will is help me along in life? And then without realizing it, you end up reducing your evaluation or wonder - your movement to and through awareness - to its most basic level...is this (or was this) good or bad?And there you go - you just slipped into judgment. That is Good or that is Bad. We have left the realm of that is Helpful, or that is Uncomfortable, or that is Positive, or even that is Joyful. Nope, now it's Good or Bad.  And for many of us, once we have reached Judgment, it a simple step to Doubt.When we doubt we take the wondering (If I do this new thing, I wonder if it will be well received?) and, more often than not, we think "Well, it just might not be well received" and, viola, we are judging the new thing we are considering, our ability to do it, and finding that we might not get it right and someone else might not like it or buy it or help us. And that is Bad.And here's the realization. You have no control over what someone else will think, feel, react or respond. Absolutely none.All you can control is what you create, what you put out into the world. So a more helpful question would be, If I do this new thing, I wonder if I have done everything I can to be helpful? Or, If I do this new thing, I wonder if it advances or improves my life the way I have wanted?Notice: when you step from Judgement to Doubt you are taking on the weight of the world and making it your own. You are taking responsibility for someone else's response. In essence, you become a noble victim. Noble because you have decided you are doing a good thing by caring/worrying about what someone else is feeling or thinking. But you have no control over what someone thinks or feels. You have control over what you offer into the world. How someone receives your offering is all up to them. (Of course, the reverse is true, only you can control how you feel, think or receive someone's offering.)So when you are making change, in your life or in your business, spend all the time it takes to consider how this change truly creates the offering you are making to yourself and/or the world. And when  you can feel good about the offering - without worrying about what others will think - then make it with all your heart and soul. I'm convinced that when this happens we are able to create the impossible.Give it a try and tell me what you find.