Why Self Doubt Must Be Crushed

In 1975, Freddie Mercury wrote Bohemian Rhapsody at his home in London.

He wrote the first part and went out to eat his dinner. He wrote the rest of the song on his return. He was told by other musicians it would never be a hit and radio stations would refuse to play it. It was deemed too long — Just under 6 minutes.

You might agree it had fatalistic verses and quite an odd set up comprising of an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, hard rock and a reflective coda.

The single catapulted Queen from rock stars into mega gods and it became one of the best selling singles of all time.

Freddie Mercury kicked his heels when presenting his masterpiece, and refused to succumb to the opinion of others. The piece was an anomaly, but he trusted himself, his art and the direction he was moving into musically.

You could say he had a high degree of certainty when he released this song.

In response, we were hooked from start to finish. Much has been speculated about what the song meant, but since it has given us over 31 years of pleasure, frankly I don’t care and wouldn’t bother to pick it apart.

This is a great lesson in determination and crushing self doubt.

How many times have we been told not to follow a direction, a path or a situation that feels bizarre and unhinged at the time. In reverse, when were are overcome by a sense of certainty, there is no room for self-doubt to come sneaking in through the back door.

At times we need to behave like a boxer knocking his opponent until he reaches a comatose state. We must beat the self-doubt senseless, so that it has no time to arise and badger us again with it’s mindless, never ending egotistical chatter.

We have all found times in our lives when self-doubt creeps in like an unwanted guest after closing time. It lurks around uninvited and brings a vibe which has the potential to drag us down into the gutter. A pretty familiar place for some of us.

It appears as a shadow, following us around with it’s mindless chatter serving as a reminder that if our idea is rejected, we must retreat bashfully back to home base. In it’s place we pull towards focusing on pleasing others and holding back what we feel naturally pulled to do. This becomes the catalyst for an intense amount of frustration that tends to permeate the air we breathe.

It begs the question;

What is your Bohemian Rhapsody?

That piece encased in an idea, piece of art, or creation you would love to share. That part of you that if only you could swiftly shove the self-doubt out of the way, would feel safe to unveil to the rest of the world.

Imagine how much richer the world would be with that one thing you could offer that no one else can. If you could ram up the certainty for what you want, what could really be possible for you?

Self-doubt pulls you back from truly impacting others. If you could allow the idea, the gift, the art form to just flow through you without the contamination of doubtful thought, imagine the result?

We need to let go of self-doubt and hang on to our own personal moment of certainty. We need to hang onto it as if our life depended on it. Because it does. Without it, your stroke of genius fizzles out and dies a slow painful death.

Certainty is kept alive by the breath and oxygen that is blown into it daily. That breath must always come from a place of true knowing that however many doors get slammed and however many negative responses are received, you will continue to knock on other more welcoming doors.

Persevere and believe in what you want, develop a sense of certainty even if anxiety and mayhem descends.

I know that I would have been all the poorer if Bohemian Rhapsody wouldn’t have been blaring out of my cassette recorder in the 80’s. In the midst of those turbulent teenage years, it represented diversity, difference, exploration and pushing the musical comfort zone in such a powerful way.

What a great role model for adolescents of that time.

It represented one mans definition of true art, not in the conventional sense, but in the manner that Freddie Mercury decided it should be. The action now is to expand belief in your uniqueness and allow for that personal masterpiece to come forth.