6 Defining Steps: Personal Growth by Overcoming Self Doubt (Episode 179)

One hallway humiliation. One decision to change. That’s the spark Dr. Jason revisits as he walks us from a scrawny seventh-grader picking up fallen books to a purpose-driven adult who built strength, earned advanced degrees, and learned how to turn self-doubt into momentum. The story isn’t about perfect confidence; it’s about practical steps that help Gen Z and Millennials silence the noise, set goals that matter, and keep moving when the grind gets real.

We unpack a clear six-part framework for finding your inner truth: create space to think, journal without editing, analyze your life story, challenge fake beliefs, trust your intuition with “think before you do,” and practice ongoing self-reflection. Along the way, we talk time management for real life, from swapping time wasters for time savers to using one small morning win, like making your bed, to prime your mind for bigger wins. You’ll hear how discipline becomes a daily choice, how to edit who gets a vote in your life, and how to turn setbacks into data instead of identity.

By the end, you’ll have a simple written plan with four columns—goals, actions, obstacles, and success—so you can measure progress and stay honest about what’s working. Whether you’re navigating school, career pivots, or personal growth, this conversation offers practical motivation, mindset tools, and a grounded path to resilience. If you’re ready to replace self-doubt with intentional action and build a life that reflects your inner truth, press play, take notes, and start today.

If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick review to help more people find the show. Your next step: write down one goal and the first action you’ll take before the day ends.

Transcript

Welcome And Global Community

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to your motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert Podcast. I am your host. My name is Dr. Jason Wiggins, and it is absolutely, of course, amazing to be with you today. And I want to thank everyone for your continued listenership. I'm continuing to get so much more feedback and so much interest in the podcast, and we're continuing to build, and that is because of you. Please feel free to connect me with others, share the podcast, your motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert podcast with your friends, your family, and we are worldwide. We have over 75 countries that have listened to us because we try to go with what is important to millennials and Gen Z. And really, this podcast can also be helpful for baby boomers, Generation X, and all those that really want to understand how they work, how we can help, and ultimately how we can get motivated to be better. Because who doesn't want to be better? Who doesn't want to be motivated to move forward and make goals and accomplish those goals in our life? Today we got an absolutely great podcast, and it's going to talk about finding our inner truth. Finding our inner truth. What does that mean? The self-perception, the self-doubt, the reason why we can and can't do things. Everything is from our inner self and what we believe. And so today I'm going to provide some backstory on how I grew up, some of the issues that I ran through, which are very pertinent to today for Gen Z and millennials. We have to identify what is our truth. How can we be disciplined to create and move forward with that truth? And how can we make sure that we are not falling short of our goals and being addicted to things that are not important in our life? Addiction is not just drugs, alcohol, doing the wrong things. Addiction is about not prioritizing what is important within the scope of what you need to do for yourself, your family, and your overall career goals. And we're going to talk about those six ways to find your inner truth and ultimately have a perception that is strong, that is vibrant, that will provide you with that motivation to continue. It starts daily by making your bed. If you make your bed, that will ultimately define how you start your day. And then that's what you can start with a strong goal in mind. I think it's very important that as individuals, as goal-oriented, motivated Gen Z and millennials, let's look at how self-doubt can minimize who you are. Growing up, I had a lot of self-doubt. I had people that knocked me down. I got bullied. I had many of those same deterrence that you, as millennials and Gen Z have had. And just like many of you, you have overcome them and you continue to overcome them. How do you overcome them? You overcome them with discipline. Discipline. And how do you do that? You set your goals, you determine how you can overcome any self-doubt or scenarios in your life. And that's why at the end of today's show, we are going to talk about six ways to reflect and understand how we can find our inner. So as I grew up with the self-doubt, the bullying, the people that really basically tried to knock me down. What did I have to do? What were my choices? And I remember a pinnacle part of my childhood. I was roughly about 13 years old. I was in seventh grade. I was getting picked on. I felt like the world was ending and crashing down on me. Have you ever felt that way before? I know you have. It doesn't matter if you're popular, not popular, you've had issues in your life, you haven't overcome. There's always obstacles in your life. And that pinnacle moment for me was when I sat there at 13 years old. I remember very clearly that when at a pinnacle time in my life, I was walking down the hall, and I remember a bully coming up to me, and he knocked my books down. He knocked my books down. And when that happened, I had to obviously scramble down, start picking up the books. And I remember a very nice girl to this day. Her name was Kristen. She came up and she helped me pick those books up off the ground. And I thought to myself, what an embarrassing moment. I can never let this happen again. And so what did I do? I came home and I said, I have to reflect. I have to change something. I was motivated. I was a person that was looking to identify ways to improve. I had a paper out. I was always goal-oriented. I was always trying to get good grades. I did the things I needed to do. But guess what? I tried so hard and felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. So that inner motivation was always there, which helped drive me. But I had to find my inner truth. And that moment, when those books got knocked down from my hands, I went something's got to change. I will never finish school if I have this continued mindset of getting bullied, people making fun of me, and not being able to overcome that. So I was very scrawny. I was weak. And I was actually the second weakest kid going into my eighth grade year, with the exception of another boy, and his name was Jason as well. And I was like, what am I going to do differently? So going into my eighth grade year, I started lifting weights and working out with the high school kids at the local gym. And I remember that going into my eighth grade year, I felt different. I acted a little bit different because I had some inner truth that was provided to me over that course of the summer. So the biggest issue for me was getting bullied. All of a sudden, I went into my eighth grade year, coming from being the weakest kid in seventh grade, being picked on, having my books knocked down, being made fun of, and then all of a sudden I came in bench pressing, like 135 pounds going into my eighth grade year. And it may not seem like much, but it ended up elevating me to be one of the stronger kids in my class going into eighth grade. So then I felt some sort of sense of identity. I felt like maybe this is who I am. And then that's when I realized that I want to play sports. I want to have that identity, being able to be somebody that excelled in sports. And so that was my inner motivation. My inner truth was what can I do to overcome? Because I thought I would never finish school. If I was going to get bullied, how was I going to go into my high school years and be able to still have those issues? Granted, I still got bullied. I still had those issues. But guess what? Truth be told, I could have easily fought any of those bullies and probably won. Why? Because I had the strength to do so. But I was a nice guy. I kind of went along with it and I didn't let it bother me too much. And I even had people after high school say, hey, I'm really sorry for how I treated you. I could have treated you better. But guess what? I had so much inner truth that had been exploited to me and explained that I overcome all those self-doubts. Going through high school, I was your average 3.0 student. And then I went into my, I achieved my bachelor's degree. Then I earned my master's. Then I earned my PhD. Why? Because I never let that self-doubt creep in. And when it did creep in, and during the PhD process, it crept in so many times. I shared that before. I wanted to quit, quit, quit, quit during this PhD. Why? It was the most toughest and hardest overcoming thing I had ever done. And just that inner truth of realizing that imagine, if you don't complete this process, you will wake up every single day of the rest of your life knowing that you quit. You didn't overcome the obstacles. And I couldn't live knowing that I quit in a PhD. I would never be able to live each day in and day out knowing that I had quit. So every time I had that self-doubt, I had to question that inner truth and talk about to myself those six ways of realizing your inner truth and overcoming that way of doing things. So today, it is about being resilient. It's about understanding your true self. It's about the discipline, it's about taking the steps towards achieving the goals and success you want. I'm in my 50s, but I don't feel 50. Why? Because there's so many goals, so many things that I still want to do. And as part of this podcast, it's one of the most amazing opportunities that I have to share with each and every one. So that's why at the end of today's episode, we're going to talk about the ways to help you. Then we're going to talk about the call to action. The call to action is no matter what sets you apart from others, you have to overcome. You have to achieve. Don't ever, ever, ever let anybody state you are not good enough. We all have the opportunity to achieve success. Sometimes it's hard, but guess what? If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. So today it's a new start. If you have the discipline, if you have the desire, if you have the ability, and if you don't have the ability, then let's find ways to overcome. This podcast is here to help Gen Z and Millennials overcome any obstacle. So today we are going to talk about six ways to find your inner truth. Number one is create that space in your life. Find the time to relax, to meditate, and be mindful of what is around you. Create that space and block out the noise and really reflect about who you are, what you want, what is the expectation. How are you going to be disciplined to find your inner truth and to understand moving forward? All those roadblocks that are in my way, I'm done with them. I'm done with them like Dr. Jason was going into his eighth grade year. He was done with the noise of people telling him he could not do anything. And that drove me throughout the course of my life. When there was self-doubt, when I didn't think I could do it, that's when I realized I am going to do it. And nobody's gonna stop me. So take that time to create your space, create your awareness, have the opportunity to reflect and find out what you deserve. And then the important thing is once you reflect, you have that meditation and your mindfulness of what is going on around you and who you are. Number two is journal your thoughts. Uncover your consciousness without editing. What does that mean? Let the thoughts flow and write them down regardless of what they are. Talk about that self-doubt. Talk about why you can't do things. Talk about how you're going to start your day by making your bed, making that number one decision from the very start of your day. And then look at how you can create the opportunity to move forward. And what is the end goal? Where do you want to be? Write everything down without editing. Number three, I think is probably the most important because we all make mistakes. But number three is analyze your life story. Review your past experiences, good, bad. How do people reflect that around you? Do they hold you accountable for all the things you've done in the past and don't ever let you forget about them? Well, if you can't forget about them, how can you move on? And if you have people in your life that are not helping you and are hindering who you are, what you want to be, and how you can move forward, then you have to think about are those people really necessary in my life? So analyze all the great things you've done. Analyze all the disappointments you've had in your life, analyze all of the wrong things you've done. And take all of that because that is your life experience to where you could almost write a memoir, a memoir about your whole life. But take those key points and think about what I could have done better? How can I get past those negative transgressions that are in my life and those truths that were so much important or a big part of my life, and take those truths and find out who I really am, the positive aspects of me and how I can move forward. And then once you do that, number four is challenge your fake beliefs. Question the negative beliefs about what you have about yourself, what people have about you. And don't let that be a deterrent to making sure that whatever you set forward in your life to go, you create a path. You create that yellow brick road. For those that may not know, we are talking about the Wizard of Oz. So create that yellow brick road to where your happy place is, where your finalized goals are, the things that you want to achieve, the things that everybody has said, I cannot do. But guess what? You can do it. You will set your disciplinary steps for you to create that path to do it. You will be disciplined. You will then remove the negative addictions that have kept you from achieving your goals. What are those things that are so unimportant in your life that hold you back? Are you doing things that are wasting time? We call those time wasters. Let's have time savers. Time savers allow you to focus on what's important within your life. All those negative beliefs you have, open the garbage can, dump them in, close it, and forget it. Those mistakes you've made in the past, they're done. Those bad examples of what people's beliefs about you are done. Those negative beliefs about yourself are done. You and you only have to start that road to success. Number five, and this is the big one. This right here is the one that has gotten me through all the negativity, all the transgression, all the obstacles that I have to overcome, all the self-doubt, all the things that have been created in front of me to ensure that it blocks my success. The same thing about blocking your success. Trust your intuition. T BYD. Think before you do. T B Y D. Think before you do and trust your intuition. Your intuition says this might be bad. So maybe I shouldn't do it. Or your intuition said, this is a good opportunity. Let me explore some more. So pay attention to those gut feelings. Trust what you think is right. And sometimes if you don't know if it's right, then find the information to just double check. But trust your gut. If you think somebody that's in part of your life is having some negative transgressions, some negative thoughts about you is deterring you from creating your goal, then you should look at that person and go, why are they in my life? Do they help me or do they hinder me? And number six, what do I truly need in life? Which is number six, practice self-reflection. Continue to take the time. So we're kind of going back to step one where we created the spaces, but in step six, you are continuing to practice self-reflection. What do I truly need in my life? What is my inner truth? What is hindering me from creating a successful path that's going to help me achieve the goals that I can? So right now, right now, a call for action for you is I want you to take out a piece of paper. Take out a piece of paper right now. Grab that pen. I'll give you a moment. Take that pen and start writing down the days of my life moving forward. Goals. One, two, three, four. Write down those goals. And then the second step, what am I gonna do different? What am I gonna do different? So one, two, three, four. So number one is goals. One, two, three, four. Number two, what am I gonna do different? And number three, how can I do it? What are the obstacles? What are the obstacles? So goals, and then the third one is obstacles, and the second one is how am I going to overcome and do it? And then number four, I want you to write down success. Success is reaching your goals. So you all have the opportunity to achieve. So at motivation, it motivated millennials and motivated Gen Z, let's find a way that we can bridge that gap and find a way to create the successful path that you need to achieve. So today we talked about the story that I provided about overcoming bullying, overcoming self-doubt, overcoming the negative obstacles in my life to realize that I can be so much more. I've had a lot of success in my life. But why? Because I've created that space, I've created that opportunity, and I've utilized that yellow brick road to see what happens at the end. My story is not done yet. It has not been written completely. Regardless, I'm in my 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s. It doesn't matter. If you're a Gen Z from the age of 14 to an older millennial in your late 40s, we are all at the same spot. We all have the opportunity to be successful. So as you continue to move forward, starting a new week on Monday, or you're ending your week. Think about what I talked about. Think about that call to action and how you're gonna be successful. So again, I appreciate all the listenership. I appreciate the emails, and please continue to expand our network so other people can get that motivation they need and key points about being a millennial and Gen Z and really pushing forward. I appreciate all the rankings. Right now, we are the number two millennial and Gen Z podcast in the world when it comes to talking about what's important to millennials and Gen Z. And it starts today. Move forward, create your path for success, and don't ever let anybody tell you you cannot do something. I want to thank everybody. I appreciate your continued listenership. We're gonna continue to bring you great content, and I look forward to talking to you here in the near future. Thank you. Take care. I am Dr. Jason Wiggins, your motivational Gen Z and millennial expert. Thank you very much. Take care. Bye bye.