Stage 4 of 6 · 6 lessons · ~2 weeks

Collecting evidence and small wins

Self-doubt forgets the good and remembers the bad. Build a record of real evidence, find your strengths, grow real skill and climb a ladder of small challenges.

Start: Your evidence file

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Start an evidence file and add one entry a day for two weeks
Break one big goal into three small pieces you can finish this week
Take the VIA Character Strengths survey and find real examples of your top three
Ask three people what they think you are good at
Build a five-step ladder for one situation you avoid and try the first step
Ask one person a specific feedback question and record the answer

Start with

CourseFree
Learning How to Learn (Coursera)
Deep Teaching Solutions on Coursera · Beginner
Practice and self-testing techniques that turn doubt about a skill into real skill

Practise

VIA Character Strengths Survey
A free survey that ranks your 24 character strengths, to look for in your own life

Keep handy

Notion
A simple place to keep your evidence file, ladder and feedback notes

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Atomic Habits (James Clear)ReadPaid
How small actions, repeated, add up to real change and a new sense of who you are

Before moving on: An evidence file with at least ten entries, a list of three strengths with real examples, a five-step ladder for one situation you avoid with the first two steps done, and one round of specific feedback recorded.

Tauseef's advice

Write one line in your evidence file every evening for a month. It takes a minute and it changes how you see yourself, because you stop relying on a memory that only keeps the bad bits. Then climb your ladder one rung a week. Slow and steady beats one brave day followed by months of avoidance.

Struggling right now? If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, contact local emergency services or a crisis line: Find a helpline (any country), Umang (Pakistan), Tele-MANAS, 14416 (India).