How to Turn Doubt into Your Superpower
How to Harness Uncertainty as a Force for Meaning
Let’s get real:
Doubt has a PR problem.
We treat it like that awkward relative who shows up uninvited to every family gathering. It walks in, plops down at the dinner table, and starts asking uncomfortable questions. And our instinct? Pretend it’s not there. Pour another glass of wine. Keep the conversation light.
But here’s the twist: doubt isn’t trying to ruin the party. It’s trying to get your attention.
Doubt is less like a villain and more like gravity—a quiet, invisible force constantly tugging at us. Sometimes it keeps us grounded. Other times, it pulls us toward something bigger.
The problem isn’t doubt.
The problem is that most of us have never learned how to work with it.
The Day Doubt Showed Up on the Rugby Field
When I arrived at the Naval Academy, I wasn’t supposed to play contact sports.
Too dangerous. Too risky.
And if you saw me then, you might have agreed.
But something about rugby called to me. It wasn’t just the sport. It was the brotherhood. The grit. The elegance within the violence.
I still remember standing on the edge of the practice field that first day, cleats digging into the grass, watching upperclassmen collide like guided missiles with bad attitudes.
Doubt tugged at me hard.
Can I handle this?
Am I out of my depth?
Am I about to make a huge mistake?
It felt like standing at the edge of a canyon, fog swirling below, every cell in my body whispering: “Play it safe, John.”
But there was another pull — quieter, steadier — that said: “What if you belong here?”
I stepped forward.
That moment changed my trajectory. Rugby became a crucible for leadership, resilience, and belonging. And just this month, that team — the 1993 Navy Rugby Team — was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Looking back, I realize that day wasn’t just about rugby. It was my first real encounter with the gravity of doubt.
Doubt Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Psychologists have a wonderfully unsexy term for the moment doubt kicks in: prediction error.
It’s what happens when your brain expects one thing, reality hands it another, and your inner narrator goes, “Uh… wait a second.”
Doubt is your cognitive tug. It’s the system alert that says: “Look closer. There’s more here.”
The problem? Instead of listening to that gravitational pull, we often do the opposite. We panic. We project. We scroll Instagram. We bury it under “busyness” or other people’s opinions.
High-performance psychologist Michael Gervais calls this FOPO — Fear of People’s Opinions. It’s one of the greatest constraints on human potential. Because the moment we start worrying about judgment, we redirect the energy of doubt away from growth and toward impression management.
And once you start orbiting other people’s expectations, it’s very hard to escape the gravity well.
But Wait… Some Doubt Isn’t Even Yours
Here’s where things get even trickier:
Not all doubt originates inside you.
Brennan Spiegel, author of Pull, studies how invisible forces in our environment shape what we pay attention to, believe, and even physically feel.
His research shows that we’re living in a gravitational field of information.
Technologies, algorithms, cultural narratives — they’re all pulling on us constantly.
When doubt flares up, sometimes it’s not because you’re broken.
It’s because your internal compass is clashing with an external current.
That’s why it’s so crucial to pause and ask:
“Is this doubt actually mine? Or is it being shaped by something outside of me?”
Sometimes the answer is uncomfortable.
Which, ironically, is exactly why we need doubt in the first place.
Radical Doubt: The Skill Nobody Taught You
This is where Dr. Bobby Parmar comes in. He argues that doubt isn’t just something to survive. It’s something to structure.
When uncertainty hits, most people either freeze like a deer in headlights or sprint toward the nearest decision just to make the feeling stop.
Radical doubt is the third way.
It’s a disciplined process of pausing, zooming out, interrogating assumptions, generating options, and then deciding — not despite doubt, but because of it.
Bobby shared a story about questioning his identity as a martial artist — a moment that forced him to rethink everything. Instead of shoving doubt into a closet, he invited it to sit down, poured it a metaphorical coffee, and asked it a few hard questions.
That’s the move.
Enjoying this? Let’s go deeper.
You’ve explored how doubt shapes your psychology, how external forces pull at your attention, and why radical doubt is a hidden leadership superpower.
In the subscriber-only section, I’ll walk you through five practical tools to harness doubt as fuel, plus:
A step-by-step framework to apply Radical Doubt to real decisions
How to spot external pulls in real time (and stop outsourcing your clarity)
A downloadable Companion Workbook to map your own “doubt gravity field”
A link to the ad-free episode
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Five Ways to Work With Doubt (Instead of Against It)
Name the Doubt
Vague doubt is like fog — you can’t see the road ahead. Specific doubt is like switching on your headlights. Write down the exact question your doubt is asking. Not “I’m anxious,” but “I’m uncertain whether this path aligns with my long-term vision.”
👉 Pro Tip: The more precise the wording, the easier it is to act on.Separate Doubt from Identity.
One of the fastest ways to get stuck is to fuse your values with your decisions.
“I’m doubting this idea” morphs into “I’m doubting myself.” Train yourself to pull those two threads apart. You can question your strategy without questioning your worth.
👉 Elite performers do this instinctively; that’s why they can pivot fast without spiraling..Interrogate the External Pull.
Not every doubt originates inside you. As Brennan Spiegel showed in Pull, invisible cultural and technological forces shape what we notice. Pause and ask: “Is this doubt mine, or am I being pulled by something external — like social media narratives, workplace culture, or other people’s expectations?”
👉 Just recognizing the source often dissolves half the fog.Practice Radical Doubt.
Bobby Parmar’s Radical Doubt Framework gives you a structured process:
1️⃣ Define the decision.
2️⃣ Zoom out to see the full context.
3️⃣ Generate multiple paths.
4️⃣ Defend each choice as if to someone you deeply respect.
5️⃣ Assemble your recommendation.
👉 This turns doubt from a swirling storm into a thoughtful map.Build Trust Circles.
Doubt doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. Surround yourself with challengers — not just cheerleaders. These are the people who help refine your thinking, not reinforce your fears.
👉 Schedule regular “doubt check-ins” with 1–2 trusted voices who will sharpen, not soothe.
Bonus: Use the episode workbook to map your current doubt, identify external pulls, and run it through the Radical Doubt Framework. Doing this once will change how you make decisions forever.
Here’s the Truth
Doubt isn’t the villain.
It’s the gravitational field that shows up when your life is on the edge of expansion.
It can hold you back, yes.
But it can also pull you toward clarity, growth, and meaning—if you stop running from it.
Listen to the Full Episode Ad-Free
This article is based on Episode 675 of the Passion Struck Podcast.
🎙 The Gravity of Doubt: How Questions Pull Us Toward Meaning
→
And don’t miss the free companion workbook for this episode → Download here
It will help you map where doubt is showing up, interrogate external pulls, and apply Bobby Parmar’s radical doubt framework to your own decisions.
Next Week
We’re shifting gears to another invisible force: Luck. I’ll be joined by Wharton professor Judd Kessler, co-author of Lucky by Design, to explore how the most successful people don’t just wait for luck — they design for it. You’ll want to be here for that.
Question for you:
Where is doubt tugging at you right now?
Reply to this post or leave a comment — I read every one.
— John