You weren’t born doubting yourself — self-doubt was installed into you slowly, through school, family dynamics, social pressure, and the constant correction of your instincts until you no longer trusted your own perception. In practice, this means every time you feel something strongly, you immediately check whether others agree before you act, which turns you into someone who waits, hesitates, and second-guesses instead of someone who initiates. Once your instincts are compromised, you depend on outside signals — experts, influencers, bosses, partners, systems — to tell you what is “reasonable,” “correct,” or “normal,” and that dependency makes you governable. The system doesn’t need to control you directly; it only needs you to mistrust the one voice that cannot be manipulated: your own. The blade cuts deepest when you see that your lack of clarity never came from incapability — it came from a lifetime of micro-messages teaching you to abandon yourself.