how often do you second guess yourself? | INFJ Forum

how often do you second guess yourself?

Gaze

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Sep 5, 2009
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How often do you second guess yourself? Noticed it's a habit of mine and wondered how many others do this.
 
rarely. almost never
 
All the time.

Which, I think for me is good some of the time. I get feelings of absolute rightness or wrongness about certain things, which inherently makes me start wondering if I'm just being too extreme about it and need to reassess.
 
All the time.

Which, I think for me is good some of the time. I get feelings of absolute rightness or wrongness about certain things, which inherently makes me start wondering if I'm just being too extreme about it and need to reassess.
This is exactly what I do. I go back on what I wrote, thought and said, and question it over and over, wondering if I said or did it correctly. I'll literally agonize over it. :D
 
All the time.

Which, I think for me is good some of the time. I get feelings of absolute rightness or wrongness about certain things, which inherently makes me start wondering if I'm just being too extreme about it and need to reassess.
when you reassess do you find you change your original decision or thought or tend to go with it afterall?
 
This is exactly what I do. I go back on what I wrote, thought and said, and question it over and over, wondering if I said or did it correctly. I'll literally agonize over it. :D

i'd like to ask the same question i asked [MENTION=3240]Jill Hives[/MENTION] ,
when you reassess do you find you change your original decision or thought or tend to go with it afterall?
 
I do it all the time but try to keep it to a healthy level.

It's necessary to an extent because if you don't do it, you're under inertia. So rather than doing the right thing, you end up doing a thing and calling it right.

Or to put it differently, rather than having the thing you do align with your paradigm, you end up aligning the paradigm to fit the thing. Or not having a paradigm at all.
 
i'd like to ask the same question i asked @Jill Hives ,
when you reassess do you find you change your original decision or thought or tend to go with it afterall?
Actually, I regret most of my decisions even if I stick with them. I question them to nth degree. So, even if I go with it, I still have a hard time accepting it as final. It's only after a long period of time or distance, when I know the decision can't be changed or overturned that I let it go. But there's always this feeling that I am in complete control so I always feel guilty about not making the proper decision or make the one I thought I should make.
 
Actually, I regret most of my decisions even if I stick with them. I question them to nth degree. So, even if I go with it, I still have a hard time accepting it as final. It's only after a long period of time or distance, when I know the decision can't be changed or overturned that I let it go. But there's always this feeling that I am in complete control so I always feel guilty about not making the proper decision or make the one I thought I should make.

Some times it can save your ass. That's happened to me several times in life where if I'd gone ahead because I was sure, I would have met disaster due to some thing that I neglected to take into account.
 
Or in other words, check, but not too much.

What's too much? That's the paradox and the problem.
 
when you reassess do you find you change your original decision or thought or tend to go with it afterall?

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. If no, then at least I end up going into the decision with more information, which I like.
 
All the time. I often find out i'm right, and i often find out i wasn't as right as i thought, and sometimes wrong :)

I think it's the best way to learn things in life and to get better at anything. Whether it's social relations, technical choices, health choices... People who are too sure of themselves might get some stuff right, and hit a home run, while at the same time, get some stuff wrong, and without realizing, be on the fast lane to hell.

On the other hand, people who are too insecure of themselves, might avoid making some bad calls, while at the same time they might avoid making good calls, and be on the same lane as the former.
 
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I get feelings of absolute rightness or wrongness about certain things, which inherently makes me start wondering if I'm just being too extreme about it and need to reassess.

I totally agree with this. I tend to see my thoughts of absolutes as signposts that I'm not seeing the whole picture, only my perspective of the picture. Although seeing the signposts can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. I don't know if I would call it second guessing myself as much as having a tendency to try to see things from as many different perspectives as possible. This doesn't stop me from making decisions but it does take me longer to make decisions cause I can get caught up in seeing all the different ways of looking at something. It has it's pros and cons, but I definitely lean more towards flexibility, at least once I get past my own opinions :becky:
 
I feel uncertain a lot but I dont usually give it much thought beforehand, usually a certain choice feels better than another. Yeah I make mistakes but afterwards the reason why is usually pretty apparent, not a lot of thought required.

This equation changes when I feel my happiness is at stake though, like when I'm buying something. That's when I can enjoy scrutinizing the details, reading reviews and testing my hypotheses.
 
Well, if I was just guessing the first time, I'll probably guess again if I get better information.
 
I don't know that I "second guess" myself. I tend to say things that are on my mind, and actually had to develop the skill to be less blunt and more tactful. I find that I tend to analyze whether or not I was successful and if not, why and what can I do to change that. I don't regret what I did or said, only that it wasn't successful and I need to adapt/learn something from that. I think worrying about what I am going to say or do is pointless. I only find myself unsure when I know I haven't made a thoughtful decision and am just speaking out of my ass...then I tend to just slow down a bit and think things through...but that doesn't stop me from doing...at heart, I'll always "go for it".