I Keep Doubting Myself Because It’s Scary When My Life Keeps Having to Change — The Emotional and Spiritual Transformation That Helped Me Be Guided by My Higher Power, Start Believing in Myself, and Live an Abundant Life

We!

In this deeply personal episode of 'WE', host Joe Mittiga explores the transformative power of self-doubt during times of major life change. Dr

Key takeaways

• Self-doubt during change is not a flaw—it's a signal that you're becoming someone new.
• Abundance isn't the absence of change but the ability to trust yourself through it.

Main topics

• The spiritual meaning of self-doubt
• Emotional transformation through life change

Notable quotes

"Maybe, just maybe, self-doubt doesn't always mean I'm going in the wrong direction."

"An abundant life isn't necessarily a life where nothing changes. Maybe it's a life where I learn to trust myself while everything is changing."

Conclusion

Joe Mittiga concludes that self-doubt is not an enemy but a companion on the path of

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) If you felt lonely, isolated, disconnected, with an empty feeling inside and just yearning for more, knowing something is missing, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Joe Mitiga. Speaker 1 (0:27) Hello, and welcome to WE. Speaker 1 (0:32) There have been so many times in my life when I've doubted myself. Not because I wasn't trying. Not because I didn't want my life to get better. But because, quite honestly, change for me can be really scary. And sometimes, just when I think I'm beginning to understand who I am and where my life is going, something changes again. A relationship changes. My work changes. My dreams change. The people around me change. The world changes. And sometimes, I have to change too. For most of my life, I thought something was really wrong with me when I felt afraid during those moments. I actually thought, you know, maybe if I was just stronger, more confident, or more spiritually connected, I wouldn't doubt myself so much. But I'm beginning to understand something very different. Maybe, just maybe, self-doubt doesn't always mean I'm going in the wrong direction. Speaker 1 (1:45) Sometimes I doubt myself because I'm being asked to become someone I've never been before. And quite honestly, that's scary because the person I used to be knew how to live the life I used to have. But that person doesn't always know how to live the life that is unfolding in front of me right now. That requires growth. It requires courage. And for me, quite honestly, it requires a tremendous amount of faith. Today, instead of asking myself, why does my life keep changing? I'm learning to ask, who is my higher power guiding me to become through this change? The question has begun to change everything for me. Because maybe I don't have to know exactly where my life is going. Maybe I don't have to have every answer. Maybe I don't have to feel completely confident before I take the next step. Maybe, just maybe, I simply need to have enough faith to keep moving forward. Because every time my life has changed, I've eventually discovered something about myself that I couldn't see before. I discover strength I didn't know I had. I discover courage beneath all my fear. I discover dreams I didn't know I was capable of pursuing. And most importantly, I began discovering that an abundant life isn't necessarily a life where nothing changes. Maybe an abundant life is a life where I learn to trust myself while everything is changing. A life where I stop allowing fear to decide who I can become. A life where I trust that my higher power may see possibilities for me that I still can't see for myself. Today, we're going to talk about self-doubt. We're going to talk about why change can feel so frightening. And we're going to talk about why becoming someone new can make us question ourselves, even when our lives are actually moving forward. We're going to talk about how emotional and spiritual transformation can help us stop being afraid of who we're becoming. Begin feeling, believing in ourselves and trust that there may be an abundant life waiting on the other side of the changes we're so afraid to make. Because maybe, just maybe, the question isn't how do I stop my life from changing? Maybe the question is, can I trust my higher power, believe in myself, and keep becoming the person I was created to be, even when I'm scared? My name is Joe Mitiga, and this is we. Speaker 1 (5:08) Welcome to WE, everybody. It is an amazing night here in Atlanta, Georgia. It's kind of an exciting time of year. Super hot here. I mean, I don't know, 100 degrees or something like that. But it's football season, and even though I'm not really a big sports fan, my son is, so we connect through sports all the time. And, you know, today or yesterday or I think this weekend, it's Labor Day here in the U.S. I believe this was the opening weekend for college football. So it's kind of fun. You know, the whole world of college sports is exciting. It's new in our world. My oldest son, as a lot of you know, if you've been around for a while, is a collegiate athlete. He's in his first year playing college baseball, and he's having a great time with it. And, you know, life just continues to unfold. It really does. This is, you know, a perfect topic, this self-doubt thing associated with change. And I have to tell you, we're going to dive deep into a lot of my changes over the years. It's so interesting because everything I'm doing now, this podcast for sure, is a huge change in my life that literally started about a year ago right now, about 11 months ago. We launched our first episode in November of 2025. But, you know, the whole process started while I was watching. a Wisconsin football game. And I'll tell that story here a little bit later, but it's interesting how it's all full circle and, you know, the doubts still happen and we're all human. And I'm going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about what do we do? I'm going to talk about how do we address the doubts, the fears, the concerns, and be able to move forward anyways, because the whole, I can't move forward, isn't true. It's created because you don't have the techniques necessary to find the voices, the guidance system that helps you move forward. And, you know, we live in a world where so many people will just say, go get them, tiger, do it anyway. Get off the couch and go do it. Well, they don't help you. Identify why you're stuck on the couch. And we're going to talk about that today because fear and doubt and self doubt, it's a human experience, folks. It just is. And I can tell you, depending on where your life is, if you're going through massive changes, there's going to be a bunch of it. If you're in the depths of the dark, there's going to be a bunch of it. If you're in a really challenging, emotional, I can't breathe type of pain, there's going to be a lot of self-doubt. There is. And I'm going to give you techniques throughout this episode to keep moving forward anyways. And if you're on the other side of life where everything's great and your world's wonderful and you've got more money than month and your partnership actually is working and everything's great, but you know there's something else that needs to happen. There's not near the fear. There's not near the torturous fear, but it can still be scary. It can still be anytime we do something new. A lot of times they're scary. It's scary. So we're going to talk about that today. We really are. And I'm going to, I'm going to bring the human element into fear and just kind of talk you through it. Tell you what I did, tell you what some other people have done and, you know, just keep having conversations. So I want to welcome everybody from around the world. I still am kind of in shock, quite honestly. It's kind of an awe to me how the We Podcast is literally exploding. My son every once in a while asks me, so dad, how's Speaker 2 (8:53) it Speaker 1 (8:53) going? I said, well, bud, you know, it's doing really good. And he says, he listens, but he said he can't listen to my voice. So he double times the speed and he kind of listens to it in the background. And he'll ask me questions because. you know he hears me on both sides and it's kind of cool that he's listening it can be a little uncomfortable obviously you know i'm here to be as open and as intimate honest and as intimate as i can and knowing my kids are hearing all my dirty laundry it's fine you Speaker 2 (9:23) know Speaker 1 (9:23) they're old enough and it's it's humbling experience i have to tell you and i want to welcome people around the world norway united kingdom canada kenya malaysia Germany South Korea to name a few Australia New Zealand Oman Jamaica, I mean it's just bizarre and It's kind of interesting because as this whole process unfolds I've never really been able to see my download numbers I don't really know how many people are actually listening. I see rate. I see ratings rankings, right? So naturally if you're the top global rankings, which the we podcast has been in the top 200 for a couple months top 100 for the past month it means a bunch of people are listening and why is that important is because if people are listening then it's working and what is the working what i'm doing here why am i here is to honor back an awareness a spiritual awakening and the growth that's happening on the planet to everybody on the planet and You know, I've been on a path for a really long time, 1990. And I remember that day as if it was yesterday. I didn't remember the date. I found my notes, February 16th. That's kind of a day that will last in infamy for me, 1990, February 16th, because that was the first day I sought help, needed therapy, started my emotional growth journey. And that's what the We Podcast is. The We Podcast is the number one how-to podcast. Grow podcast, emotional growth podcast. And as a consequence of emotional growth, there's naturally human transformation, truly. And the human transformation is the changing of your life. You're becoming a different you as you emotionally grow. And I talk about it all the time where the generation of change and there's always so many new people that join on a weekly basis. I always want to kind of recap. a little bit about Joe and I always have to start by saying I am not a therapist. I am not a researcher. I'm not an educator. I'm not a teacher. I'm a guy just like you. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. You know, I basically went to college in the Midwest and I learned two things out of Purdue University and that was I learned how to play chess and myself and a boss would probably never get along. And that I always say it like that because basically what I'm saying is I was an arrogant, egotistical, massive personality entrepreneur with my hair on fire and willing to go to any length to make money and build a business. That was my personality in my twenties. And I did the challenge with those twenties is that I drank, drugged marijuana, sexed, worked out, you know, did anything and everything you would do. that wasn't healthy. It wasn't good. It just wasn't. And in those era of time, I didn't know I was doing it to hide wounds and all that. I was just a guy. I was just out there doing my stuff. Well, as the path continued and different awakenings happened, and I came across an experience where a guy made mention of people telling him to stop drinking for 90 days. And I made fun of the people asking him to stop drinking. And in the me making fun of a non-drinker, right before my 31st birthday, I hurt myself. And that's one of my first conscious thoughts that I can remember. This is in 1994. It was the conscious thought about drinking. And I say that because In therapy and all of that, the years, all those years going forward, you know, you have awakenings, you have awarenesses, but the big epiphanies like, oh my gosh, I never thought of that ever. Drinking was huge. It was February 13th, 1994. And that's why I've been sober. 32 years. In other words, I haven't drank or drugged in over 32 years. And that's why a lot of times on this podcast, I challenge back. I want to be that voice that asks you the question, when was the last time you went 30 days? When was the last time you went 90 days with no drugs, no alcohol? Period. When was the last time? If no one's ever asked you, if you're listening, now you can say someone's asking you. Speaker 1 (14:10) And since I was asked by myself and I did it, I get the challenge back. And those are kind of the things I do here. My whole message is I challenge the human norms. I do. I challenge it with religious belief systems all the time. I challenge it with the old perspectives of personal growth. I challenge it all the time. And I'm not here to tell anybody what to do. I'm telling you what I do. And I have to tell you the result of what I do, I've got a very cool life. I really do. And I honor if whatever you're doing is working, please keep doing it. Really do. And I don't disrespect anybody. I can completely disagree with things and love you anyways. And I hope it's the same back. I really do. So as this podcast continues to grow and my message, my ultimate message is if I can, you can, and the I can, you can message comes from anything from personal and emotional growth to addiction, satiation, to spiritual growth, to challenging the human norms of society. And why do I do all of that? Because we are truly the generation of change. There's never been a generation in this state where we are right now that is going through the human transformation, the waking up process spiritually. Consciousness is changing on a daily basis at a rate that it's never done before. I always give the example of 200 years ago, owning a human was perfectly fine. A couple, two or three episodes, I gave an example of a man. a writer around the turn of the century, 1900s, who used his wife as a prostitute to make money, right in the middle of a little German community. No one did or said anything. And that was an episode where I talked about how was a pedophile created? Well, the little boy of the dad, a six-year-old, seven-year-old, 10-year-old, whatever, was always curious. And numerous times he would walk in. Mom doing things to men that a little boy should never have to see. And I make those comments because the era of time, the consciousness of the era was just so closed down. Fast forward to the 60s and 70s where most of us on this podcast were raised, some of us 50s. The whole idea of emotionally supporting somebody, empowering somebody, personal growth, honoring your feeling, letting you feel and safe, all of that, it didn't exist in the consciousness when we were kids. So today, it does. So we, the people on a podcast like this, we are the ones changing, growing, shifting. We're the ones waking up more and more. the feminine side of humanity is waking up it is and i could give you hundreds and hundreds of examples but i don't have to you're on this podcast and if you weren't if you weren't spiritually waking up if you weren't emotionally seeking a different type of growth you wouldn't be here you certainly wouldn't listen to some of my episodes that are close to two hours long you'd click it off in the first seconds well but you don't and what does that tell me And it tells me it's happening around the globe. It tells me that we are all spiritual warriors. The higher power in me, the divinity in me who does these podcasts, who speaks through the mic, it's not the man, it's the divinity through the man. Yes, I have to click the button as the human, but it's my divinity speaking, and it's your divinity listening. And that's why the we is a we. And that's why the We Podcast is literally growing at rates that Apple Podcast hasn't seen, truly. We're getting ready to launch a campaign, man in the microphone. Why? Because what we're doing here together is very unusual. And I'm honored to be the voice, but I'm not the reason it's growing. All of you are the reason it's growing. And I am thrilled to know, because people keep coming back, that whatever I'm saying is helping. You know, back to my original story for the new people, I went through a seven-year period of time after having memories of being, you know, pretty severely abused as a kid by a couple of teenage boys. I went through a seven-year period of just absolute darkness. And darkness meaning... No money, minimal support. I was just committed to heal. And it took me seven years. Now, the length of time was all based on the era of time, too. We're talking the 90s. Pre-internet, pre-cell phone, pre-texting, pre-scrolling, pre-talking, pre-everything. I lived in a warehouse where at certain points in time, at night, there wouldn't be anybody within three miles of me. That was just my path. But now fast forward all these years later, why do I have such a passion for creating an emotional growth and emotional healing, a support mechanism like this? Because if I can help one person in their darkest times, if my voice can keep you company, because now we have technology. I didn't have technology back then, but now we do. So if my voice can keep you company during your dark times. then my seven years is worth it to me if I can just help one person. And I always say the one person because you know who you are. You're listening now. I make the comment over and over what I'm doing with the We Podcast. This is our 54th episode, but we've got 53 episodes. It's like a library. If you go through and, you know, wherever you feel like you are, if you feel like you're scared, listen to number 40. If you feel like your world's overwhelmed, listen to number 43. One of my most challenging ones was an episode that says I can't let go. And that was a story about a month ago when I had to put my dog Zeus to sleep. It's