To help develop your personal philosophy, Gervais suggests a few questions for reflection. One of them is: 

When I’m at my best, what beliefs lie just beneath the surface of my thoughts and actions?

“How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You” by Michael Gervais.

When I’m at my best, the beliefs that lie just below the surface of my thoughts and actions are:

• Something good will come out of what I’m working on; it may not be the exact thing that I want, but the lessons I learned in the process will be valuable.
• I’ve practiced for this. I’m ready.
• I’m at the edge of my expertise and experience. I won’t know precisely what the next phase looks like. I’ll learn as I go, and the route will become more apparent as I move along.
• If I’m about to do something that scares me, there’s a chance the fear won’t go away until long after I do it. I.e., I might be scared before, during, and after. But fear isn’t a sign that I shouldn’t do that thing.
• Speak confidently.
• Trust yourself.
• Trust your ideas.
• You have good ideas.
• I am thinking AND doing. I learn faster when doing.

The themes that stick out to me have to do with having a personal conviction that my next step is the best step I can see at the time. So I’m going to put myself out there and see what happens. The worst that happens is that I learn through failure. The best-case scenario is that I get more than I expected. The likely scenario is that I’ll gain confidence from knowing I approached an obstacle head-on and I lived to talk to about it.

What’s interesting about this is that it requires me to pick things I care about. I don’t have strong feelings about many things, but when I do, those are the moments I should exercise my will. It requires that I let go of some things because they aren’t important to me. I have the chance to hone my focus on what’s most important. It certainly seems easier to fight for something I believe in wholeheartedly rather than fight for something because I think people will want me to.