How Do You Keep Faith in Yourself?

I came accross a blogpost today of Keith Smith with the apt title of "Keep your faith and your doubts will starve to death!"

The title alone made me want to read more as the amount of faith I have in my own abilities directly correlates to the amount of sleep I get per night. At least, that is what I realized after 3 nights of very little sleep.

As you know from the previous posts, I am participating in the challenge to write a 50 000 word novel in the month of November as well as writing 30 articles for Suite 101 in the same time. That alone is enough to cause sleep deprivation, but to top it all up, we have two African Grey Chicks in the brooder (2 weeks old) that demands feeding every two and a half hours. Sigh...I feel every bone of my 40-plus body. Bloodshot eyes staring back at you from a wrinkled, devoid of make-up face at 6 am when you went to bed at 2 am is not a pretty sight. No, don't try it, take my word for it.

The chicks are doing great, by the way, and I,m sure they grew a couple of centimeters since Sunday when we removed them from the nest. They are adorable and even at this early stage, each one has its own personality.

But I regress from the issue at hand. Keeping faith in yourself when doubts in your abilities surface, is a daunting task. Keith Smith offers a simple solution - faith in yourself = conquering your fears of inadequacy. He suggests just grinding your teeth and getting on with the job at hand until your fears disappear. Good advice?

What if you really aren't good enough to do what you set out to do? What if you really don't have it in you to write that book or finish a task you started? What if...

How will you know if you don't try and stick to it? I don't know, but I am sure going to give it my best shot.

How do you keep faith in yourself?