The Trick: The Doubt Loop

Written by Haven Duddy

I think I knew all along that to take this leap—to even try to call it a treat—

I’d have to face the trick first.

The trick is doubt.

It’s quiet, but it’s everywhere.

It shows up right before you move, whispering that maybe you shouldn’t.

That maybe you’ve already gone too far.

That maybe believing was the mistake.

It’s the moment when the board tilts,

and every square looks the same.

You start wondering if there was ever a pattern at all,

or if you’ve just been spinning in circles,

calling it discovery to make the dizziness worthwhile.

That’s when you stop laughing.

You start staring at your own hands.

You start thinking maybe the game was never meant for you.

You start shrinking back toward the safe spaces—the old squares,

the ones that never surprised you.

But the trick of doubt is that it feels like truth.

It’s not.

It’s just the mirror turned backward,

a reflection of every version of you that never believed enough to see what came next.

You’ll tell yourself it’s logic, it’s reason, it’s being careful.

But really, it’s fear dressed up as wisdom.

And it’s patient—it waits for the moment you pause too long.

Because when you pause too long, you forget the most important thing:

the next move is still yours.

That’s the hidden symmetry between the Trick and the Treat.

The Trick says stop; the Treat says go.

Both are true.

Both are needed.

You learn to listen to the hesitation,

not to obey it, but to honor it—

because the hesitation is proof that you’re standing on the edge of something real.

And when you finally step forward again—

not because you’re sure, but because you’re ready—

you’ll realize that doubt was never your enemy.

It was the doorway.

It was the part of you that still cared enough to question.

So yes, this is the trick:

The moment you stop asking if you can,

and start asking what happens if you do.

Because that’s how belief returns—

not as certainty,

but as movement.

“Every doubt is a doorway. Every doorway dares you to move.”

or

“The trick is thinking you shouldn’t. The truth is you must.”