It’s 4-something in the morning, and I’m writing from a Phoenix airport hotel room. Yesterday evening, my client dropped me off at the airport fairly early so I could catch my 7 p.m. flight back to San Diego.

“Folks, I have an announcement about flight 2727 to San Diego. The San Diego airport has fog conditions, and we’re unsure of the status. The flight is delayed indefinitely.”

All around me people started buzzing. The line formed 20-people deep to either “get real answers” or rebook to other cities or just talk to someone about how inconvenient this was. The Phoenix airport has these wonderful tables with plugs for laptoppers like me, and I was already on the web. I checked the San Diego airport flight status, and slowly the flights on the page were turning red: Delayed, Diverted, Canceled.

I jumped onto Twitter, and some folks on the ground in San Diego said, yep — we’ve got fog. After an hour of waiting and listening (overheard: Oh, I can’t believe this and Are they giving out vouchers? I heard they had vouchers and They’re not telling me anything!), I made the mature business woman’s decision to get a hotel room and book a flight in the morning. While dozens still waited in line, I used my superior intellect to simply call Southwest and rebook the flight then surf the internet for a hotel room with a shuttle.

Oh, I felt so confident! I felt so smart! I said to myself — even if the fog does lift in an hour or two, all the delayed flights would be trying to get in at the same time, so we might have even more delays. I AM DOING THE RIGHT THING!

But even as I packed my computer up, the doubt creeped in. Everyone around me was going to wait it out. A couple of women had been diverted from another flight, and they thought they could get vouchers. Should I give it a little more time? Should I get in line to see if I could get a voucher? Why was I the only one leaving? Maybe everyone else is doing the right thing? Maybe I should wait?

The doubt started small, but it grew as I walked toward the exit. By the time I was standing on the curb waiting for the hotel shuttle, I was calling Southwest, hoping for someone to tell me the right thing to do. “Do you think it’ll take off?” I asked a nice attendant named Jeff. “What would you do?”

It was kind of like the time I ate a pansy (which, in my defense, is said to be edible), and my tongue started to swell. It was just a little puffy at first, then filled my mouth and made me talk funny, then grew even more until I could feel it like a piece of raw liver, threatening to cut off my air. I went from slightly amused to a little panicked.

In my business, I’m embarrassed to say that I frequently have this doubt. I make a confident decision about a new marketing initiative, or I take on a new type of project. At first, there is no doubt. But then the second guessing starts, and I worry, worry, worry that I’ve done something wrong — should I have spent that money? Can I really complete this project? I end up with buyers’ remorse, sellers’ remorse, marketers’ remorse, haircut remorse, phone remorse…. you get the picture.

This is a personal and professional weakness that I’d really like to solve. I would like to learn how to be more confident in my decisions. After all, I made the decision to start my own business, and this year — my first full year in business — has been phenomenal.  But I still second guess my decisions, and this characteristic is hindering my growth.

Do you trust your instincts? If so, was it something you learned, or did you start out with that confidence? If you second guess as well, how has it affected your personal or business life? And my biggest question — what advice can you share for those of us who struggle with this problem?

PS — All flights to San Diego were canceled last night. I was booked on the 8:20 out this morning, but the fog advisory is in place until about 9 a.m., so I just switched my reservation to the 12:15 flight. My confident voice: I’m safe and comfortable in a hotel room with my computer and phone. No reason to rush home. My second-guessing voice: Maybe the early fight will leave on time? Maybe I should go to the airport and try to get on? By making the switch, am I going to be stuck here all day?