Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
I was reading an article last night where the writer shared how he made $12K in one month with his writing. He headed of the process with the subtitle: How to make money writing, followed by the two-word solution:
You write.
The simplicity of that seems almost offensive when first reading it. I know that, you think to yourself. It’s the rest I want you tell me.
But if you’re really honest with yourself, if you’re willing to be brave enough to ask yourself, “Am I really writing? As much as I should be? Or even as much as I can?
Or am I my spending my time searching for a fast track that will get me there instead?”
If you’re brave enough to be honest with your answer, you can’t help but admit that you’re probably not writing (enough, anyway) and that even a fast track to get noticed as a writer can’t work if you’re not writing.
The writing is first and foremost and the bottom line of the equation.
So, How Do You Stop Feeling Like a Fraud?
Stop behaving like one.
If you didn’t get so pissed off you vacated, I applaud you. That takes courage. You just might be ready to actually overcome imposter syndrome and step into becoming the expert you’re longing to be.
If you sincerely want to be successful and grow in your calling, you have to be open to seeing those parts of yourself that don’t line up with what you are trying to be. Because behind the “what” is always a “who”. And to truly be successful, they have to work together. Your “who” and your “do” have to line up and be in sync.
Once you’ve made the tough choice to honestly seek and identify those parts, you have to be (or become!) willing to do the work to change them.
How? You guessed it, by growing the who in those areas of yourself that are currently governing them. This is a journey. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Our who governs our what. We can’t outrun it. And ignoring it will only lead to frustration, roadblock after roadblock, eventual stalling, and most often (epic!) failure of what we’ve been chasing to succeed.
You have to do what it takes to stop chasing it and start living it.
To boil it down to a simple cliche… walk the talk.
And if in your searching, you discover that what you’ve been trying to be, isn’t you; it just doesn’t mesh with who you are… don’t be discouraged! You may have already put a lot of time and resources into it, but think instead of all the time, resources, (and heartache!) you’ve spared yourself on a future that was destined to not work out. See it for the blessing it is.
You now have a chance to find and act on something that does fit your who. And, having a much stronger understanding of who you are and what drives you, an opportunity to truly succeed at doing something you actually love and feel good about doing! And to BE an expert at it!
