Today’s article is an excerpt from the updated “Obstacle Busting” book…hope you enjoy it!
Pretty much every Big Dreamer, creative or business person I have ever come across has experienced some form of imposter syndrome – that feeling of not being good enough, not knowing enough, of ‘who am I to do …’ With stepping up into our best selves, with going for a Big Dream, with expansion and stretching out of our comfort zones comes some self-doubt. It’s normal, it’s natural, it’s part of the process to shake it off and keep going anyway…and even Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon) suffered from it.
(Check out this article, with examples of many well known people who had imposter syndrome.)
Marianne Williamson sums this up beautifully in this quote:
“We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”
Preach it Marianne! I know that at first this feels quite confronting, scary, like a really big push onto an empty stage…at least it did for me, and for many of my clients over the years. But stay with it. Keep reading it. Consider it. Sit with it. Meditate on it. Let it sink in and soak into every fibre of your being. Pin it up on your wall. Make it your phone/pc/tablet screensaver. Read it over and over again.
Who are you not to be the very best of you? Who are you not to share your gifts? Who are you not to fall in love with your life? Who are you not to go after those divinely inspired Big Dreams? Play big, go for it, be brave, be all that you can be. You don’t need to do this in an extravagant and terrifying way…simply take baby steps and make gradual changes. You don’t have to leap out onto the world stage right this minute…just begin to allow that what you have to say is worth hearing.
When I started writing, I really struggled with this obstacle “who am I to write?”, “I feel like a fraud”, “I have no idea what I’m doing”, “who am I to say this”. I got over it (obviously). I did it anyway. Even though I felt like an imposter, even though I wasn’t sure I was ‘good enough’, even though I wasn’t sure I should be sharing my thoughts at all. And I soon learned that my people like what I have to say.
In the DVD “You Can Heal Your Life” Louise Hay talks about the fact that all the speakers say broadly similar things, but that one speaker will say it in a way that you get it and it’ll be like you never heard it before. You are unique and special and you have your own messages for the world. Whether that is writing, or through your business, or just by living your best and most fabulous life – you have your own part of the jigsaw to complete.
There could be 1000 people out there doing something similar…but none of them can do it your way. The only person who can do you to perfection is you. So even though you may feel like an imposter, even though you may wonder who you are to do that thing, do it anyway. By doing it, you prove that you can, that you have something to share or say or do, and the more you do your thing, the easier it gets to do it without feeling like an imposter.
And remember, by being your best, shiniest, most fabulous self, you’re serving the world. You’re sharing your heart, you’re being fully you. There is nothing more valuable to the world. I can’t even count the number of people who’ve inspired me just by doing what they do – writers, artists, singers, entrepreneurs, friends who ‘just’ deal with their difficulties in such an inspiring way.
You don’t have to be writing masterpieces or healing the world, just by living full out, you’re showing someone else what can be done. Just imagine if your daughter or your nephew or your best friend or your sister was inspired by you going after your dreams and loving life and went and did the same thing… Wow, how powerful would that be if just by living your life and pushing through imposter syndrome, you helped someone else live their best life too?
Related posts
