Are You An Imposter?

Today is part pep talk and part shedding a light on ways you can push yourself past imposter syndrome when it does creep in. 

First of all,  I think we all need to hear this from time to time so if you haven’t heard it from someone else lately – you are going to hear it from me.

We ALL feel like we aren’t enough sometimes.

The most successful, beautiful, seemingly perfect women, leading the most perfect life feels like she isn’t enough sometimes – I promise you.

You are not an imposter – you belong exactly where you are.

We all have these fears and doubts that creep in.  

They can stop us in our tracks, and me saying nice things to you isn’t going to help if you really believe those thoughts in your head, so I am going to give you two concrete ideas you can hold on to when those doubts and fears start to take over, and make you doubt yourself, and your ability, and that you can do whatever you are trying to do.

First of all, YOU ARE THE ONLY YOU.  

And I don’t mean that in the “we are all special” kind of way, although that is certainly true.  

What I mean is that from birth to now, you have had millions of moments, thoughts, and experiences that are unique to you.  

Not one person on this earth is the same as you for that very reason.

Even if you were an identical twin, raised in the same household, the moment you are born, you have different experiences that shape who you are.

So, if you tap into who YOU are rather than trying to be THEM – you have no competition – you have no equal, and you have a unique point of view and potential in any situation, that no one else has.

YOU bring something to the table that only you can bring.

The second thing to consider when Imposter syndrome starts to creep in is that your previous experience counts.  You may have started your business last week, last month or last year, but your relatable experience started decades before that.  

You are not defined by your current parameters.  You had jobs or business and life experience before this, where you learned skills and lessons that made you who you are today. They all count, they all are part of what you bring to the table.   

What made you want to start this business?  That’s probably part of the skill set you are using now.  It could be a job you used to do, a previous business, volunteer work, being a parent.  EVERYTHING YOU DO counts into why you are more than able to do what you set your mind to do, now.

And I’m going to give you a third bonus idea to take with you for when you need it.

YOU CAN ALWAYS FIGURE IT OUT!  Don’t walk away from opportunity because you don’t know everything you will eventually need to know.  

As women, we do that ALL the time. There was an article in the Harvard Business Review that quoted an internal study done by Hewlett Packard, that found the when given a set of qualifications on a job posting, men would apply for the job if they met 60% of the qualifications listed, but women would only apply if they met 100% of the qualifications listed.  

Now, where this really got interesting, is that in a follow up question they asked the women why wouldn’t apply, and only 10% said it was because they didn’t feel they could do the job,  So it wasn’t a lack of confidence in their abilities necessarily, they found that 40% of the women said they wouldn’t apply because they felt like they wouldn’t get the job.  

They said no to themselves before they even gave it a shot for a yes.

We miss so many opportunities as women because we judge ourselves out of the game before we even give it a shot.  

So don’t do that – you can learn as you go, you can learn the stuff you need later when you get there.  

If you know you have the potential to do it and you want to do it – then GO DO IT!

So, here’s your one step for this week.

Think about the thing you wanted to do recently, but felt like you weren’t good enough, ready enough, experienced enough – or whatever-enough.

Okay?  Got it?

You are going to write that down.

Then you are going to write down 10 things that you have experienced in your life, work, family, education etc that either make you qualified to do it, give you a unique perspective, or related experience, or insight that most other people don’t have.

Bonus points – if you circle back to this list later you will find some unique points of difference you can offer that your competitors can’t that you can use in your marketing and to grow your business.

Once you have made that list – 10 things that you have experienced in your life, work, family, education etc that either make you qualified to do it, give you a unique perspective, or related experience, or insight that most other people don’t have - keep reading that list and adding to it until you believe you can do the thing

Then DO THE THING!  The more you stretch yourself, the more you build the belief in yourself that you can do the next thing.  

Stop saying no to yourself.

You belong wherever you want to be.  

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