Imposter Syndrome

I have been fairly absent from my business and my social media recently. I thought I just wanted a break but after ruminating on it for a while I realized I was having yet another case of imposter syndrome. In case you don’t know what it is, imposter syndrome is an internal experience of believing you are not as competent as you appear to be. I was doing decently but then as I was going to write more blog posts I just kept thinking that I shouldn’t even be sharing any information because why would anyone want to hear from me? Why would anyone even be interested in hearing my opinions or experiences?

I keep wanting to share my breakthroughs in fitness, or in my diet, or in my mental health but I continuously downplay my own successes. “I haven’t proven that this is a success, why share it when it’s probably a fluke?” In reality, there are many people that want to hear from an “average” person who is making changes in their lives. I know I did and still do. I want to see people like me accomplishing things I want to accomplish. Why wouldn’t people want to see things I accomplish?

All of my life I have had this feeling. I have always felt like I’m faking being intelligent, faking being considerate, faking being a good listener. Even though I am intelligent, considerate and a good listener, I felt like there are many more people that are better at those things than I am. It’s true, there are many people that are smarter, more considerate, and better listeners than I am, but it doesn’t mean that I am not also those things. This can apply to literally every aspect of your life. Somewhere there is most likely someone better than you, but that doesn’t negate the fact that you are also talented.

Through working on my mental health I have gotten better about realizing my talents and my strengths and not downplaying them. I am nowhere near perfect when it comes to that but I am getting better. However, when it comes to my writing, when it comes to me growing my business and my brand, I immediately think I’m an imposter. I shouldn’t be posting things because my struggles aren’t as bad as others, and I don’t have as many followers as others.

Realistically, my struggles do matter. I have overcome a lot in my life, and I have learned a lot about myself and how to take care of myself and why shouldn’t I share my stories with people that are going through the same thing? Why would I not post the things I looked for when I was struggling? Who cares what people think? If it helps even one person, then there’s a reason to keep going. I may not have many followers yet but I just really started giving it a go, why give up now?

Do you think you might be struggling with imposter syndrome? Common characteristics of it are:

Self doubt

An inability to realistically assess your competence and skills

Attributing your success to external factor

Berating your performance

Fear that you won’t live up to expectations

Overachieving

Sabotaging your own success

Setting very challenging goals and feeling disappointed when you fall short

If you think you’re struggling with this in any space of your life, it’s time to really step back and reevaluate your view of yourself. If you were a stranger looking in on your life and your successes, what would you think? Would you think your victories were astounding? Something to be proud of? Most likely. If you’re struggling with it, literally make a list of things you have done recently. Did you sell something you didn’t need anymore? Did you get a few followers on social media? Did you get praise from your boss? Did you overcome a challenging task? Then you are not an imposter. It will take time to get out of that mindset, and to train your brain to not immediately go into that trap.

You can do it. You can share your story, you can do whatever you want to do.