Have you ever felt like you were taking risks and growing in life, only to have that small, unwanted voice creep in your head to say that you’re a fraud?
Imposter syndrome is not anything most people enjoy feeling.
I used to have that inner critic come out with its commentary anytime I’d take big steps in life, personally or professionally (in fact, I still do from time to time!)
It used to make me question myself; question my deservingness, my ability, and sometimes it would end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, sabotaging my effectiveness to really show up to the challenge at hand.
Over the years of dealing with this personally and seeing it with my clients, I’ve realized something…
What if feeling like an imposter is actually a necessary step in our personal development?
And what would happen if instead of judging that voice and ourselves for feeling that way, we welcomed it as a mile-marker that we're playing bigger in life?
There are going to be times —when we’re navigating new situations, learning new skills, or just stepping up to new challenges—where we feel inauthentic, or that we’re faking it till we make it.
These new situations invite us to summon a new part of ourselves to come online, a part that we may not have experienced before and are unfamiliar with.
We may be unsure of ourselves and lack the certainty that we have the know-how to deal with situations we’ve never encountered before.
But, instead of making ourselves wrong for feeling imposter syndrome, the invitation is to embrace the feeling and to be thankful for it.
The feeling of being an imposter is a signal that right now it's time to have faith in ourselves because we're venturing into unknown territory.
You're playing bigger, taking risks, and saying YES to life's invitations.
We don't have to let what's happened in the past, confine what's possible for our life right now and in the future.
When we can view the inner imposter not as an enemy but as an ally in our own growth, we can move through it in a frictionless way AND show up fully and effectively to meet those new challenges that life will inevitably present.