I listened to Seth Godin on a podcast recently, and the way he explained his theory about the dreaded notion of imposter syndrome blew my mind — he came at it from a completely different angle. It really resonated.
He said this: “A lot of people say they ‘suffer’ from it. ‘Feeling like a fraud’. The thing is: you can’t do something important, something new, something meaningful if you’re sure it’s going to work. Because if you’re sure it’s going to work, it’s not new or meaningful. And if you’re not sure it’s not going to work…then you’re imposter. Because you’re not sure.”
BOOM.
If we are doing something scary and new for the first time, then guess what:
We ARE imposters.
Back in 2017, I was 28. I had just written a business book about Multi-Hyphen careers. Even a few years ago, the idea of having non-traditional work set-up with multiple income streams and even working from home still felt a bit different. People were still rolling their eyes at ‘digital nomads’ and ‘millennials with side hustles’ and feeling like a 9-5 was still the most secure safe option.
When the book came out, I did feel like an imposter, most business authors on the shelves were twice my age, and because I was going against the grain, I felt that self-doubt. But I felt passionately about telling people how and why it was a feasible, enjoyable, difficult but ultimately rewarding way to live a life and make a decent living.
When I first sat down to write my first draft of OLIVE last year, at the beginning of 2019, again I was an imposter. I have never written a novel before. It had never been done before. Me, writing a fiction, about a child-free woman.
So yep, I might well have been an imposter while doing those things for the first time. Because I didn’t really know what I was doing, until I did it. Now I’m on the other side, I don’t feel like an imposter when speaking about those projects or topics. I feel like I am someone who made some stuff I’m proud of and can stand behind it. Confident, even.
But if being an imposter means trying something new, attempting something you’ve not done before, and being unafraid to think outside the box then bring it on, I love being an imposter.
“Everyone who is doing important work is working on something that might not work.” — a quote on Seth’s blog
Take care and keep on creating.
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