I am just not smart enough.
I remember thinking that as I sat in the back of the room of a big meeting and looked around at everyone contributing to the conversation. I felt completely inadequate. How do all these people know the answers and what to do to get things done? I can picture sitting in that room as if it was just yesterday. Unfortunately, I carried all those feelings with me for a really long time and even now they still show up. It’s hard to look back on that now and realize how much impostor syndrome held me back.
Do these impostor thoughts happen to you too? Those thoughts show up because we don’t trust ourselves. It happens because we make assumptions that other people know more than we do because of how they speak about things or do more. Deep down inside they probably suffer from some of these impostor thoughts too, but don’t show it. How do I know that? I felt like an impostor, but no one knew I was struggling because I worked really hard to hide it.
During a high stress time, I started to realize that if I just quieted down and listened to my own intuition and my own thoughts it cleared away all the stress and anxiety I was feeling. It actually opened up some really creative ideas for me and I came up with solutions to complex problems that I couldn’t figure out before. I remember thinking, wow, what if I keep doing this and new ideas keep showing up? How many ideas have I missed because I was just going 90 miles an hour and not slowing down before? I am guessing quite a few. I could actually get more done by slowing down which was so unexpected.
Try an experiment for yourself by getting up just five minutes early tomorrow.
Before you check your phone and your email, sit quietly and close your eyes. Set an alarm on your phone or watch for five minutes so you don’t go back to sleep! Just be quiet and listen to what comes up for you. Pay attention throughout your day and see if anything changes for you. See if you come up with new ideas if you are calmer, more patient, and less concerned about what everyone else is doing. It will help you increase your ability to gain confidence, trust yourself and let go of all that comparison.