Have you ever been paralyzed by what you think other people might think?
Hurts… donut?
I know how it is.
You want to be a top choice in your industry.
And you like what you do… right?
I bet you probably know your stuff.
You probably know your stuff well enough that you have been using your skills to make your customers’ lives and businesses better.
And I bet that most of the time you feel pretty good about your work. The feedback you receive is also pretty good, isn’t it?
But every so often something comes along that makes you underestimate your skills and competency.
Then it seems like only moments ago you were feeling accomplished; you were getting somewhere.
That website you just made that you were feeling proud of. The logo you just got a 5-star review for. That social media account your client was locked out of but you got it back so they didn’t lose their following.
That was all you.
Then out of nowhere it hits you.
Right in your core.
And all of a sudden you feel like a fraud.
So, here you are telling yourself that old story of how you aren’t any good and that you can’t believe you’ve made it this far to begin with.
You begin to sink internally thinking you don’t stack up to your peers.
Yeah, you’re good at what you do but you’re not that good. Everyone knows that you’ve been faking it for as long as you’ve been making it.
You start to dread the idea of ever being in the spotlight for your work.
You’re talking yourself out of what you wanted.
Because you feel like such an imposter.
But you would endorse anybody else to step up and do it, even if you knew their abilities fell a little short of your own.
Wouldn’t you?
But what if you try to imagine being somebody else for a moment.
Imagine you’re a baseball player with a pretty good batting average. And it’s almost your turn at bat.
You’ve been doing this for a long time.
You grab your bat and get ready to walk out to the plate as you have hundreds of times before.
Suddenly, the thought enters your mind that you’re no good anymore. You start to feel a bit shaky. You think to yourself that whatever luck got you here – and carried you throughout your career so far – has run out.
You’ve been fortunate to make it as far as you have. You’ve been doing this for how long now? Why is all you can seem to envision striking out, and the world – your fans and your teammates – thinking the worst of you?
Everybody watching you is aware that any time you swing at the ball you could hit another home run (also figuratively-speaking about your projects, here).
The audience knows this but more importantly, so do you.
And you know they are probably not thinking the same thoughts as you.
Entrepreneurs think like this all the time. Because it’s tough leading your own cause. When you’re the top person there’s nobody to lean on, and if sh-t goes sideways, it’s on you.
From time to time we forget that our customers are looking at us like we are the professionals – we’re the ones on the field, in the game, with the skills to bring it home. They look at us like we have the answers they need, and we do.
Your fans want you to succeed. Your teammates need you. Your customers are counting on you to pull this off.
If you were watching anybody else take the stage, you would expect them to attempt their best performance, and that’s all anybody expects of you.
Besides, if you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room. Right?
So, why not think about what could go right for a change?
You know?
Quit being such an impostor.