Imposter Syndrome – My superpower – dancing through life on my toes
You may roll your eyes as you read this and think: “Toxic Positivity?” Surely there is nothing positive about an Imposter Syndrome.
The definition of the Imposter Syndrome is feeling anxious despite being high performing. Feeling like a ‘phony’ or a ‘fraud’ are common traits.
How on earth can this condition be described as a superpower?
For me, despite suffering from this imposter syndrome most of my life, it has helped me to deepen my grit, and straightened my backbone. It taught me to demonstrate to myself (and to others) that what I am and what I do is real.
Since childhood, I had thoughts about being found out: at ballet-classes, castings at modelling, motherhood, even owning my own business. Even now, past middle age, I often look for the adult in the room.
I have come to realise that, over the years, I have turned it into one of my biggest strengths, simply because:
- I try harder.
- I never assume.
- I put the work in.
- I constantly rebrand, re-evaluate, and rethink my role as a woman, wife, mother, and business owner.
I always reflect on how I can improve. Not out of thinking that I am not enough, or a low self-esteem. Rather, confident that I could do better. I owe it to myself. Complacency I regard as a swear word in my world. It makes me resonate with the concept of job crafting.
Job crafting was built on research that suggests employees do not always enact the job descriptions that are formally assigned to them, but instead actively shape and utilise their jobs to fit their needs and values. Adam Grant talks about “to become an active architect of my job and I am going to change the way I do it.” He explains it as a way to work your core values into your job.
“It takes confident humility to admit that we’re a work in progress. It shows that we care more about improving ourselves that proving ourselves.”
Adam Grant.
Isn’t it time to rethink the way we show up? Not only the way it impacts ourselves but also the effect it has on others?
“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”
Michelle Obama
