Stop faking it: 30 day challenge #1

I attended a webinar yesterday by The Marketing Meet-up on imposter syndrome. I think we all experience it to some extent and I know it’s something that has held me back in work and social situations.

I often attend such webinars, take notes and think about all the great ways I’m going to change my life. I then, of course, don’t bother my shirt and continue to be a creature of habit. 

What I really loved about Sahana’s session was that she introduced workable exercises and a 30 day challenge to practice giving them a go. This really struck a chord with me so I thought I’d give it a go. 

Sahana’s session offered three alternatives to ‘Fake it until you make it’ 

These were: 

• Repeat it until you believe it
• Learn that you earned it
• Practice it until you perfect it

It would be impractical to do every exercise every day so Sahana recommended focussing on three that are do-able and work on those. 

Today I’ve chosen to focus on:

• Finding my edge - what is my unique thing that makes me great? While working on something I watched on another webinar that spoke about finding your unique ability, I asked a few friends what they thought mine was. The answer that came back was my ability to see the positive, not in a toxic positivity kind of way but in a ‘stepping back, observing, and picking out the positives’ kind of way. 
• Learn that you earned it: writing down achievements, recognising the role others play in helping you achieve them and making a note of what your are grateful for. I’ve had a journal app on my phone for about a year that I rarely use that asks you what you are grateful for and what your highlights have been each day. I made a point of filling this in. 
• Saying yes to opportunities by asking myself, am I doing this alone? What is the worst thing that could happen? What is the best thing that could happen? I’ve actively said yes a few times since watching the webinar yesterday by either saying yes to something outside of my comfort zone or offering to do something outside of my comfort zone.