I love Adam Grant‘s tiny, but powerful post here that flips our thoughts on Impostor Syndrome around. “If you doubt yourself, shouldn’t you also doubt your judgment of yourself?” I have labored long and hard to try to still the recording that plays inside my head almost daily from an emotionally abusive parent who told me time and again that I wasn’t worth anything, that I was stupid, that I would never amount to much in life and I should never expect to. Unfortunately for us as children, we have no way of fact-checking what our parents say about us; we believe it – especially if we are told it every day. We believe that our parents are telling us the truth, even if it is an “untruth.” Is it any wonder then, that we feel we are impostors in our own skin when we find that we actually might have something to offer our world that is good? How can I, who am worth-less, have anything good to give?
To anyone who has felt this way or lived with the sting of emotional abuse from anyone – please read Adam’s short post and then tell me how you felt about your Impostor Syndrome after you read it. Are you still clinging to the old recordings, or has a new thought crossed your mind? Can it be that Impostor Syndrome only keeps the “tapes playing” and becomes a support for us not to open ourselves up to the greatness and opportunities that really lie before us? Step out of this old mindset and into the wonderful, freeing logic presented below. Know that you are not an Impostor – you are YOU, created magnificently to add your part to the great dance of life. You have a lot to give us and we can’t wait to learn from you! You have always amounted to much! This logic prevails!