How to get over your feelings of not being good enough, says Lisa Fouweather

The thing is though, when we’re all just winging it anyway, aren’t we all already imposters winging it through life?

Just think about it, we’ve all found ourselves on this random floating rock in the middle of space with no idea as to why that is.

You might be religious, or spiritual, believing in the concept of God or ‘a higher power’, in which case you might claim to know the greater purpose behind why we are here, but, if you’re being honest, you don’t really know why we’re here, for, how can you? How can anyone?

And so, when the very nature of our existence is one of so many unknowns, for which, simply for being here, alive, we are all essentially ‘imposters’ (of the universe), what’s the harm in making yourself feel like even more of an imposter by doing the thing that scares you?

Send the email, make the call, do the thing!

Writing from personal experience of having felt imposter syndrome, I’ve started an interview series on my website, portfolioofhope.com, in which I talk to people who inspire me. At first, I felt the all too familiar sense of imposter syndrome hitting me as I questioned why I thought they would respond to me, ‘I’m hardly a BBC journalist...’

But then I reminded myself of what someone told me in an attempt to reduce my tendency to overthink literally everything...

Just ask yourself, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’

The answer? If I don’t send the email, then they definitely won’t respond. If I do send the email, then the absolute worst that could happen is that they don’t reply, or that they do reply and decline.

That’s literally it.

Reminding myself that the worst outcome is hardly a life or death situation, it means that I can rationalise my irrationalities, make sense of the nonsensical, and build up the courage* to send the email!

*(‘Building up the courage’ because, as with everything in life, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone in order to see the change you want to see in life, as the quote; ‘nothing changes if nothing changes’ points to)...

‘We don’t really get greatness without sacrifice. We don’t get good things without a little bit of pain.’

And, don’t just focus on asking yourself what could go wrong, consider what could go RIGHT.

‘Imagine you have become the person you really want to be, and your personal and professional life feels like a dream come true. Be realistic but imagine that all goes as well as it possibly can, and that you achieve your goals.’

Consider the possibility that, this email could be the one that changes the course of your life, paving the way for you, in a few months time, to look back and be so grateful for doing the ‘thing’, however scary that ‘thing’ seemed to be, in the moment...

Never let your fear of things going wrong blindside you from the beautiful possibility of things going right, SO right, beyond your imagination...

A few pieces of advice:

NEVER lose sight of your morals, the things that you believe in, the reason WHY you are doing what you’re doing.

Don’t let the pursuit of your dream make you forget why you had the dream in the first place.

Don’t lose yourself in the process of trying to find your ‘calling.’

Stay true to who you are, always, and your future self will thank you for it.