Feeling like a fraud – the impostor syndrome
In the month of March, we celebrate National Women's History Month, and March 8th is celebrated as International Women's Day across the globe. On top of that, 2014 is dedicated as the Year of Reading Women. For the month of March I am celebrating women on The Invisible Mentor blog and that means that all the interviews I feature are with women, all the books reviewed/summarized were written by women and the mini biographies are about women. One of the things I wanted to talk about today is feeling like a fraud, and I have read that many women often suffer from it – they suffer from the imposter syndrome. For me, I am feeling as if I do not have any marketable skills. And I wonder if anyone will ever want I have to offer.
Have you ever felt that way?
I used to conduct primary and secondary research for a living, but after a long time, I started to feel antsy and wanted a change. I no longer enjoyed it. Since I had a lot of experience writing, and I had taken several writing courses, I decided it was time for a career change. I had also attended the International Women's Writing Guild's annual conference, which was a very good experience. It was there that I made a commitment to write a book, and I made that promise a reality with my book Tales of People Who Get It.
If I look at my resume, I have several accomplishments, so why do I feel like a fraud, and why do I feel like I do not have much to contribute to the world? It's something that even the most accomplished women suffer from. Why am I feeling like a fraud at this time? It suddenly occurred to me, that in my mind, I haven't done anything big in a while. Yes, I am working on my informal liberal arts education, and out of that will come some big accomplishments, if I stick with the plan. But, I will not complete my informal education for another seven months, and who wants to be in limbo for that long?
As I write this post, and I am thinking on paper, I recognize that we have to always be mindful that the little wins are just as important as the big wins. And small wins add up to larger wins. Since I started my informal liberal arts education, I have completed seven of the courses that I publicly committed to doing. Additionally, I have taken other courses that I know will be useful to what I am trying to do. For instance, I am taking a MOOCs titled Archaeology's Dirty Secrets. I wanted to take an archaeology course when I was selecting the courses for my informal liberal arts education, but I couldn't find any that was free, so I signed up to get alerts when the next course was starting.
As readers of this blog can see, I am reading the classics, which is one part of my informal liberal arts education. I haven't read as many books as I would have liked to (I am still averaging eight books a month since the year started), but it is important for me to have more balance in my life, so something has to give. Everything takes time, and I do not want to rush ahead, so when I am feeling like a fraud, I remind myself of what I do well, I recognize my expertise, I remind myself that perfectionism doesn't exist, and all I can do is my best, and I place importance on my little wins. As we celebrate National Women's History Month, let's remember to celebrate our achievements.
How about you, when you suffer from the imposter syndrome, feeling like a fraud, how do you snap out of it? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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