Overcoming Your Own Imposter Syndrome

By Maiya Sinclair

I Believed I Could, So I Did and You Can Too

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?” Our Greatest Fear — Marianne Williamson

I, too, have tossed these questions around in my mind. Am I really qualified to be a writer? Have I actually mastered my craft and teaching subject? Have I fully come to understand and believe who they say I am called to be? For the past two years I have questioned and second guessed every step. 2020 has been a most unforgiving year and I have seen so many treasures, both people and material things, gleaned away from me. It will sound cliche when I say this but believing is absolutely half the battle. It’s one thing to have all of the necessary qualifications to fill a position or start the business, but it is a completely different notion to believe that you are up to the task.

The way I overcame and still overcome imposter syndrome is by believing in myself and trusting in the work of my hands. My life has taken a shift in the last three months and if someone was to tell me this time last year that I would be writing for PYNK Lemonade, an award winning filmmaker, taking steps toward becoming a professor and having secured an amazing employment opportunity…..I would hysterically laugh in your face. Not because I don’t possess those qualities but because I didn’t believe I deserved it.

I’ve watched my peers accept offers for their dream jobs, I’ve seen my friends get invited to speak on panels that were once in a lifetime opportunities. Some of my closest friends purchased homes and dream cars and like the good friend I am I would clap, jump and scream in celebration of their success. But as they say comparison is truly the thief of joy. After the fanfare passed I would sit in my room and ask God why not me? When is it my turn? I am just as good as they are so why isn’t this happening for me?

The answer was so simple that it scared me, “Because you’re not doing it.” He was right, I wasn’t. I wasn’t putting myself out there. I wasn’t preparing myself for these opportunities. I wasn’t even in the job market at the time. I was just sitting around twiddling my thumbs hoping that wonderful things would just drop into my lap. It don’t work like that.

It is a glorious moment when you get fed up with your own ish and I absolutely was. I didn’t know when the next opportunity would arise but I surely wasn’t going to wait around for it to drop from the sky and would be sure that I was ready when it did. The one critical initiative I took was in personal preparation. I read a few books, attended workshops (virtually), listened to podcasts, prayed, healed, journaled, continued writing for class and set my intentions and prayers in motion. I had my resume and website redesigned so that they both spoke simultaneously to who I was as a scholar, writer and filmmaker. My period of waiting wasn’t idle time. It was spent putting my efforts towards cultivating the person I so desperately wanted to be and deep down in my heart knew I could be.

I had tapped into my power and now I walk in that, unapologetically, and you can, too. You have to know that you are innately powerful and that everything you want is within your own grasp, but you have to open your hand and reach for it. When you find yourself in rooms and you only see one of you take solace in knowing that you are exactly where you are supposed to be. If you feel that you are in a season of waiting, assume it is because you are not yet ready to proceed on because there is still something there for you to learn.

You can’t be given more if you are a poor steward over what you currently have. Take a moment to reflect on all that you’ve been through and accomplished up until this point. Look at where you are presently and assess the care you have taken over your current situation and then turn your face to the future. With your eyes forward begin to prepare yourself for the life you want and believe that you can have it. Go do the necessary things that will prepare you to perform properly. Keep your word to yourself and others. Set Your goals and crush them. Believe that you deserve it. Believe that you are the person for the job and place one foot in front of the other for when you take one, He will take two.

Let the fact that you are reading this article written by someone who was once in your shoes serve as proof that there is more for you in life and that If you want it, you can have it. Let this be the moment that you look back on 2 years or even three months from now and can smile to yourself knowing that you did everything you could do to get where you are. Believe in yourself as if your life depended on it, because it does. You will soon realize that you are brilliant, capable, talented and strong and at that moment the question will no longer be if you were but who were you not to be.

So, who are you not to be?

You have to know that you are innately powerful and that everything you want is within your own grasp.