You are NOT an imposter

 

One of the most powerful feelings to have to overcome is the feeling where you were just ‘happy to be somewhere’. We’ve probably all experienced that at some particular point in our life where we are just shocked by the reality that we are in our situation. What becomes even more troubling is when you start wondering if you even deserve to be where you are. You wonder if somebody is going to discover that you have no business being where you are and that you are literally an imposter.

Whenever someone approaches me for any variety of different reasons, I have to fight to remind myself that I deserve to be approached. I had to remind myself that they are not merely coming to me out of a sense of trying to make me feel good about myself. They are coming to me because they recognize that I have a skill set and then I have an energy that they can learn from, benefit from, or gain something from.

When I look back on the milestones and the things that I’ve done in my life, and almost every one of those milestones I have had different people come in and approach me for different things. But most people don’t realize that each one of those milestones, I have fell victim to the “happy to be there” feeling. That feeling of just being happy being in that position and not wanting anybody to want anything else more from me so that I don’t do anything to reveal that I'm an imposter.

But what I’ve learned over the few last few years is that it’s important that you not only knock that imposter back into the closet but do everything possible to not let that Poppy imposter stand in front of you and make you feel like the imposter is the real you and you were just basically waiting for someone to reveal that you are not who you say you are.

The imposter wants you to believe but you didn’t do anything to get what you deserve. The imposter and you make you feel like you have gotten lucky at the expense of someone that’s more qualified. And posturing you makes you feel that you’ve done absolutely nothing to get to where you are.

The imposter once you look at all the people that are around you that seem to be much more qualified, much more exciting, and much more phenomenal than you. The imposter want you to believe that all these people did things that you haven’t even come close to doing. The imposter wants you to believe that you are average and that an average person like you has no business being where you are.

The imposter is lying.

The reality is that you have done things that make you unique. You have such yourself apart from your peers which enables you to get to a position sometimes faster than others. Do you have a skill set, and energy, and essence that presents itself in such a way that you were put in the position that you were supposed to be here. You’re not an imposter. You are the real deal.

The one thing that I can truthfully say is that I have been blessed that I have had a few people in my life who were very quick to fight that imposter when there were times when I had a hard time fighting the imposter myself. They refused to let me fall into the trap of believing that I wasn’t qualified. They refuse to let me fall into the trap of believing that I was given something I didn’t deserve. They refuse to let me fall into the trap of believing that I have no value.

And let me tell you, I do everything humanly possible to share with future generations the same thing. I have a mentee right now who is a very dynamic young woman. She probably doesn’t realize it but I’ve actually followed her efforts from when she was a college student, to law student, to practicing an attorney, to starting her own law firm, and now she’s on the journey to becoming a judge and so many things beyond that in addition to be a world traveler and a champion for justice. She recently told me there were times when she had that imposter feeling.  And I knew that it was my responsibility to let her know that I had seen all of these phenomenal things and I know I’m not the only one. 

The imposter will never be defeated unless you are committed to not letting the imposter in the rain. The imposter does not deserve to be in the ring with you. You are the champion. And you will always win the fight against the imposter.