How To Take Small Steps To Overcome Impostor Syndrome
- Jul 23, 2023
- 3 min read
Written by: Neptali J. Martinez, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
These days, impostor syndrome is mentioned a lot in just about every medium, TV, blogs, print, webinars, articles, talks, etc.
If you believe all the hype, it seems that as the malady “du jour,” impostor syndrome is affecting too many people, too frequently, and too deeply.
I would like to think that it is time to reel this trend back a bit.
What happened to the times when we just started a new job without posting our fears, without blogging about our doubts, without wishing to be 100% sure about it before we start?
What happened to the good old “fake until you make it?”
What happened to our “grin and bear it” attitude?
Perhaps it is the ever-growing speed of change. We want and get things instantly. Same day delivery. One-click purchases. Almost instantly written documents using AI. And on and on.
While there is no way to go back to the slower calmer times, we can still take advantage of the current speed of things, but we can learn to take things one step at a time.
While the speed of change might be accelerating a lot, we, as humans, still need time to adapt to new things, to change our old habits, and to see value in new things.
Even when we implement that faster release or upgrade in our electronic equipment, the process still takes us one step at the time.
A client once complained to me that the new activities we were implementing to help her move her career along were not going well. She told me: “I’m doing everything we agreed to but it’s hardly making a dent.”
I asked her to think about those ancient copper art works in museums, which were created by pounding the metal into shape, resulting in innumerable dents all over the piece. Then I asked her if she thought the dents added or retracted from the uniqueness and beauty of the piece?
As she replied that, of course, the dents were an integral part of the piece, she added: “Oh, then I just have to keep on making more dents!”
I replied that yes, she must keep on making more dents, but with a purpose, with a direction, with a clear goal in mind. Only then the product will be unique and valuable, like those ancient copper art pieces you find in museums.
Making a dent is like taking a step. A small and simple action that anyone can do. As Laozi said, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” So, start taking steps, start making dents, and don’t let fear, concerns, or insecurities stop you.
It is your step.
It is your dent.
And there is nothing impostor about it.
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Neptali J. Martinez, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Neptali Martinez is founder and principal at NJM Career/Leadership Coaching, which provides career and executive coaching for professionals in middle and upper management levels, business owners, and entrepreneurs in diverse areas such as Information Technology, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, and other business organizations. As an author, Neptali has published more than a dozen articles in a trade magazine, and has published his first book, CoachAbility: Are You in a State or Condition to be Coached?
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