Imposter Syndrome
Do you sometimes get flashes of self doubt or imposter syndrome when you reach a new level of success?
I do too. For me, it usually comes up when the work I do feels effortless and super fulfilling. I get such a high out of seeing my clients experience more abundance than they ever thought possible and then I think, "wait, I get paid to do this?". Shouldn't I have to work harder for money?
You see, for most of my life, I have worked HARD. I worked hard throughout my schooling, university and post grad years and I worked hard throughout my 20+ years in the corporate world (and harder again when I became a working parent). Our society values hard work.
So when things start to feel easy, we can start to question ourselves.
And when money starts to flow to us easily, we can start to question ourselves. After all, most of us have been taught that you have to work hard for money. Sometimes, we can even sabotage ourselves when things feel too easy because it makes us feel uncomfortable and we crave the familiarity of things feeling hard again. It sounds crazy when you say it like that, right? But many of us do it.
This has come up for a couple of my clients recently. If it's come up for you, here are two things that might help:
1. It feels easy because of the years of experience and knowledge that you have. It wouldn't be this easy for anyone else. It's your years of practice that make it feel like second nature to you. Enjoy it and reap the rewards! People want to pay you because they are paying for all the experience and knowledge you bring with you. And I'm not just talking qualifications and fancy pieces of paper here. Your life experience is incredibly valuable.
2. Who would you rather pay? A doctor who finds doctoring easy because of their years of experience and their natural ability for it? Or a doctor who finds doctoring to be hard work? Similarly, would you rather pay for a meal at a restaurant where the chef loves cooking and gets so much joy from it? Or would you prefer to pay for a meal at a restaurant where the chef hates his job and finds it really challenging to create delicious food?
Money can flow more easily to you. The question is.....will you let it?