- Feeling like you're not good enough,
felling like you're not ready, doubting yourself,
all that, that's normal (bleep) that we all do.
(upbeat music)
So we gotta cool question on Twitter
from Langley in Nigeria,
and it has to do with something
that we've been hearing from a lot of you about.
And that is imposter syndrome.
Particularly for those of you
that are running a small business
or those of you that have a side hustle
that you're trying to turn into your full-time thing,
impostor syndrome is very real.
Let's deal with it right now.
Langley writes from Nigeria,
"I'm passionate about film and cinema, Mel.
I tweet and I blog about it.
People are inspired by what I write.
But when I'm offered certain opportunities,
I clench up and suddenly feel like
an impostor who will mess up and be found.
I'm 36, I'm single, in a paycheck-to-paycheck situation
and feel like I have wasted many years
due to overthinking, self-doubt
and never feeling good enough or ready.
How can I overcome this?"
Well, you can't.
You can't overcome the feelings that are rising up, Langley.
But you can take action despite them.
That's a very important distinction
that I want each and every one of you to understand.
The things that you're feeling,
clinching up, feeling like you're not good enough,
feeling like you're not ready, doubting yourself,
kind of spending too much time thinking
about how much time you've wasted,
all that, that's normal (bleep) that we all do.
You cannot overcome those thoughts
because they keep rising up and they become a habit
and it's sort of a pattern.
So I don't want you to focus on the thoughts.
I want you to focus on taking action
even though you doubt yourself.
You are gonna feel like an impostor
until you push through that clinched up moment
over and over and over again,
and then suddenly, through action, Langley,
you're gonna see that you're not an impostor at all.
You're actually the kind of person that pushes through
and does what he or she says they are going to do.
See, impostor syndrome grows and sticks around
when you listen to it and when you keep thinking
and when you freeze.
The moment you take action,
even though you feel like an impostor,
you actually explode the syndrome.
You kill it, you break it apart,
because you're not acting like an impostor.
You're proving to yourself, through the action,
that you know what you're doing.
Now look, the feelings are gonna take a while to catch up.
The first 16 jobs that you do where you feel nervous,
those nerves are gonna be there with you the entire time.
Feeling nervous is normal.
Letting it stop you is a choice.
I say this stuff all the time
because this is what you're struggling with.
If you suffer from impostor syndrome
it's not an issue of whether or not you have the skill.
The problem is that you have a pattern
of thinking in a way that stops you
the moment you start to doubt yourself.
If you wanna be successful in business,
if you truly want that side hustle
to turn into your full-time thing,
you have to learn how to let the feelings
of doubt rise up, but take action anyway.
You've got to learn to embrace the fact
that you're gonna feel like an impostor,
but you, my friend, are the kinda person
that moves forward anyway.
You're passionate about film and cinema, awesome.
Keep tweeting, keep blogging.
When people write to you, when they hire you
and you get that clinched up feeling,
that's a great sign.
It means you're about to do something really cool.
That's when you're going to just recognize the feeling,
five, four, three, two, one, take action
like the rock star film and cinema guy that you are.
I hope that helps, but the only thing that's gonna help you
with impostor syndrome is for you
to not listen to it and take action anyway.
(upbeat music)