From Faking It To Making It: How Your Mindset Is Holding You Back From Greatness

As a young entrepreneur, life can be stressful. Oftentimes, you’ll find yourself prioritizing between school, work and fitting in. In most cases, it’s fitting in that seems to be the most difficult to see through.

While colleagues are out getting wasted on the weekends and enjoying that first spring day, you may find yourself face-to-face with a laptop, drowning in imaginary deadlines.

No one takes your work seriously, perhaps not even you.

Even when you receive outside validation for your work, something just doesn’t seem right. You can’t possibly be the person everyone knows to be chasing dreams and actually catching them, can you? You ask yourself if you are really as successful as the path you are carving makes you seem.

In the late 70s, psychologists Suzann Imes and Pauline Clance wrote an article in which they defined Impostor Syndrome as “a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.”

The good news is that if you are a victim to this state of mind, you aren’t alone. Studies show that more than 70 percent of people have felt this way at some point in their lives.

There’s a solid chance your goals are set high. You believe in yourself. You believe that you can do the great things that define success in your field. The problem is, every so often, you look yourself in the mirror and ask, "Is this really who I am?"

Yes.

Undoubtedly, the answer should always be yes. You are, in fact, as good as your accomplishments reflect you are. You aren’t tricking others into thinking you are more competent than you are. Although many of us believe people are generally unaware, many have quite a bit of sense and can spot a pretender from a mile away.

The first step to dealing with this should be to recognize that you are feeling this certain way. It can be disappointing, but the second step will heal all wounds. After you accomplish step one, write down any remaining goals and map out how to reach them.

Bruce Lee once said, “As you think, so shall you become.”

If you waste your time thinking you are an impostor, chances are, you will begin to act like one and begin performing at lower levels. However, if you recognize the feeling and believe you are just beginning to fill the gap between you and your potential, opportunities you create for yourself will be limitless.

Impostor Syndrome should be beneficial for every entrepreneur. It provides you with the perfect opportunity to reexamine your approach and reflect on what is really important to your business. It can also be a great measure of how much you are accomplishing. Oftentimes, we are so focused on our passions that when a foreign emotion takes over, we don’t know how to react — so, we retreat.

Photo via Catch Me If You Can