Failure is something that has scared me for as long as I can remember. Especially as a lot of what I do is public (my blog and the podcast I haven't uploaded to recently) meaning that a lot of people would see my failure.
But going back even further, I remember being in school and putting my head down whenever the teacher wanted a question answered thinking that somehow despite years of schooling that I wasn't qualified to answer the question that the entire class knew the answer to. That's one I'm sure we can all relate to in some way.
Imposter syndrome is something I've been learning about recently and I didn't realise how much imposter syndrome I feel in many parts of my life. So what is imposter syndrome, I hear you ask, well it's considered as an internal feeling of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. This could be anything from not feeling qualified enough to be a public speaker, or cracking up when someone asks you a question.
I've got public speaking down, that's the one area I'm confident in, but put me on the spot and ask me a question...suddenly I'm back at school hiding from the teacher even though I know the answer. I've been feeling this a lot lately since going back to college, but here's the thing...we don't always have to be right all the time.
The biggest thing I've learned from hearing about imposter syndrome is that if you're too scared to try you'll miss out on so much and regret it later in life. The "what could have been". If I spend my whole life sitting in fear of being wrong or failing I'll never do anything of worth. This may sound really negative, but what I mean is we should all gain the confidence to realise that failing isn't a bad thing. It's a learning experience.
We are all human which means we will be bad at some things, or sometimes get things wrong and that's okay. Everybody does it (no matter how perfect their Instagram feed is) and everyone learns valuable lessons from it. Use your voice and speak out for the things that make you happy. Stop being afraid of failure and throw yourself into the challenge.
That's all for now. Sorry for the thought dump, I just wanted somewhere to put it all.
Jodie
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