So what is imposter syndrome?
Imposter syndrome is a psychological term referring to a pattern of behavior where you doubt your accomplishments and you have a persistent often internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud.
That means, you are feeling as if what you are doing isn’t valid and it’s causing you to feel self doubt. It’s causing you to feel fear. It can be paralyzing. But it is a THOUGHT you have about yourself or your accomplishments.
We are usually feel like imposters when we are doing something new. Something we don’t have evidence from the past that we can actually do it. So we doubt ourselves.
For dog trainers, going out there and actually charge people money for classes may feel like a fraud. You don’t feel qualified because you’ve never done that before, so your brain thinks you can’t do it.
So how can you overcome imposter syndrome?
First of all, you need to acknowledge all the things you did already. You took a course, you found a mentor, you trained you neighbor’s dog. Whatever. You took action and learned new things, you worked hard for it. You are not an imposter because you took action. You acted on it, you studied, you learned so much about dog training. Imposter doesn’t do that.
But to be honest, in order to overcome imposter syndrome you need to go out there and do what scares you. You need to go and sell your first training session. The more you are going to do it, you’ll take this new identity. You’ll turn into this dog trainer that has tons of clients. Your brain will have more and more evidence that you actually can do it.
It’s like going to the gym. At first, you feel like you don’t belong there, everyone there are so fit and you are… well… not. You don’t want to go. Maybe people will think to themselves: “What is HE doing here?” But then you decide to go, and the more you’ll go, you’ll turn into the type of person that goes to the gym. That’s not scary anymore. It’s just who you are.
It’s basically: “Fake it till you make it” sort of situation. Know it’s going to be uncomfortable at first, but then your brain will just figure out: “ok… so that’s what we’re doing now” And being a successful dog trainer is your reality now.
For me, it helps me to think about the fact that EVERYONE has imposter syndrome at first. No one was born as a CEO, or as a doctor, or a lawyer, or anything else.
They all had their first day, their first time. This is part of the human experience. But you must not let it get in your way. Self doubt can be paralyzing. Your brain makes it so hard to act. Don’t let it. Plan ahead for that to happen and come as prepared as possible.
Good luck!