Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

This fear, rooted in self-doubt can truly hinder our spiritual progress and keep us from walking in the fullness of God's calling over our lives. Let's explore what imposter syndrome is and how we can overcome this fear forever.

Transcript

Hi! So we’ve been talking about self-doubt and I wanted to address a specific type of self-doubt that a lot of women deal with. I have personally dealt with imposter syndrome, it is very real, and it is very sneaky and I want to expose that today so that we can stare it down with the word of God and get free from it.

Ok, so imposter syndrome is basically feeling like a fraud, thinking that you don’t deserve your title or position, feeling unqualified for something that you’ve been trusted to do, that you are actually qualified for, that you probably do deserve. It is a psychological phenomenon where this fear of being found out like the Wizard from the wizard of oz, pay no attention to the woman behind that curtain. We feel like we can’t do what God is calling us to do because we are afraid that someone is going to find out our past or realize that we are just a sinner saved by grace and not much more than that. 

So I dealt with imposter syndrome more than once in my life. I actually gave way to it for a long time. I’ll tell you one of my stories. When I started teaching at a private school, I was afraid all of the time that I was going to get fired. I somehow felt that even though they hired me and my demo lesson went well and I got the job that somehow it was a mistake. I didn’t feel like I was good enough or that I could meet their standards, which I found out later were actually unrealistically high compared to what the average teacher was measured by (I found that out later). I was under constant stress, I was exhausted all the time, I was worried all the time that my lesson plans weren’t good enough, that I wasn’t doing a good enough job, and I just couldn’t bring myself to a point where I could do this job and I was always worried about getting fired.

I became so depressed and riddled with anxiety that I couldn’t even put my best foot forward. Everything that I knew how to do went out the window. I tried buying lesson plans to try and keep up with my outrageous schedule, I would stay up every night trying to research and come up with something better than what I had. I was constantly second guessing everything that I did. It was absolutely no way to live. I was miserable. Looking back I think that I could’ve done so much better if I just took a breath, trusted God and let go of all that fear. I wasn’t myself in the classroom at all. I had no energy, my spark was gone, I could barely stand in front of the room by the end of it.

So, the thing that I feared the most had come upon me. I was actually laid off at the end of the year, but the response of my students was a real shock. They thought it a bad choice, they wrote their names on my board saying that I was the best teacher (I wasn’t, but it was sweet). I left that situation learning so much about teaching and what it really takes to be a good teacher, and I knew that I had it in me by the end of it. I didn’t know that in the beginning, but I left feeling stronger and more confident, even though that particular school was done with me.

It was amazing that I felt more confident leaving than I did when I started. Part of it was that I knew exactly what I did wrong because I held back so much because I was afraid to give 100%. I felt that if I gave 100% and failed, that would mean I’m actually not good enough. However, if I didn’t try that hard, I can always chalk it up to not doing my best.

Imposter syndrome kept me from doing my best, it held me back from using my gifts as a teacher, and I stopped me from really giving my all. What is your experience with this demon? Do you ever feel like you are not good enough to do what you do? Do you ever feel like one day someone is the just going to rip away the curtain and point at you and say you’re a fraud, you’re fake, you’re not good enough? How is this holding you back? What are you hesitating to do because you have this worry deep down? 

This is just another sneaky version of fear. We know that fear doesn’t come from God. 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear doesn’t come from God in any shape or form, so we don’t have to accept it. We do not need to live in fear. Imposter syndrome is being afraid that someone else is going to have the same doubts about us that we have about ourselves. I talked about self-doubt previously and how important it is to overcome. This fear is rooted in that self-doubt and it causes us to worry that someone else is going to expose those flaws that we see in ourselves. Getting rid of this serious condition is a two step process. First, we have to get rid of the self-doubt to begin with, and second we have to let go of the fear of the opinions of other people.

Galatians 1:10 NLT says, “Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” Can you honestly say that you are not trying to win the approval of people? Imposter syndrome is all about making sure you impress people enough so they don’t question you. If you are struggling with this today, maybe we need to examine who it is you are trying to impress and why. Who are you trying to impress and why? What does it matter if someone else thinks you good enough if God has called you to do what you’re doing? Being fully committed to pleasing God is the fastest way to get people of the world to dislike you! People be like: “you think you’re better than me? You’re not better than me!” When you aren’t doing anything be what the Lord told you to do. You could be minding your own business, serving God, doing what He told you to do, and people will hate you for it. They will try to tear you down and point out your flaws to make themselves feel better.

You can’t be afraid of that, sis. The reason why people do that is because they don’t want to change. They don’t want to better themselves, but they know that they should, so when they see you moving forward, they want an excuse not to follow you. If you prove that serving God is possible, and that walking away from sin is possible, and choosing the narrow/difficult path to righteousness is possible, that upsets them. They don’t want to feel guilty about their sin, so they try to dig up the dirt on you so they don’t have to feel bad. They can just point at you as say, at least I’m not trying to act like I’m some holy person. If you are doing what God is calling you to do, the enemy is going to try everything to stop you, but you don’t have to be afraid of him. 

People pleasing is very dangerous. You can’t serve God and please people at the same time. Now, there is a difference from respecting godly counsel and respecting the opinions of other strong believers in the faith, but there has to come a point when your confidence is so rooted in Christ that His opinion is the only one that truly matters to you. We are not here to please each other, we are here to please God. The more you focus on pleasing God and really absorbing what He says about you, the less you are going to care about what other people think about you.

That’s liberating, isn’t it? Let’s get free from caring what other people think and focus on the fact that God calls us His masterpiece and that He has prepared us for good works. Are you memorizing your verses from the previous episode? God is the one who qualifies us. Get the word of God written onto the tablet of your heart. Find out what God’s word says about you and start believing that. His opinion is the only one that matters. God says you are called, you are chosen, you were created for good work. It doesn’t matter if someone else think we’re fake or not good enough. They don’t count! What counts is what you believe. Who do you believe you are? Does that line up with God’s word? Get that in alignment today.

Another aspect of imposter syndrome is not being sure about what God’s will is for your life. We here Jeremiah 29:11 NLT “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” And we say yes and amen to that, but deep down we don’t have a clue what those plans are. We can’t imagine what God wants with us. What is God going to use me for? What does God want to do with my life? What am I supposed to do? I don’t have any special gifts or talents. I don’t have passion or my career is not in the ministry, it’s just a regular job. My career isn’t related to serving God necessarily, so what am I supposed to do? 

Here is what I want you to walk away with today: everyone is called to ministry. We are all called to the great commission. We are all called to the ministry of reconciliation. We are chosen to be Christ’s ambassadors. Your life is meant to glorify God and lead others to the saving knowledge of Jesus. Now the people that you are meant to reach and the way that God uses you is unique to you. There are certain gifts and talents that you have and ministry is going to look differently on you life, but the ultimate goal is the same.

SO, in the next episode, or the second part of this episode, I want to dive into purpose and what we are all called to, because I think that it’s important to establish a strong sense of purpose and build confidence in that and what the word says we are all called to do. Imposter syndrome can be a thing of the past if we learn God’s will for our lives through examining His word and reflecting on our testimonies and allowing God to take us where he wants to take us, AMEN, sis? Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already, get signed up at patreon.com/jesuswomen for weekly devotionals, bonus freebies and more.  I will be back with more on overcoming imposter syndrome next episode. Don’t quit, get quipped! Take care.