imposter
Many brilliant artists of all kinds such as musicians, comedians, film stars, authors and of course artists suffer periodically from a condition known as Imposter Syndrome.
When asked about his long, varied and successful career in music, comedy and films, Billy Connolly said something like:
“Career?, I didn’t know I had a career. Every day, I fully expect a tap on the shoulder and to be told that the dream’s over, time to get back to the shipyard Son”
Imposter Syndrome doesn’t only affect the great and the good however. I know this, because I feel it creeping up on me at least once a week and today was the day this week!
We’ve had a lot of snow and gale force winds here recently…ahh the joys of Scotland! Today though we had one of those amazing Scottish winter days, where the temperature is around freezing, but the sky is clear, blue, huge and the sun is shining brightly all day. And of course on such a day as this, I try to spend it all outdoors. I started and ended the daylight hours by feeding my donkeys and in between got to grips with some outdoor jobs such as chopping wood, making a frame for a new tool shed and generally taking care of a lot of smaller jobs around the place.
At one point when I was chopping kindling, I became aware of an uncomfortable feeling like you get when you’ve forgotten to do something, but can’t remember what. So I stopped and pondered it for a moment, dug around under my wooly hat…and there it was…guilt! Guilt about being out here in this beautiful moment just chopping wood. For the most part my mind was chopping wood, but then at some point the thinker must have sneaked in and said “Hey…what d’ya think you’re doing? Shouldn’t you be out working 9-5 like everyone else? How’s this gonna work? How you gonna pay the bills doing this stuff?
And then…well, as soon as I pinpointed what the uncomfortable feeling was…I chopped more wood.
Don’t let the thinker subject you to Imposter Syndrome!
Photo Credit: outdoorPDK via Compfight cc
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