Imposter Syndrome is real!
Long time, no see. That's obviously my bad haha. It's honestly been a busy couple of weeks; I traveled for the first time in 9 months and let's just say I overestimated my ability to work while on the go, so making up for it now by sharing the newsletter today. :)
Today I want to talk about something I, and I'm sure a lot of others, experience a lot - ‘imposter syndrome’. Have you ever felt like whatever you've accomplished in life is just because of luck, and that you don't actually deserve anything? Do you sometimes feel inadequate, like you don't belong, and that people will think you're a scam and you have no real skills? If you answered yes, then don't worry, you're in great company (even people like Tom Hanks, Lady Gaga and Maya Angelou feel this way)!
Tom Hanks said in an interview, “No matter what we've done, there comes a point where you think, 'How did I get here? When are they going to discover that I am, in fact, a fraud and take everything away from me?' Imagine a legendary actor like Tom Hanks thinking that way!
Imposter syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. It is this pattern of behaviour where people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud.
As a YouTuber and someone who's chosen to put herself out there on the Internet, I feel imposter syndrome on and off (mostly on lol) but lately, over the past couple of weeks, it's been especially high. I've been in the process of working on relaunching my online store; worked on it for weeks, created the website and all the products from scratch by myself, even created a free one hour YouTube masterclass, but I've been feeling major imposter syndrome that I kept delaying the launch.
Thoughts like who am I to be selling these things and who am I to be teaching YouTube when people have millions of subscribers have been running on my mind, and this may sound silly to you but I know SO many people, regardless of what level they're at, talk about facing similar thoughts. And sadly, this isn't limited to just content creators; almost everyone, whether it's at school, college or work, faces some level of imposter syndrome in life.
I've been doing some research on how to deal with this, so thought I'd share a couple of things that have been working for me. Firstly, just realizing and acknowledging the fact that imposter syndrome is something most people face made me approach these thoughts differently. Rather than actually feeling those thoughts, I now look at them from a third person's perspective and allow them to do their job and then just move on.
Secondly, I've been consciously reframing my thoughts about failure and self worth. We feel like failure is the end of the world, but as they say, it's only a stepping stone to success. You also don't need to be the best in the world to do something. Imagine if every writer or actor thought that they shouldn't create art unless they were the absolute best? What a loss that would be!
And lastly, just being kind to myself and talking about my feelings, especially with those who might feel the same way, has gone a long way for me!
And so in an effort to deal with my imposter syndrome, I'm excited to share that I have finally launched my store ‘Kritika Goel Shop’. Apart from Lightroom presets, I now also have products that will help if you're a content creator (like my exact email pitch templates + tips that I use to pitch to brands and hotels for sponsored stay, and my media kit template), and a one hour long FREE YouTube Masterclass where I teach you everything I wish I knew during my first year as a YouTuber. I also show you how much money I typically make (with screenshots of exact numbers) just to give you an idea of what's possible if you're a creator. SO excited to finally see weeks of work coming to fruition. You can click the button below to check out my store and if you're interested in buying anything, there's upto 30% discount on products during this launch week so do make use of it. :)
P.S. Since my store just launched, I may be sending an email or two over the next week just to remind everyone to make use of the discounts before they go away. Just giving you a heads up before I flood your inbox. :P <3
Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? Let me know how you deal with it!