Hello guys !

If you are an artist, chances are, like me, you already felt the Imposter Syndrome. That you were out of place, that you don’t deserve so much praise or your actual job. Personally, I still think my Lead mistaken me for someone else when hiring me. And I think I am not alone to feel that way.

So here is what I want to discuss about today. Why it matters and give a few solutions to help us manage this feeling that can become overwhelming at times.

Know that this is all in your head.

Yes. We are all biased. How many of you thought that someone is unreachable ? That you can’t talk to that girl or guy ? Or you can’t do it ? How many of you think they don't stand a chance for a job ? They only deserve to make the coffee in a company ?

We believe what we want to believe. We live with our small little voice in our head all day, every day of the week. And that voice is keeping us warm inside our head. With a chocolate mug under the blanket. She wants to keep us safe, she guards the entry of ourselves and whispers to us what she sees happening outside.

And we trust her. She’s part of us ! She can’t fool us. Oh yes she can...For the better good…. The consequences being we do not ask questions, we do not seek feedbacks and we build our walls of preconceived ideas about the world. And that little voice will bring her friends within this world, you know them : Fear, Emotions. They will make decisions of their own.

Perception of ourselves by ourselves vs Reality (Perception of the world by us and perception of us by the world)

Emotions making decisions create a filter between us and the world. We don’t see it as it is but as it seems to be. Someone is grumpy one day ? It might be his personality. We don’t wonder if he had a bad day or anything, we are drown on our own emotion based assumptions.
But this is not the only filter. All of our senses (Sight, Touch, Smell….) gather informations which are processed by our brain. Processed. So there is a loss of datas in order to chose which are the important ones. Our Brain can be our best friend but also our worst foe.

But if we live our lives through filters, how can we improve ? Or get better ? Is it possible on our own ?

I do believe it is not possible alone. As to improve, we need to go past these filters. And we just saw that they are created by our own body !
Ask for feedbacks. Critiques. Questions. Don’t do it alone, go outside and ask people around you what they think, don’t wait to be ready, go for it. Everyone has a sight problem. We see the others better than ourselves. We live in a fog. And when someone says you are good or praises you : Don’t fight it. Accept it.

A great someone said once :

“If you don’t believe in yourself, Believe in those who believe in you !”

People are not stupid, they have their own lives, their own beliefs. And usually they know what they like and what they don’t.

Peer pressure and avoid it by being ourselves.

What you need are people knowing they like your work. Ignore the others. Even if you are the best at what you do, you will still find people who don’t like you. But at the same time you will find people who do enjoy your work. Focus on these ones.
The crowd of people can be daunting at times. Especially when you want to do something on your own, something that you like, different. You can feel pressured from the masses. And nothing is wrong with that, it is written in our survival brain skills. We follow the trend as a need for acceptance. But when that trend doesn’t fulfill you : Do what you want to do.

See, it can be really scary at first. But think about it this way : You are a human being. There are 7 billion of us. Within that number, a percentage thinks the same way as you do. Some feels the same as you do and might even like the same things as you. And as humans, we look to be accepted for who we are. That’s why we look for the trend the closest to our feelings. That’s why we tend to like more one political side over another. And when a new one comes to the arena and is closer to our opinions we jump right in.

So you are not alone. We think we are because that fog is blinding us. So, focus on constructive feedbacks from the right people and ignore the trolls if possible. Just be yourself.

Accepting the hurdles but also the successes

But getting there isn’t easy. There are hurdles, obstacles and when these happens, we must know how to rebalance ourselves, take a step back and reflect on it. But knowing this is temporary. It will be fine as long as we believe in our believers. To be honest, I believe in my future self, because he has done it and he is still alive to look over me. So if the risk isn’t real, then I go for it. There is no reason to duck it and end up with regrets.

Even if the fall is hard and you must take it upon yourself, you must know when to celebrate your successes. If you fulfill an objective, a dream dear to you : Enjoy it to the fullest.

You made it.

Not someone else. Acknowledge the hustle you put it but also thank all the people that helped you on your way or even tried to put you down. You are there today because of them. And in a way, they helped you in your scheme. They helped you but you did the work.
The same way someone will give you the staff to climb the mountain, you still are the one climbing it.

Believe. You are far better than what you think you are. Go for your dreams =)

Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments, how do you overcome the imposter syndrome, how do you look at your art ?
I also invite you to subscribe to my mailing list if you want to have future exclusive articles (in the making =)).

Thank you Steemians for the support ! You know this means the world to me and keeps me motivated to write and share my thoughts and experiences with you ! If you have any subjects in mind you would want me to talk about, share it in the comments as well !

Last thing : I plan on doing 1 article every 2 weeks on Thursday evening (Hanoi time) ! Thank you again !

Cheers !!