I’m not competent enough to speak in front of a big audience. I’m not smart enough to write a book. My business is successful only because I got lucky…

If your thoughts happen to travel in a similar direction, it’s time for a little detour.

Impostor syndrome affects nearly 70% of population at some point of their lives. Even celebrities, internationally renowned entrepreneurs, or successful athletes admit that they have felt inadequate, fake, or not competent enough.

Meryl Streep doubted that anyone would want to see her in another movie, saying “I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?”, Arianna Huffington was convinced that her non-native English would make people reject her and her ideas, both Michelle Obama and Sheryl Sandberg admit in their amazing books that in their professional career they often felt not competent enough or inadequate. So, if you also doubt your professional skills, you’re not alone. As a matter of fact, you’re in a great company.

All those successful people eventually learned how to keep moving forward despite their self-doubt. You too can follow into their footsteps.

There are many methods that will help you eliminate the impostor syndrome from your business life.

Below you can find three strategies, all proven to be effective in my fight with the imposter syndrome.

1. Have a supportive community

Find a positive community that can encourage you and help you create a feeling of belongness. Impostor syndrome often surfaces when we feel misaligned with a new environment, so joining a supportive group will help you balance that discomfort.

It can be a professional association, sports club, religion centre, neighbourhood association or simply a small group of trusted friends. A supportive community will keep reminding you about your superpowers and help you bounce back whenever you start doubting your skills.

If your community fails to lift you up, you can also work with a therapist or business coach who will show you how to recognise and control your feelings associated with the impostor syndrome.

2. Keep a success log

Cherish your achievements by running a success journal. Write down positive feedback that you receive from your customers, colleagues, or friends, describe moments that made you feel proud and note all the goals that you managed to achieve.

After a while, your success log will become a wonderful mirror of your past accomplishments. Whenever you feel inadequate, or not good enough, you can grab your success log to find your confidence again.

 3. Boost your skills and confidence by attending CPD events

Real-life events used to be the biggest challenge for me. I kept enrolling to networking meetups, conferences, or courses, only to chicken out in the last minute and stay home. The main culprit was my lack of confidence, the belief that I’m inadequate to share the space with so many talented people.

With time I realised that the only way to overcome this mindset is to expand my comfort zone. You don’t need to wait until you feel confident enough to leave your comfort zone, you simply leave your comfort zone to become more confident.

Eventually, meeting people at online and offline events helped me in my struggle with the impostor syndrome. I got to know many like-minded entrepreneurs, translators, developers, marketers, coaches, social media experts, writers, and artists, I listened to their stories, I got motivated by their ideas and realised we all fight the same fight. Self-doubt is a natural element of nearly every success story, the key is no to give in to your limiting thoughts.

So, in my ongoing quest to boost my skills and confidence, I’m going to join the Financial Success Summit for Translators in two weeks. It’s a perfect place to overcome any self-doubt lurking around the corner?.

What steps would you take to fight with your impostor syndrome?

Over to you

Looking for ways to bring your freelancing business to the next level? Let me help you!

1. Have a look at the tips I share in my free e-book “How to make the best use of your time”.

2. Grab a copy of my book “You’ve got this: How to continue your freelance career when you become a mother”, if you’re struggling with your transition into the role of a freelancing mother.

3. Have a short call with me to find out how to grow your freelance business.

Dorota Pawlak

Dorota helps digital brands infuse their content with a local touch. She is a localization consultant, translator specialized in IT, prompt engineer, and a book author. Dorota teaches online courses on localization, writes for her blog and a Medium publication. She also runs a Small Biz AI, a Substack newsletter for freelancers and small business owners ready to discover handy AI tools.