Latest / ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿 / ✨Imposter Syndrome🌸

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✨Imposter Syndrome🌸 · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:10
  Hey friends, and welcome back to another episode of a line that's
• 0:13
  driving for teachers. Gosh, I feel like I'm shouting
• 0:16
  at you today. I don't know why I'm excited,
• 0:18
  but today we're going to talk about something that I really
• 0:22
  feel I'm, I feel it in my bones. And it's a big one for me
• 0:26
  because I have felt it and I sometimes continue to feel it,
• 0:29
  but it is about impostor syndrome.
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  OK? You know that feeling when you
• 0:35
  think, Oh my gosh, what the heck am I doing here?
• 0:38
  Why are people trusting me with this?
• 0:41
  Or surely someone's going to figure out I actually don't know
• 0:45
  what I'm doing? Yep, that's the 100%.
• 0:49
  And I'm going to be super real and honest with you today.
• 0:52
  I mean, I, I always have been, but I feel this so often.
• 0:58
  And look, maybe you do too. So let's, let's talk some feels.
• 1:04
  Sometimes when I am standing in front of a room of teachers,
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  because obviously I do some professional learning and
• 1:09
  things, and even when I'm looking at the camera, I just
• 1:12
  think, seriously, do I even know what I'm talking about?
• 1:15
  Like, will they trust me? Do they actually think I know my
• 1:19
  stuff? When I'm leading at school, I've
• 1:23
  literally stood there and thought, what the actual heck am
• 1:26
  I doing here? How do I get trusted with these
• 1:29
  people's kids and staff and all these decisions?
• 1:33
  Like even here reporting, recording these podcasts,
• 1:37
  there's a little sneaky voice in my head that's like, why do I
• 1:41
  even think I'm allowed to talk to you at all?
• 1:43
  I'm not some big expert, It's just me.
• 1:46
  I have learned from experience. I have stuffed up plenty of
• 1:49
  times and I just, I keep learning, but is that enough?
• 1:54
  Can you guys relate to this or am I just talking to a brick
• 1:56
  wall? Like is there other people in
• 1:59
  the same, in the same position as me?
• 2:01
  Well, OK, where, where does this come from?
• 2:03
  So to me, let's just explain what it is.
• 2:06
  So imposter syndrome shows up when you achieve something or
• 2:10
  you're in a space where you've worked really hard to be, but
• 2:13
  then you get that little voice in your head that whispers like
• 2:15
  you don't deserve this or you're faking it.
• 2:18
  They don't believe you. I have felt this when I have won
• 2:22
  positions, when I've been recognised or when I've been
• 2:27
  trusted with leadership position.
• 2:28
  And honestly you're just like, how did I even get this?
• 2:32
  Do I actually even deserve it? Can I do this?
• 2:35
  Even though like, at times, I know I'm qualified, I know that
• 2:38
  I can do it, but you just get those doubts that creep in.
• 2:41
  And here's the kicker. There are so many successful,
• 2:46
  inspiring people who admit to feeling the exact same way.
• 2:50
  Michelle Obama has spoken about it before.
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  Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, even Maya Angelou.
• 2:56
  Yep, she has said that she felt like someone would one day find
• 2:59
  out that she was a fraud. And yet we 100% know that those
• 3:03
  people are not. And they, they aren't like I'm,
• 3:06
  I'm, I should know that I'm not, but I just don't know.
• 3:12
  So here's the thing that helped to shift for me when I sort of
• 3:17
  learned more about it. The real definition of an
• 3:21
  impostor is someone who is intentionally pretending to be
• 3:25
  someone they're not in order to trick others.
• 3:28
  And that's not what we're doing. I'm not pretending.
• 3:31
  You're not pretending. We're showing up, we're growing,
• 3:35
  we're learning, we're doing our best, we're making mistakes, and
• 3:38
  we're trying again. But that's not deception.
• 3:41
  That's just life. Like imposter syndrome.
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  It doesn't mean that we're broken.
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  It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be where we are.
• 3:52
  What it actually means is that we are stretching.
• 3:55
  We're stepping into new, challenging, just really
• 3:59
  uncomfortable territory. Really.
• 4:01
  Emily Kramer, I've been reading her book lately called Becoming
• 4:05
  Magnetic, and she says that you're not an imposter, you're a
• 4:09
  work in progress. And I love that.
• 4:11
  Isn't it just beautiful? A work in progress means that we
• 4:15
  are still learning, we are still expanding, and we are still
• 4:21
  becoming, we're still becoming that person.
• 4:24
  And we are teachers, we are educators.
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  We are always lifelong learners as humans.
• 4:31
  And isn't that just the best thing?
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  Like you're not an imposter, you're a work in progress.
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  We are not the actual definition of what an imposter is.
• 4:41
  So this has been something that I have had to work on myself
• 4:45
  personally and I really need to stop and I needed to meditate on
• 4:51
  this. I needed to journal on it.
• 4:52
  I needed to get it out. I even did on my personal
• 4:55
  Facebook. I talked about this in relation
• 4:57
  of me playing sport and talking about playing hockey and how I
• 5:02
  really didn't feel like I was. I'm not and I never have said
• 5:06
  that I'm the best player, but I am determined.
• 5:09
  I am competitive and I will always turn up to training and
• 5:14
  learn everything I possibly can. And I just keep, I'm resilient,
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  like I bounce back, I get back in there, I try again.
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  I own my mistakes, but I constantly felt like, am I
• 5:24
  really good enough? Am I actually doing a good job?
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  It was that constant feeling of should I even be here on this
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  field supporting this team and a part of this team.
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  But yes, because I do all of those things and I'm not an
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  impostor. I am a work in progress and I
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  will forever be that work in progress.
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  So I have had to work on that. I am not here to trick anyone.
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  I do not have to be perfect to be valuable, OK?
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  Progress is so much better than perfection, and we're never
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  going to be perfect. Well, gosh, I don't view myself
• 5:59
  as that. We're never going to be these
• 6:00
  perfect humans. My lived experience, my
• 6:04
  willingness to keep learning and my heart for people.
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  That, to me, is enough. And it is for you too, because
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  your presence matters. Your voice matters.
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  You do not need 100 qualifications or a perfect
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  record. You just need to be the one who
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  shows up, the one who turns up day after day, building on their
• 6:31
  knowledge, learning and being that willing person with that
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  mindset that's just going to keep going and going and going.
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  And if you don't know the answer, you're going to work
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  hard until you've found it so that you can then come back to
• 6:45
  someone with that. Or if you don't know, you admit
• 6:46
  to not knowing because you're not pretending to be someone
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  else to trick someone. OK, I'm never going to be the
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  leader that stands up and says, oh, I know it.
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  I know how to do that. I know how to do everything
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  because I'm perfect. No, no way.
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  I am the first one to look at you with a really doe eyed Bambi
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  look like oh what? I've got no idea.
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  So I'm going to have to find out or look.
• 7:09
  Can you just leave it with me? I have to get back to you.
• 7:11
  That's usually my key of I don't know or I'm not confident in my
• 7:15
  answer. And I really want to be 100%
• 7:17
  confident in my answer to you before I answer that question,
• 7:20
  if that makes sense. So for you, if this resonates
• 7:25
  with you, I would love for you to take a chance to pause and
• 7:29
  just reflect. So this is again one of those
• 7:31
  moments where I say, whip out a journal and let's go.
• 7:34
  So where in your life do you feel like an imposter right now?
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  You could have a whole list as long as your arm.
• 7:43
  If you're me, you might just have one or two, or you might.
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  I would be amazing to hear from people if you actually don't
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  have this feeling at all. Like, what is it that you do?
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  Because that sounds amazing. Another one.
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  So #2 what evidence do I have that actually suggests that I do
• 8:03
  belong here? And this is really special
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  because you have done the work to be where you are, so there
• 8:11
  would be lots of bits of evidence that prove that you
• 8:14
  belong where you are. And if you don't, maybe this is
• 8:18
  a chance to reflect on where your skills might be better
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  utilised #3 am I truly deceiving anyone or am I just learning and
• 8:29
  growing like everyone else? And honestly, everyone's answer
• 8:33
  to this should be like, no, I'm not deceiving anyone, I'm trying
• 8:36
  to learn, but obviously you need to reflect on that and you do
• 8:40
  you #4 what would I say to a friend if they told me they felt
• 8:46
  like a fraud in this same situation?
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  This one was a really helpful one for me to reflect on my own
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  answers. I guess what would I actually
• 8:57
  say if this was one of my friends?
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  It's like me right now what I'm trying to say to you guys
• 9:01
  because this is what I've had to do and work on myself.
• 9:04
  So what would you say to a friend if they told you that
• 9:07
  they felt like a fraud in this situation?
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  And #5 how can I reframe this feeling as proof that I'm
• 9:16
  expanding, not failing? Because that's what true growth
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  is. You are making the effort to
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  expand. You're not just failing and
• 9:25
  giving up. OK, so imposter syndrome, I
• 9:31
  don't know for me whether it's ever completely going to go
• 9:34
  away, but that's OK. Maybe it's just a sign that we
• 9:39
  are all still moving. We're still pushing our own
• 9:42
  ceilings that little bit higher and we're still doing those
• 9:46
  scary, brave, courageous, 10 seconds of courage types of
• 9:50
  situation things that we need to do to grow and be the best
• 9:55
  version of ourselves that we can be.
• 9:57
  I think things feel a little bit icky when you're having a really
• 10:01
  big growth moment and you're stepping into that next level of
• 10:05
  you doing lots of work myself on Future Me and writing about
• 10:10
  journal entries for Future me and what that looks like.
• 10:13
  That's been a big ick moment because I've had to reflect on a
• 10:16
  lot of things and and go back and go, wow, look at how far
• 10:19
  I've actually come in my career, in my life, just in everything.
• 10:24
  And maybe that's why you get these feelings too.
• 10:28
  So it's reflecting on that and trying to do the best that we
• 10:30
  can in in still being that brave, courageous human because
• 10:35
  we are not impostors. We are a work in progress.
• 10:39
  And that is exactly where we're supposed to be.
• 10:43
  We are supposed to be a work in progress.
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  We are learners. We are forever going to be
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  trying to grow and improve ourselves because that's exactly
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  what we're telling the people around us, All those tiny little
• 10:56
  humans or big humans, if you teach those ones or even your
• 10:59
  family, we're here to learn and grow and to help them do the
• 11:04
  same. So that's where we're meant to
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  be. I know this has just been a
• 11:08
  short one, but again, I hope it packed the punch.
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  And thank you for hanging out with me today.
• 11:14
  And if this hits home, please share it with a teacher friend.
• 11:17
  It's only a little nugget of time out of their day.
• 11:20
  This might be the message that they need to hear.
• 11:23
  Remember that you are not faking it, you're growing into it
• 11:27
  because you're not an imposter, you are a work in progress.
• 11:31
  And I love that quote. Also, if you haven't read Emily
• 11:35
  Kramer's book Becoming Magnetic, that's another good one to read.
• 11:37
  She's also got a Ted talk, a Ted X talk.
• 11:41
  If I can remember to link it in the show notes, I will link it
• 11:44
  down there too. But lots of tips and tricks in
• 11:48
  that space as well because again, I am a learner.
• 11:51
  So This is why I read books and listen to audio books and listen
• 11:54
  to other podcasts because I want to learn and grow and be the
• 11:58
  best person that I can be for myself first because I'm a
• 12:02
  priority. And then for my family because
• 12:04
  again, we feel our own cups first so that we can then have
• 12:08
  enough to work and help out other people in our lives.
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  So again, I'm wrapping it up now.
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  I promise have the best day wherever you are up to in your
• 12:20
  day. And if no one's told you today,
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  you are honestly amazing. You are doing the best that you
• 12:25
  can. You are loved, you are valued.
• 12:29
  So Please remember that. Please share this around.
• 12:32
  Please click the little bell so you get notifications when I
• 12:35
  release new episodes and make sure you follow, subscribe,
• 12:39
  whatever it is on whatever streaming service you are
• 12:41
  listening to me on because the more people that here about
• 12:46
  these things, the more that we can learn and grow from each
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  other. And I just want to spread that
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  message. I'll talk to you guys again
• 12:52
  soon. Bye, guys.