Imposter Syndrome in 2023 is a luxury tax.
In retail, a luxury tax is a sales tax or surcharge levied only on certain products or services that are deemed non-essential or accessible only to the super-wealthy, such as expensive cars, private jets, yachts and the like.
Imposter Syndrome is a feeling of inadequacy, self-doubt and insecurity that does not discriminate. It plagues successful and unsuccessful people, young and old, rich and poor, regardless of past achievements. It causes people to undervalue and undermine their skills, talents, and capabilities.
It is insidious.
It is evil.
It is vile.
It is a liar.
With the introduction of Open AI ChatGPT, you can no longer afford to doubt yourself. AI will effectively replace many of the skilled jobs we have today. That means, your job is in jeopardy. You need to take steps now to reorient your thinking because AI is coming for you.
One day you're in good health. The next day you feel ill. Suddenly, you have no strength or vitality. Your head aches and your body is racked with pain.
What's happened?
Dangerous pathogens have breached your body’s defense systems and have attacked your vital organs. Left untreated, these invading organisms may destroy your health permanently—even kill you.
The same danger exists when we begin to doubt.
This internal enemy must be slayed. Don’t let doubt have the upper hand. To slay doubt, you must get to the root of the problem, not simply ignore the symptoms. You cannot simply avoid the problem. Self-doubt is two-sided, on one side is avoidance and on the other side is action. You must act, because when you do, doubt is minimized. You have to condition yourself to act. Once again doubt is a choice. We choose doubt when we fail to act.
So ask yourself, “For what reason am I doubtful?”
We are doubtful because the insidious pathogen of fear spread in your body and breached your defense systems. This occurred because either somebody planted it there by a thoughtless comment or remark at some point in your life or you cultivated it by your own negative thoughts.
The one way you overcome doubt is to develop stronger faith.
Webster’s Dictionary defines faith as complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Faith does not dismiss doubt. Faith conquers doubt. It means you will go full steam ahead, despite your doubts. Don’t let doubt stop you from pursuing what you must.
Use the words, “I’ve decided to.” This is empowering and helps slay doubt.
Repeat those words or substitute your own. Define what it is that you've decided to pursue. Well-defined goals are like magnets. The better you chisel them, the stronger the pull. When you decide, you put focus on your desire and it must come despite any doubts. What you focus on, you feel. What you radiate outward in your thoughts, words and feelings, you attract into your life.
Look, the hero is a hero because the hero does it anyway. Even though the hero is terrified and risking it all, he goes anyway. Be the hero in your own life. Write your own story, don't let ChatGPT do it for you.
Faith alone is not enough. Faith without action is meaningless. When you act in the face of doubt, you develop your competency muscle and that leads to more confidence in your abilities. So instead of letting doubt hold you back, allow doubt to catapult you to where you want to go in life. Master doubt now so that it does not enslave you later. Yes, ChatGPT is here to stay, but let its existence inspire you to finally banish fear and resistance.
In the book The War of Art author Steven Pressfield says, “Procrastination is the most common manifestation of resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write that book.” Instead we say, “I’m going to do it tomorrow.” And tomorrow never comes.
When it comes to fear, Pressfield says, “Resistance has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer resistance.”
The bottom line is that we have to produce in order to slay doubt. Said another way, if you desire happiness, you must create. You cannot let imposter syndrome win.
According to motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, we must labor.
Why does a mother go through the pain and labor to have a child? Because she knows what the outcome will be. New life only comes through labor. Labor produces life. Sure, it might be painful, but we do not get a miracle without it. Don’t be afraid of a little pain. You must do that which is uncomfortable. Pain only lasts a short while, but you gain so much from it. Honor the struggle. So, unless you put that good idea into labor, it will work no miracle.
The greatest source of unhappiness is self-unhappiness. This occurs when you are not happy with who you are. When you know you are doing less than you could do and you don’t feel good about yourself.
Do you recall the Bible character Judas. He was the one that betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He got the money, a success story, right? Wrong, he later committed suicide.
Why?
Because he was unhappy with himself over what he had done. Don’t let imposter syndrome create unhappiness in your life.
When you do that difficult thing, you slay doubt every time. Besides giving yourself a great self-image, every time you choose to do that hard thing, you're shaping your identity, of who you are becoming. You're developing personal power. You're training your thoughts to overcome doubt and fear.
To understand that your thoughts are things, there is an experiment in the book E-Squared, by author Pam Grout that proves that every thought has an energy wave that affects everything else in the universe. That’s why you can’t afford yourself the luxury of a negative thought.
Another reason to banish negative thoughts is outlined, in the book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, by author Karol Truman. She says, “A growing body of evidence indicates that virtually every ill that can befall the body – from acne to arthritis, headaches to heart disease, cold sores to cancer – is influenced, for better or worse, by our emotions. Our experiences in life are actually our own state of mind being projected outward.” Our bodies are a living canvass of how we feel about ourselves. If our attention is on fear, we are focused on fear and we will inevitably get more things to be fearful of in our life.
To be triumphant in life, you must take action. Now.
In the book, The Depression Cure, author Stephen Ilardi says, “By simply engaging in activity, any activity, we can change the brain in a way that helps reverse depression.” If activity helps the brain that is depressed, what can taking action now do for you, even in the face of fear?
Strength can only be developed by effort and practice. You must practice your craft and work to improve every single day. Only then can you overcome doubt, resistance, and fear.
If you need to seek professional help, by all means do so. Talking to others is another sign of strength. Even ChatGPT talks to other computers to get the output that's needed. But in all seriousness, ChatGPT has done all of us a favor. We can no longer afford to think that we are less than, because we are not. The world needs you to show up because no one can Google or ChatGPT what you know.
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