Are You an Imposter or Just Uninspired | Imposter Syndrome

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Today's episode is going to be short and sweet, and something that's been coming up for a few of my clients. One thing that they're really struggling with is procrastination and feeling very unmotivated when it comes to working on their business. And for some reason, this fosters feelings of imposter syndrome.  

Being unmotivated or unable to work on your business or feeling like you want to procrastinate comes with deeper emotional issues. And that's why I think some people feel like it may be a symptom of their imposter syndrome because they're thinking, “Am I really an imposter? Like, should I even really be doing this if I can't even find the energy to work on it?” Especially because our coaching businesses are supposed to be our passions. It’s supposed to be something that we're super passionate about and we want to work on all the time. 

We're also inundated with messaging saying, “if it's something that you love doing, you won't work a day in your life!” Which we all know is fake ass bullshit. Work is work. And yes, you can be really excited about your business, but there are going to be days where you don't want to do anything, especially work on content.

 

For example, today I am batch recording my podcasts. I've been sitting here thinking, “fuck, I just really want to go and lie down.” But I only have a certain amount of time in a week and I really want to get these done for you because I know how much you guys love the podcast. I've gotten so much more feedback recently about the podcast. So I really want to keep the momentum going.

 

But I think the title of this podcast episode says it all: are you an imposter or are you just uninspired?

 

I had a conversation with a woman via Discovery Call and she was saying how she feels like she doesn't know if she should be doing this and that she feels uninspired. Her lack of inspiration is making her doubt whether she should be a coach in the first place. And I used to feel this way too with my podcast. Honestly, sometimes I still do. Sometimes I'll think, “Oh, what am I going to talk about?” and then I start questioning, should I even be doing a podcast if I can't think of episodes? And then I start thinking, “oh my God, if I don't have any content ideas, am I a bad coach?” And then the spiral ensues. I don't spiral out at all anymore. I know how to nip it in the bud.  I know how to work on the techniques using NLP in order to rid myself of that procrastination or any lack of inspiration that comes up.

 

But  a lot of people don't have these tools and they really let it affect them. Because again, they believe that the thoughts that their brain is telling them are true. Like, “Maybe you shouldn't be doing this. Who are you to have a podcast and talk about this topic? You're not even an expert.” And when you start believing those thoughts, it can really make you want to procrastinate even more. Your inspiration falls flat when you're so worried about looking a certain way to people or trying to prove yourself.

 

There’s no room for inspiration when you're constantly questioning yourself and your capabilities. There's no room for you to feel abundant, for you to see the possibilities, or even see the good things that are happening. You're just focusing on the things that aren't happening for you.

 

If you feel uninspired, it doesn't mean that you're an imposter. It doesn't mean that you aren't supposed to be doing what you're doing. It just means maybe you need to take a little bit of time and step into a more creative role.

 

Something that I find when I'm feeling really uninspired is I'm scrolling a lot on Instagram. I am looking at other people's content and I am not creating more of my own. That's what keeps me in that consume mentality; especially because information consumption is like a drug to our brain. It triggers an area in our brain that lights it up: the seratonin and dopamine flood in. We get an instant feel-good sensation whenever we see things that we like.

 

When you get a text message and you hear the ding, the serotonin or dopamine starts to flow through you. You pick up your phone and you're so happy to be getting a message and to be shown attention. The same thing goes for when we're feeling uninspired. We might pick up our phone because we're bored or we're procrastinating, and we're looking for that dopamine hit.

 

The same thing goes when you're creating really good content and you're feeling really inspired. You’re not picking up your phone when you're inspired. You're sitting there writing or you're recording and in your flow, and that feels really good. That gives us the same feelings. But when you're caught in that negative feedback loop of looking to others for inspiration, or just looking at others and comparing yourself, of course it's going to be hard to be inspired.

 

And why can't you look at others as the possibility instead of a comparison?

 

One of my clients is a mom coach and she was saying how she has these really amazing relaxation sessions for moms. If you're a mom and you're looking for a relaxation session, she is your girl, send me a DM at @yourcoachjill on Instagram, and I'll hook you up. But she does these relaxation guided meditation sessions for moms.  We ended up raising her cost because she was charging little to nothing for a lot of work.

 

But she also mentioned, “well, I don't see anybody doing this, so I didn't think it was something I should do.” And I said, “how come you need to look to others for that confirmation? Like, have you seen other people doing things that are unique and you've thought, oh wow, that's a great idea. How come you can't be that for somebody else? 

 

It’s not so much that you're uninspired, it's that you're looking in the wrong places for inspiration. You are believing the things that your brain is telling you that you're uninspired or that your work isn't worthy enough.

The best course of action at this point is to just to stop consuming and start creating, even if the words that you're writing are garbage and you're never gonna use them. Let's say you need to create Instagram content for the next month and you sit down and everything you write is garbage. Just spit it out anyways, leave it and come back and guaranteed, you will find some golden nuggets in there.

I used to be a perfectionist in that if my notes weren't perfect, then I just wouldn't even bother. I would think, when my notes are perfect, I will come back to them and I will make them look so beautiful. But then I would come back after not writing anything down and I would feel like, “oh fuck, I can't remember what that really good idea was.” Or I'd have an idea in the middle of the night and I'd think, “I'm not going to write this down,” but then I would get up in the morning and I would forget what the idea was. So it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be done. 

And your lack of inspiration does not indicate whether or not you are good at what you do. We all have those times when we're uninspired, we all have those times when we're unmotivated and we procrastinate. But remember, if you have listened to the very first From Imposter to Empowered episode, procrastination is just an indication of a more deeper emotional issue. And the same thing goes for feeling uninspired. It's an indication that something is not level in terms of the way that you feel about yourself or the way that you feel about content and you just need to balance yourself out again.

I do emotional freedom techniques, which is tapping. And again, if you're feeling uninspired, you can definitely get a tapping sequence from me where you can instill those feelings of inspiration or motivation. The same goes for Anchoring: This is an NLP technique. You can anchor in a certain feeling. For example, if you want to feel confident you can anchor that in, if you want to feel motivated, you can anchor that in. 

Remember, you are not an imposter, you're just uninspired and you are meant to be doing the work that you're doing; we all have those days. So make sure you are creating more than you're consuming, turn off the distractions and really hone in on what makes you special and who you are. And if you need to do the inner work to increase your self worth, you always know where to find me at @yourcoachjill. I do single sessions and I also have coaching packages. I would love to help you through this with my amazing NLP techniques that have been proven to get people amazing results in their life and in their business.

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