Everyday for over 15 years I’ve written something most days. For the past 767 days, I’ve shared some of that writing as a blog post each day. I’ve published articles elsewhere and even a book, with another two on the way. But I rarely, if ever, call myself a writer and even more rarely feel like one.
We’ve had our dog, Moose, for six months or so now. He greets me every morning when I come down to write. But rarely do I feel like a dog owner.
You, like me, have likely given many, perhaps countless, presentations. And yet, we don’t feel like a public speaker.
If you are anything like me, you have moments, perhaps countless moments, in which you feel like a fraud. You feel like scared or anxious. Sometimes, perhaps often, it stops us from doing our work. And yet, perhaps it’s a sign we are onto something good, something we need to do.
And perhaps, it is normal. Or a sign that we are doing work we haven’t done before. Our best work.
We feel anxious because it is new. We don’t know how it will be received by us and others. It might not work. Of course this is true. We never know how something new will be perceived. And so we feel anxious, uncertain and sometimes even like an imposter.
But just because we feel this way, doesn’t mean we are an imposter or are not a writer, public speaker, dog owner. Feelings are real, true, and critical in life. But they are not the whole picture. Our actions, the things we practice and do are also real, true, and critical in life.
So yes, I am a writer, dog owner, and a public speaker even if I don’t feel like any of those things. Perhaps you are too. And perhaps, it’s when we embrace those realities that we get better because we pay attention more.
The choice is up to us.
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