A Holiday Card From Your Imposter….
With the holidays coming up, I have been thinking a lot about the imposter syndrome associated with gift-giving. I have never thought of gift-giving as a risk, but thinking back, there have been so many times I DIDN’T get someone a particular gift because I wasn’t 100% sure they would like it. However, by doing that I was throwing away the possibility of giving something that they would love or possibly even change their life.
After noodling on this idea for a bit, I started thinking about this concept in the context of Reach Out gifts and had a good old fashioned Brene Brown shame spiral. I cannot count the number of times I have thought of sharing something as a gift and then not sent it because I tried to convince myself that I would be annoying them by sharing what I perceived as a gift. Particularly, I have avoided sharing a spin-off thought or a-ha moment I had from someone else’s idea, because what if they think I am just stealing and cannot come up with my own ideas?
Now I know that this idea is ridiculous. I know that this is shame speaking and that this is how ideas work. I know that sharing my thoughts on an idea that I love is a form of flattery.
But what if they think that I'm such a nobody that my flattery and compliments are meaningless?
YIKES.
If we are being 100% honest, I wrote this blog post by speaking it into my phone, and I had to cut a stream of words beating myself up for speaking that last sentence aloud. But sometimes a friendly holiday card from your imposter is just the thing you need to help you examine what risks are available to take. Honestly, there are probably going to be times that I offer something as a gift and it ACTUALLY IS meaningless to the recipient. But if I don’t take the risk and send out gifts always, I am robbing someone of the thing that just might change their life.
So I will continue to accept friendly reminders from my imposter. Because without that imposter steering me in the direction of risks, I would have no idea where to go.
