Many more people struggle with Imposter Syndrome than you might think; very few will admit it to themselves or others because they don’t want to be ‘found out’. Some of the most confident and successful people I have met struggle with these same feelings and thought forms, but they overcome it with help. So reach out and get help where needed, we aren’t designed to solve everything on our own
Starting something new is scary. Learning to believe in yourself can be a critical precursor to starting a new initiative. Why is it so important to learn to believe in yourself? How can someone work on gaining these skills? In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders, authors, writers, coaches, medical professionals, teachers, to share empowering insights about “How To Learn To Believe In Yourself.” As a part of this series we had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Louise Goode.
Sara Goode, is a Women’s Mentor and Guide. She helps women to move from co-dependence to sovereignty. She is also a fully certified Robbins and Madanes Strategic Intervention Coach; certified NLP and Reiki practitioner. Having experienced what it was like to give away her power to a series of toxic situations and a near death experience, let to her taking a new path. She moved from being in constant emotional and mental conflict, which resulted in her poor physical health, to discovering the inner peace and calm that has transformed her life and wellness.
Sara uses her personal spiritual and wellness experience to help guide others on their path to self-development, emotional healing, and deep, lasting, life changes. She is also a founding member of the award winning Wrexham Critical Care Support Group — where she fell ill and now supports those in recovery. She is also a volunteer and now Vice Chair of the IHS, the charity that owns and manages Tan-y-Garth Hall Retreat.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
My parents divorced when I was 2 years old, and my three older siblings and I lived with my Mum and Stepfather, visiting my Dad on weekends.
My stepfather was sexually abusive, and my Mum was not someone you could easily talk to. She was incredibly sensitive and if she thought she was being criticized in any way she’d shout and throw things and quite often storm off telling us we were better off without her anyway. So homelife was oppressive to say the least. Arguing was a constant, and there was a real divide between Mum and our stepfather vs. us kids. I was also a lot younger than my siblings, who naturally had their own lives and friends, so I was often on my own at home. The trick to staying safe was making sure Mum stayed in a good mood, and therefore stayed at home, and I wasn’t on my own with my stepdad. I became very good at not only being able to read people, but also being very diplomatic. If my siblings said something that upset my Mum, I was an expert at finding the good in it so she wouldn’t get too upset. Everyone thought I got on well with my stepfather, but in reality I was terrified of him, I was just very good at behaving how I knew he wanted me to. That was the start of behavior patterns that stayed with me into my early 30’s.
When I was 8 years old my Dad moved to Nigeria for work, but up until that point we’d spend every weekend with him. I was definitely Daddy’s little princess, being so much younger than the others. Even though we were incredibly close I could never tell him what was happening, mostly because I thought he’d be really disappointed in me. It was also pretty scary when Mum and Dad argued and it could get quite physical, so you definitely didn’t want to be the cause of one of those arguments.
As a result of all the emotional instability I was very ill as a child. At 5 I was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome, at 16 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and at 24 I developed Ankylosing Spondylitis. I also didn’t have a model for a healthy relationship, so at age 15 I left home and simultaneously entered into a relationship with a man 8 years my senior.
He quickly became my hero and my tormentor, never physically, but emotionally and mentally. He was the first person that I told about my childhood, and he was incredibly loving towards me, but unfortunately also used it to his advantage. Every time he cheated on me he would tell me that he did it because I was so broken and ‘needy’, that if he didn’t have other women to turn to he wouldn’t be able to cope with me. It sounds ridiculous now. I’m an intelligent and capable woman, I always was, but in a situation that perfectly represented my childhood traumas, I honestly believed that no-one else could love me, so I stayed with him for years, on and off. Eventually buying a farm together and having our daughter.
It wasn’t until I nearly died from a health scare in 2015 that my life really changed. Recovering from that led me to a path of healing my past and a better future than I could have possibly imagined. It’s why I do what I do now, because I know what is possible when you really begin to understand yourself and your beliefs.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
When I left Critical Care in 2015 I was unable to walk unaided, my physical health was worse than ever before, with added anxiety and PTSD. I felt I had no option other than to go back on a similar medication that put me in hospital in the first place, fortnightly injections of TNF inhibitors to suppress my immune system. The day the medication was delivered, my daughter came home from school and saw the sharps bin on the kitchen countertop. She burst into tears and begged me not to start taking it again. The fear in her eyes at the possibility of what might happen was enough for me to make the decision that I had to find another way.
My search started with Dr Bruce Lipton’s,The Biology of Belief and many of the ideas within it, how our thoughts, feelings and beliefs dictate not just our mental state, but also our physical health really resonated with me. From there it expanded and in two years I went from incredibly poor mental and physical health, taking a vast array of medications, and living on morphine painkillers, to being medication free, almost entirely pain free, and healthier mentally than I’d ever been before.
I realized that had I known as a child or teenager the things I now know, my life would have been immensely different, and I wouldn’t have suffered for so many years in the way I had. If I knew then that my experiences did not have to define the rest of my life, that everything was still possible, that I could reframe my past and channel it into fueling my future, then I would have been a happier, healthier, more rounded human being that understood how to really live life. My changes flowed through to my daughter, and I see her growing into a confident, independent and compassionate young woman on the path to forging her own future on her own terms. I see a future for her where she gets to live her dreams, without crushing or using others to do it.
That’s why I do what I do. It isn’t just about the women themselves changing their lives, but the impact that has on future generations, our children, grandchildren. If we want to change the world we have to accept that we won’t be there to see it, but we can build the foundation.
Empowered futures begin with empowered people.
It starts with just one individual taking self-responsibility.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My first online speaking engagement was for the Global Mindset Summit. I had everything prepared, I knew what I wanted the audience to walk away with, outlined what I wanted to say, what stories were relevant to the topic. I was nervous but prepared. I went online, started speaking and a whole 5 minutes went past. I was feeling great, until I noticed the comments; “we can’t hear you”, “your mic is turned off”, “we don’t know what you’re saying, but you seem enthusiastic about it!”. I turned the mic on, laughed it off and carried on, and it all turned out brilliantly.
I learned two important things that day. It was a real life experience of the saying “you don’t fail until you quit”. The second was that people stayed online, kept sending me messages, not because they were interested in what I was saying, they couldn’t hear that! The reason they stayed is because they could feel the energy behind what was being said, feel that it meant something to me. When you really believe in something, people feel it, some will agree, some won’t, but either way they will feel your authenticity, feel like they know something about you, and therefore feel more connected to you. When people feel connected to you they want to see you succeed.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
There are two projects close to my heart. The first will always be the Wrexham Critical Care Support Group, created for patients and loved ones who have experienced being in Critical Care. It’s easy to assume that once a person leaves hospital, everything is OK, but when someone has been through such a traumatic event it can have a lasting effect. Many patients and their loved ones struggle not only with their physical recovery but with PTSD, anxiety, and even survivor guilt. It isn’t just the former patients that struggle either, many relatives have a lot to process having watched their loved one in such a life threatening situation. The Wrexham Critical Care Support Group was set up by several dedicated Critical Care nurses, who already ran a patient follow up clinic, but felt more was needed. I was asked to join the founding committee along with a few other patients and relatives so that all perspectives could be represented. It is the first group of its kind in North Wales, and provides a safe place where anyone struggling can gather among others with similar experiences, be supported, listened to, and receive advice where they request it. It is run entirely by volunteers, and is a vital lifeline for some, who have no other means of support. Everyone’s journey is different but I hope that it helps those that have not been out of Critical Care for very long to see a patient who has made a full recovery.
The International Hermeneutic Society is the other project I have given a lifelong commitment to. The IHS is a charity that owns and runs Tan-y-Garth Hall Retreat centre in North Wales. It was the first permanent Yoga centre in the UK, and has run yoga retreats, study and self-development weekends for over 5 decades, beginning at a time when no-one was talking about holistic self-development in the mainstream. Tan-y-Garth is unique in its approach, bringing Hermeneutics, Art, Religion, Philosophy, and Science together in one place. We teach the art and science of spirituality and self-development at all levels, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Each individual is encouraged to interpret these teachings themselves, based on their own life experience, for the benefit of their own personal growth. This is vitally important, and something I find missing in the mainstream self-development space.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to your personal development, yet I see many coaches offering cookie cutter style techniques and methods which help in the short term but are much more difficult to maintain. The individual must be guided to find their own path in order for the change to become natural and lasting. Most people that come to the Hall don’t want to leave, saying “I feel more like myself here than anywhere else”, they learn to be in divine connection with themselves, and that’s when the universe really opens up to you. That then gives people the potential to take away something with which they can base real and lasting change.
Until recently all the teaching was done by dedicated volunteers, whom themselves trained at Tan-y-Garth Hall. However, with an ageing membership we are now working to bring what we do to a younger audience. We have partnered with a number of carefully considered, professional practitioners to bring a host of new wellbeing retreats to the Hall. It’s a difficult time for us, as a charity, having to compete with commercial retreat centres, which may not have the experience and depth of knowledge available at the hall, but have a more commercial appeal. Having said that, we recently won “Best Yoga and Wellbeing Retreat 2023” for our region, in recognition of our expertise and dedication to our clients; no small feat for our little team of volunteers.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain a few reasons why it is so important to believe in yourself? Can you share a story or give some examples?
One thing I’ve learned for certain is that unless you believe in yourself, it won’t matter how many times people tell you how amazing you are, you won’t accept it.
Your mind communicates in words, the universe works on frequency and energy, and your soul responds to emotion. When you repeatedly hear or tell yourself you can’t, you aren’t clever enough, you aren’t beautiful enough, you aren’t capable, your brain registers these thoughts and feelings as a priority. Your brain receives trillions of bits of information every single second but it can only process a tiny amount of what it receives. It processes information by ‘matching’ what it receives to what is already important to you, and subsequently brings your awareness to those situations and experiences that reflect that same belief. That’s how it works, it brings you more of the things that you already believe, whilst ignoring those that aren’t a match. If you believe in yourself, you will find plenty of evidence to support you, but the opposite is also true.
Similarly, everything in the universe operates at a specific frequency. The universe doesn’t understand specific thought forms or words, it merely brings you situations and experiences that match the frequency you are transmitting. The simplest way I relate to this is that negative thoughts and feelings are based on situations and experiences that have already happened, already solid matter, whereas positive thoughts and possibilities for the future are expansive and higher frequency. I liken it to the difference between a solid, and a gas — in a negative state the molecules are densely packed and hardly move, the universe can’t get in, there’s no space for it. When you’re in a positive feeling state, it’s more like a gas, there’s space for the universe to come in and connect with you. That’s a very simple explanation but it gives you the general idea. If you are feeling negative about yourself, you’re not leaving any room for the universe to interact with you. When you are feeling good and positive about yourself you begin to attract into your space the frequencies that match those feelings.
What exactly does it mean to believe in yourself? Can I believe that I can be a great artist even though I’m not very talented? Can I believe I can be a gold medal Olympic even if I’m not athletic? Can you please explain what you mean?
For me belief in yourself is simply knowing that you are valuable and worthy of love no matter what.
Whether you’ve made a mistake, or done something you aren’t necessarily proud of, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It simply means you are human. Believing in yourself is not beating yourself up about something you may have done wrong, but simply owning it, and learning to be better as a result, rather than sinking into a negative spiral.
Believing in yourself, and believing what you can do are related but not quite the same thing for me. There’s a difference between believing you can be a great artist, and believing you can be an Olympian, your dreams can be big, but they also need to be realistic.
To be a great artist is not just about technique, which you can learn with dedication, it’s also about passion, and self-expression. There’s a big difference between Monet and Picasso, but they’re equally great artists. If you can passionately express who you are through your art, and have the commitment to learn the techniques you need to convey that message, then you can definitely be a great artist.
Whether you can become a great Olympian on the other hand is less certain. There’s a physical requirement to be at your peak in terms of age. Even if you have the passion and commitment, by the time you’ve trained and honed your talent, you could have passed the peak of the physical capabilities required to compete at that level. Having said that, in order to reach the goal you will still have to learn commitment, discipline, and how to look after your body. You will build evidence that you are capable, and gain confidence.
In either case, it becomes less about the final goal, and more about the person you become in order to reach it.
Was there a time when you did not believe in yourself? How did this impact your choices?
Growing up not believing in myself impacted every area of my life. I had collected a lot of evidence in my childhood brain that supported the belief that what I needed was not important, that I could never really achieve anything, and that I was incredibly difficult to love.
I sabotaged many of the good things in my life, through lack of effort, drug addiction, and making excuses as to why I couldn’t do something. It was better to fail early on than be disappointed down the road; in my mind that disappointment was inevitable.
I chose to spend much of my life with a man who confirmed all of these things to be true. He cheated, lied, and behaved in a passive-aggressive and coercively controlling manner. I believed it was not only normal but better than I could hope for…at least he wasn’t violent! I realise now that I put up with the behaviour for so long, not because of how much I loved him, but because of how little love I had for myself.
The saddest part I find about my past, and that of many of the women whom I’ve worked with is that these beliefs, that become so normal, so crippling, were never of our own making. They were not even our own thoughts or experiences, but the projections of others, that when heard enough times have such a devastating impact.
For me this is what reclaiming your sovereignty is about, it isn’t about external power or influence or ‘not being told what to do’. It is unpicking all the little details that become diminishing for our mind and spirit, and reframing them to become the version of you that you were always meant to be. My past experiences may have diminished my self belief in many ways, but it also created some of the best parts of me. My empathy, diplomacy, and intuition are some of my greatest strengths, and they were also developed through those experiences. The universe balances everything out, when something is taken from you, something equal or better is given, but it isn’t always easy to recognize or find, which is why this internal work is so important.
At what point did you realize that in order to get to the next level, it would be necessary to build up your belief in yourself? Can you share the story with us?
After deciding to find a better way to manage my health and well-being, I began to work on my beliefs. Firstly I had to believe I could get better, without medication. I researched and put steps in place to gradually improve my physical health. My mental health was equally important though and I worked hard on my mindset, the physical and mental health working together. It reached a point where I was off all the medication, and a handle on the anxiety and PTSD. I was putting all the mindset techniques into action and I had begun my training as a coach. A lot of the techniques I used were great initially but working just from a mental perspective took a lot of effort to maintain. I was forcing myself to be positive, and work towards my goals, using SMART techniques and all the tools I’d learned through coaching.
There are a lot of coaches that will tell you that if it’s not working, it’s because you aren’t committed enough. I knew that wasn’t true. But there was still something missing. There was more, a deeper hurt that just wouldn’t go away, as hard as I tried to stick with the tools; they weren’t the full picture. When I had first woken up in intensive care I had an overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude. I was happy, just glad to be alive and spend another day, week, month with my daughter. Somehow I knew that is what life is all about, appreciating the opportunity to just be here and experience all that we get to experience. The feeling quickly faded with all the physical pain and mental difficulties I had. But I wanted that back. I wanted to feel like every day was a gift, even the hardest days.
So I had to forget about the tools and techniques, and dig deeper. Who am I really, and more importantly what do I want? That is what led me to a more holistic, spiritual approach. I began to ask different questions, to fully understand myself, my path, how I had come to be where I was. This time instead of judging myself for all the mistakes, and things I had done ‘wrong’ I was able to see and accept how everything that had happened in my life brought me to this point. I began to truly learn the lessons my life had been trying to teach me. I had to see past the pain and anger to do it, to be able to let go of all the emotional baggage I was carrying.
Of course I still have ups and downs, but they don’t shake me to the core like they used to. I find lessons and reasons to be appreciative, even in the hardest times. I have an internal strength I didn’t believe I was capable of before. My life is peaceful, happy.
That’s what I needed to really help the women I work with. It is not about me telling them what they should or shouldn’t do. It isn’t about following a set of tools and techniques that eventually become a new set of rules that bind you. It’s about using what you need at each point to find your own path, trusting yourself, learning to listen to your own innate wisdom, and allowing yourself to be your guidance. The approach needs to be as unique as the individual, and only you know what is truly best for you.
What are your top 5 strategies that will help someone learn to believe in themselves?
1. Build a list of moments where something you did made you feel great. Confidence and belief are not given, they are built on evidence. When we have no self-belief, we become blind to all the things in our life that we feel good about or that we have achieved; we discount them as insignificant and ignore them. This is especially important for those who struggle with childhood trauma, as we often ignore entire sections of our childhood because they are too painful to remember. I liken it to being inside on a sunny day with the curtains drawn, the room may be dark, but where the rays of sun manage to peek through the cracks they send a beautiful streak of light through the darkness; focus on those and make a note of them. This list isn’t about big moments or achievements, but rather things you did that you felt great about; I was always rescuing animals, from bugs to cats, it didn’t ‘achieve’ anything but I felt great about it, I still do! If you were a great friend, won a spelling bee, walked a neighbor’s dog, did great in an exam, earned your first pay cheque; it doesn’t matter what it is, go through your whole life and write everything down. Once you’ve done that, begin to do it at the end of each day, everything you’ve done that day that you feel good about…you’ll begin to get to the end of a day feeling really good about yourself, without having to list anything.
2 . Learn to appreciate a compliment. When someone gives you a compliment they are offering you a little of their kindness and encouragement, just for being who you are or doing what you do. A little gift of their energy in gratitude for yours. When you have little belief or confidence in yourself, you tend to deflect compliments because you feel undeserving of them in some way. But when we deflect the compliment, not only are we diminishing the gift we have been offered, essentially telling the other person we do not appreciate them, and leaving them feeling uncomfortable. We are also perpetuating the internal myth that in order to be of value, we must be something other than exactly what we are. That we must somehow do or be something we currently are not in order to be deserving of appreciation. When, in reality, it is only us that are not appreciating ourselves for who we are.
3 .Break things down into small steps, and don’t compare yourself to others. When you are climbing a mountain, you don’t focus on the summit, you focus on the next best step that is right in front of you. Each step becomes an achievement that gets you closer to your goal. When I left hospital I couldn’t walk more than a few yards without a zimmer frame. I would constantly feel bad about myself because I used to be able to ride horses, muck out stables, walk my dogs; I was focussing on what I couldn’t do rather than building evidence of what I could. So I set tiny goals, walk from my door to the garden gate, from my sofa to the bathroom. As I began to build evidence that I was making progress my confidence grew, it changed my energy from one of failure to possibility. As each step of your plan is achieved you build evidence of success which creates confidence. If one small step doesn’t go according to plan, you still have many other steps which you did achieve and you won’t feel so deflated. If someone else is a few steps ahead of you, instead of feeling bad and viewing it as though they are somehow better than you, remind yourself that they are the universe simply showing you what is possible.
4 . Celebrate. When things don’t go according to plan we can be quick to feel bad, commiserate, and dwell on the loss. Simultaneously we don’t enjoy the moment or celebrate when things go well, as a result we become more comfortable with the feeling of losing, and disappointment, than we are with the feeling of winning and success. Feeling good and successful can become so uncomfortable we don’t enjoy the moment at all, and instead find ourselves waiting for it all to go wrong. Subconsciously we can even begin to make choices that guarantee it will go wrong; our ego is happy to be proved right, and we get to return to the feeling of disappointment we have become so comfortable with. So start celebrating the wins, no matter how small, make a point of drawing your attention to it, reward yourself in some small way each and every time. Get more and more comfortable with feeling good about yourself and good about what you’ve achieved.
5 . Ask for help. This is often the most difficult thing for people. We have this strange idea, that in order to feel we have achieved something, we have to have done it all ourselves. This is a ridiculous concept to me now, but there was a time I was so worried about rejection and failure that I would never ask for help. If you have an idea or plan, something you really want to achieve then spend some time identifying the people that can support you and help you along the way. You may just need a trusted friend to cheer you on and remind you how amazing you are when things get tough and you feel like quitting. You may need people with specific skills to help you work towards your goal. The most successful people in the world did not make it there in isolation; one thing they all have in common is not just having confidence in their own skills and experience, but also being able to acknowledge the things they cannot do themselves, and identify the right help when it’s needed.
Conversely, how can one stop the negative stream of self-criticism that often accompanies us as we try to grow?
Our mind is actually hard wired for negative perception, it’s part of our ancient survival mechanism. I would say don’t try to fight the negative, it’s also there for a reason, there are times it’s useful. Instead work on your positive perception to provide and maintain balance. There are two ways I found helped he most;
- Stop using negative reinforcement language. The language we use matters to our mind; repeat something enough times and you’ll begin to believe it. Identify the negative things you tend to tell yourself, or ways you speak about yourself, and find more encouraging, positive language. For instance instead of “I’m useless at that” say “I can get better at that”. Its simple but effective. I call it The Best Friend Test. When we have to point out to a best friend that they’ve messed up, or they aren’t great at something, most of us try and phrase it as encouragingly as possible. We don’t want to lie to them, or ourselves, but there’s no harm in being honest but gentle. Speak to and about yourself in the same way you would to a best friend, or child for that matter, choose positive, encouraging language.
- The best way by far, in my experience, to stop negativity and self-criticism, is with appreciation practice (gratitude practice as most refer to it). As simple as ‘being grateful’ seems, there is an abundance of scientific evidence that supports how powerful practising appreciation can be for our emotional and mental health, as well as improving our cognitive function. Not only is appreciation a catalyst for neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, basically acting as a natural antidepressant, and helping to regulate our sympathetic nervous system. It conditions the brain to filter out negative thoughts and focus on positive ones, creating cognitive restructuring. It literally creates new neural connections firing to the bliss centre of your brain. There is nothing more simple or more powerful than appreciation. An appreciative attitude helps us to gain acceptance and become fearless of the future. I start all my clients with a 21 day appreciation practice I developed for myself having tried several different methods. It is a simple 3 to 5 minute visualisation every day for 21 days, and I’ve found it to produce the best results, but any practice will help, whether journaling, self-appreciation via affirmations, or finding a gratitude partner. Anything you do will help.
Are there any misconceptions about self-confidence and believing in oneself that you would like to dispel?
You are not born with confidence, you create it. It is amazing how many seemingly confident people are actually just very good at masking their fear and insecurities. Real confidence is built from evidence and compassion for oneself. Belief can create power, not the kind of power that is used to control and influence others, but the kind of powerful inner state that means you are not influenced by external factors like the behaviour and opinions of others. To me, this is real power, the power of internal influence.
What advice would you give to someone who is struggling with imposter syndrome?
These days Imposter Syndrome is used as a ‘catch all’ phrase for anyone experiencing a lack of self-worth, but really it is a much more specific and extreme form of insecurity, deeply rooted in our childhood experience. The feelings of not being worthy persist despite all the evidence to the contrary. It predominantly affects people in their careers, but I’ve noticed it’s also prevalent in mothers I have worked with that simply feel like they are failing as a parent despite clear evidence that shows otherwise. The feelings that you are undeserving and will be found out as a fraud can become overwhelming. Negative thought spirals that ultimately leave you feeling like any moment you will be rejected from either the family or work tribe. This is one of our biggest human fears and can cause huge anxiety, stress, and the effort of constantly trying to be better and failing, in your own eyes, often leads to what we now call ‘burn-out’.
The 5 strategies I have already listed will help, as well as practising appreciation and positive self-talk. However, there are other things you can do to help yourself. When these feelings become overwhelming take time out to breathe and re-evaluate, avoiding judgement and try to be as factual as possible when reviewing situations where you believe you’ve failed. Observe these situations as if it was someone else, it’s more effective if you use someone you admire, placing them in the situation; are your thoughts different, are you as critical with them? These things will give you clues that your past emotions are overriding the current facts. It’s also good to be aware that highly competitive work environments can make Imposter Syndrome worse, as can
Imposter syndrome is real and can have a huge impact and it isn’t easy to walk through it on your own. I would recommend you find a trusted coach that can help you to see where these thought patterns and feelings come from and help you see the truth and re-frame them. When it comes to childhood trauma it isn’t necessarily about what your parents or others did, the things they didn’t do can be just as impactful on your future. Children raised in competitive homes, where love and attention was only really given as a reward for doing something exceptional, can often lead to future feelings of not being good enough unless you are perfect, and constantly winning.
A coach can also help you to evaluate your environment and whether it is really benefiting you, or actually enhancing any insecurities you may have. As mentioned before highly competitive work environments, a rigid environment where things must be done a certain way, and places where there are specific biases, such as gender or race can all contribute to making Imposter Syndrome worse.
Finally, many more people struggle with Imposter Syndrome than you might think; very few will admit it to themselves or others because they don’t want to be ‘found out’. Some of the most confident and successful people I have met struggle with these same feelings and thought forms, but they overcome it with help. So reach out and get help where needed, we aren’t designed to solve everything on our own.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’m not sure I like the idea of inspiring a movement! I am a big believer in the responsibility of the individual, and when we take the time and put the effort into knowing ourselves, and changing our own behaviour, it brings benefits not just to our own lives, it cascades down through generations. One of the downfalls of viewing ourselves as simply human, the physical body that lives and dies over a period of 80 or so years, is that we tend to focus our energy on what we can achieve in this lifetime. When we appreciate that we are in fact so much more than just a human body, and that our souls will go on indefinitely, we begin to expand our field of awareness beyond what is physically possible in this lifetime.
I believe most of the conflict and discord we see in the world stems from beliefs handed down from generations, it’s literally in the cells of our DNA, and the behaviours we show toward others. We see ourselves as separate from each other, separate from the world we live in; individuals existing on the same plain of existence in competition with each other. But we are all connected, not just to each other, but to everything on the planet. Individual cells, but of the same universal body. Each generation either perpetuates these beliefs in some way, or works on themselves to reach a better understanding in the future. Who you choose to be now affects others and has an impact that reaches further than any of us can possibly fathom.
So plant the seed within yourself, you may not be there to see it grow to its fullness, but you don’t need to observe it for it to have a huge impact!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them 🙂
Two people I greatly admire for the work they do are Brene Brown, and Stephen Bartlett, I believe a private conversation with either of them would be both authentic and insightful.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me on social media, but be prepared to get a mix of valuable insight with intermittent horse and dog spam! The best way to follow me is via my website www.saragoode.com , or go to https://www.tanygarthhallretreat.org/events/a-pathway-to-peace-and-power for my next in person event.
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.