A new year, a new post.
Long story short, life took over. But honestly? It is no excuse. I had pockets of time where I could have been doing some writing but… #effort. Plus, I do loads of content development at work so when I am home, all I want to do is to relax….but nope, I am going to try and get this blog going again. When my block leave for Chinese New Year comes around, I am going to try and get a few chapters of my novel done – THAT IS A PROMISE I MAKE TO MYSELF.
Until then, I am going to do mini blog posts about whatever inspires me. For this blog, I’ll like to briefly go over the psychological thought pattern ‘imposter syndrome’.
In short, it means a lack of confidence… it means being afraid of being exposed as a ‘fraud’ even when there is external evidence that you aren’t at work.
This is something that I relate to at so many levels. But at the same time, I also have moments where I do feel confident and proud of my work. I can swing between these two modes so quickly that it is almost a miracle that I haven’t gotten some kind of mental whiplash.
I also don’t think this is something I can ever completely overcome… but I do believe there are ways where I can minimise these moments. I’ve been accumulating these mini strategies for some time now and perhaps it is time to put them into words.
- BEING IN THE PRESENT
If you had done some sort of meditation or yoga, you would know what this means. To me, it means simply living in the present moment and not caring about what comes after. After all, you will get there when you get there. To be in the present moment, you can simply train all your focus on something like your breath for a few minutes. Alternatively you can focus on listening to something like the rainfall or the sounds of nature. You don’t HAVE to meditate to be in the present, in my opinion. Take some time out of your busy day to do this and sooner or later, I’m sure you will start to see it as an avenue to relax from your busy mind. - FIND WAYS TO ‘REBOOT’ YOUR BRAIN
Once you start thinking negatively, it is likely that you will spin down and down and…you get the picture. Before you get too emo(tional), you gotta snap yourself out of it. You can do this by distracting yourself with a piece of news or a show. Sometimes, I get into this ‘panic’ mode the moment I wake up and I have realised that if I just sit up and focus on the quiet around me, my mind will eventually follow suit as well. Perhaps I should figure out a way to take the ‘quiet’ of my room into my office…. mentally, I mean. That way, I can reboot my brain no matter where I am.
3. UPDATE YOUR RESUME/LINKEDIN PROFILE
This is a bit of a weird one but I’ve realised that people quickly forget how much they have accomplished if they do not have an opportunity to reflect on it. And what better way to do so than to update your resume or linkedin profile? As a bonus, it makes applying for your next job several times easier. Speaking of, I should probably do that soon as well.
And that’s all for now – see you next time!
MS SHEREL 