I’ve been working at my company for a few years now. We’re a large multinational, corporate style company in Australia. The thing about our workplace is that although our company operates like a large, slow moving ship, there is a lot of reactive disjointed areas and subsequently you get exposed to higher level work, probably a bit out of your depth, at a pretty fast place to help fill the gaps . Although at times you figure it out and grow, there are many times you sit there in meetings with quite high levels of pressure and when important decisions are being made sometimes you are left feeling like an imposter.

For so many people that feeling of being out of your depth, out of place or a complete imposter is very normal but still in the moment is very difficult to process and sometimes extremely hard to stay composed and if called upon hard to answer in the correct manner. Some people can play the “fake it till you make it” game but these people are rare and for the most part don’t usually come out on the other side.
Being that person out of depth is not always a bad thing, it’s a challenge with a hidden gem and choosing to continue down that path will almost always pay dividends. Because if you can continue to be in those rooms with senior members of your team or club or school or whatever the realm may be. If you just stick at it as an imposter maybe you will become one of them. At a minimum you will learn to be better and understand what’s required to operate at that level.

Today I was in one of those rooms, a room that I have been intimidated to sit in so many times, a room where I have felt like an imposter many times. Today for one of the first times, while I was in that room, I felt like I was supposed to be there and I no longer felt like an imposter. I felt fulfilled and happy with a sense of purpose and a sense of pride.

It doesn’t matter what room you’re in, whether you feel like you’re supposed to be there or not. Embrace it, figure it out, absorb what you can and continue. You never know what could happen and under all that pressure and feeling of inadequacy is a hidden gift, a gift of more.

More purpose, more fulfillment, more happiness. Enter those rooms that make you feel uncomfortable, your uncomfortable because deep down you respect the room so much and understand so little that your scared, but it’s those rooms where you’ll learn the most, about the room itself, about the leaders who have gone before you and the lessons they can teach, about the person you truly are and the person who you could become.

Always choose the hard route, it may challenge you and push you to the limit, but it will always provide the greatest return.

Thanks,

Dean