Eleanor Roosevelt said that you must do the thing you think you cannot do in order to achieve the success you desire.
When most people start their business, they tend to feel like an impostor. A question I hear quite often is, “Why would people contact me instead of someone else?” They always site the fact that others know so much more than they do.
This is absolutely normal!
And, quite often, because of your specialty and education, many people do NOT know what you know!
You decide to step out of your comfort zone and take part in a networking event. This event consists of people in the local business community and you have just started your practice. It’s time to get out and mix, you decided. But, as you walk into the building, you’re wondering, ‘What WAS I thinking?’ After all your hard work to get the doors open to your dream practice, and although you are very clear about what makes you shine above the others, suddenly you doubt you can even have an intelligent conversation with these people who MUST be more experienced and sophisticated than you are!
Or are they? Do you realize that most of the people in that room feel the same way you do?
But what is this all about? For women in particular, they feel that, regardless of the accomplishments and education they have attained, they really have fooled others into thinking they are knowledgeable and deserving. One day they will be found out, they think! However, they continue to volunteer for high positions, get that next degree, and accept organizational honors, only to feel they just have everyone very well hoodwinked. If they continue to grow, maybe no one will really ever find them out. We can definitely see that in sports dietetics, we have a wealth of extremely educated professionals.
What is this all about? It’s all about self-confidence and being ok with not knowing it all. It’s taking little steps at a time out on that high wire, and realizing that we won’t fall. And if we DO fall, that we’re only a foot from the ground. Then, once you have done what you believed you could not do, and you start to see the success that’s possible, you are ready for the next step!
And, thus success is born.
Margie
Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD, NSCA-CPT
MEG Enterprises
