Ever felt unworthy and that you weren’t good enough? Join the club, most of us have and do.

Self Worth: The Measure of How Well We Do – Or Not

In being involved in the performance field for many years in high pressure situations, there were times when I felt that I wasn’t worthy and/or couldn’t do what I was supposed to be doing at the time. Over time, I was surprised to learn that many people at the very top of their professions and also having reached what could be seen as ‘star status’, often felt the same way.

Around 2007 we were publishing a Drumming magazine that we had founded in South Africa. As the Editor I often interviewed world renowned drummers. On this occasion I interviewed Mickey Curry who was with Bryan Adams and had played on all the big hits that included Run To You and Summer Of 69. Mickey also played on Hall and Oates’ massive hit Maneater – aside from working with Cher and David Bowie. So, I was talking really to one of the most successful and accomplished drummers around.

During our interview we got onto the subject of performance pressure. We discovered that we’d both felt the same pressures in not feeling worthy or good enough. “Can I do this?” There were many times when I’d walk into a recording session and question whether I was good enough? Mickey said a similar thing. We also had a good laugh because he remembered Steve Gadd (who I later interviewed) saying the same thing. Steve Gadd the drum session great! Really? – Steely Dan, Barbara Streisand, James Taylor, etc etc.

This is commonly known as ‘imposter syndrome’! It’s a distorted system of belief about ourselves that can have a powerful negative impact on a person’s valuation of their own worth. So what is it about this that we seem to entertain and have you experienced something similar in your line of work? If so, how do you cope with it?

Try these suggestions

I personally have various ways in dealing with this when it rears its ugly head. One is that I remind myself of all the successes I’ve had which far outweigh any failures. And the failures I do have were almost always NOT down to my ability to be able to do the job, but my self-doubt – which is exactly what imposter syndrome feeds off.

Another is self-talk. If you continually tell yourself that you’re not good enough or can’t do something, then you will eventually believe this and make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. I beat a highly self-limiting condition by changing my thought patterns. The way I conquered my severe stutter was not by saying “I am not a stutterer”. No, I repeated “I am a fluent speaker” over and over again – until I started to believe it. Just words? Yes, but the correct choice of words is what helped me beat this debilitating condition. I focused on the positive outcome.

Final Thoughts

Don’t fight imposter syndrome! Replace it with something else! Which is… the end result of what you want to positively experience on a continuous basis.

Georg Voros is a Performance Consultant with 45+ years of top-level experience and author of two books on performance. He delivers high-impact workshops on productivity and flow, and offers tailored mentoring packages to support personal growth and achievement. Learn more at www.vorosperformance.co.uk