I have a daughter named Lucy. She’s 17. She’s really social and smart, and she’s involved in lots of different things at school. She’s definitely my busiest and most-involved kid. For the purpose of this blog post, you need to know that she sings. She’s a member of the top two choirs at her high school, and she’s set to be the choir president for her senior year next year. Last weekend she asked me if I ever feel imposter syndrome. She’s struggling with this in choir right now, wondering if she can really live up to the hype generated around her for next year. (For the record, she’s going to be awesome!) I quickly told her that yes, I deal with imposter syndrome all the time, especially when I am in my role as a “genealogy influencer” or sitting on an “experts” panel. I often feel out of place, like I’m a fan girl who sneaked into the room.
This led to an interesting conversation between me, Lucy and my husband. We decided the cure for imposter syndrome is humility. Humility isn’t weakness, but it is realizing that everyone—including you—has holes. I told her that over the past year, I decided that if I’m going to keep publicly identifying as an expert, I better fill in some of my holes. I’ve been actively saying YES to a few things that either scare me or that overwhelm me. Here are some of the things I’ve been doing lately to help me with my imposer syndrome:
- I took a big DNA class. While I’ve understood the basics of DNA, I found I was getting lost even in my NGSQ study group conversations. After my SLIG course, I feel so much better!
- I said YES to creating a lot of new lecture materials. I’m presenting on four topics at RootsTech (more to come about that), and three of these topics are things I have never taught about before. It’s been an incredible amount of work to prepare, but I’m excited to offer new classes.
- Legacy Family Tree Webinars approached me with a request to teach about Danish Probate Records this year. (It’s coming up in March.) My Achilles’ Heel is Danish Probate Records. But I agreed to this challenge, and it’s forced me to study and read and think about probate records so much. I’m feeling ready for this class.
- I’m serving in a new position within ICAPGen. I love making more professional connections, and this is another way that I’m reaching out and networking more.
- AI blows my mind. I’m playing with it more and watching a few webinars to learn how to use it better.
So what areas of your life give you imposter syndrome? What are some ways you can help solve that problem for yourself? Make a list and challenge yourself to do a few things. While it’s been hard work for me, it’s also been really rewarding.
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