Define your Fears

The imposter syndrome. We all stand in front of our clients. We feel like we are fake. We start to have all these doubts and insecurities flooding through us or a sense of frustration or a sense of separation and disinterest with the experience of teaching because we feel like an imposter, inadequate or incapable in some manner. I actually did a survey among all my fellow teachers and potential teachers to find out what their fears were, and I got a list this long, which people apologized for having.

But this is a real, real situation we all have to deal with. So what are some of these voices inside us? How do they manifest? I'm not good enough. I'm too young. I can't stand in front of someone more professional than me and teach them.

I really didn't do any courses about this problem, so I don't know how to teach it. I need to get in shape, I'm too fat. I haven't been in class for six months, so I have no right to teach. It goes on and it goes on and it goes on, and you know every teacher's got some of this going on at some points or another. All of those awkward moments either that are happening outside or inside, they make you feel incredibly uncomfortable.

I'm actually curious if you wouldn't mind sharing some of yours, because we want to bring this out into the open. We want to actually have a real good, honest look. This is what we're dealing with and this is a surmountable problem. We can get to the other side of this and we can create teaching in a whole other level, but don't push it aside. Don't run out and get a meal and have a drink instead of listening.

Actually look, what is going on inside of you? How do you feel? Do you get a pain in the pit of your stomach? Does your voice tighten up? Are you getting a headache? This is the imposter syndrome.

This is how it looks. This is what form it takes. This is what's really the other side, the shadow and the dirt side of you. It's an ongoing situation, so how can we raise the bar? How can we make ourselves greater? How can we actually acknowledge that this does go on and there are things that we can do about it so that we can actually create teaching to be a much more innovating, exciting, stimulating experience for us.

Step out of the box and discover something new about what this art of teaching is all about. There's a wonderful quote that I will not quote verbatim about this man who arrived on a building site, and he saw three builders, and he spoke to the first one, and he said, "What are you doing?" And he said, "I'm laying bricks." He spoke to the second one and he said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm building a wall." He walked up to the third one and he said, "What are you doing?" And the man turned to him with a big smile and stars in his eyes and he said, "I'm building a castle." So the third one is he had a vision about what he was doing, and it changed everything about his relationship with the subject, and the vision is part of what we're going to explore. The craft and art is part of what are we going to explore, and we're gonna make friends with the demons inside of us so that they come onto the same page and play with us versus against us so that we can shine. You're a teacher, you deserve it.