Have you ever had the motivation, courage and determination to be highly creative and put your amazing idea or concept out there, only for you to be riddled with the anxiety that nobody will see or hear it, or even worse – not care, at all?
In taking note of how the imposter syndrome and one of its closest counterparts, creative anxiety, both work; I’ve come up with a blended form of the two, which I call authority syndrome.
Noticing it in particular clients that I work with and even in myself, it’s an interesting cognitive bias that leaves you in fear of not being recognised for a creative endeavour that you’ve put out into the world.
“If A Tree Falls In A Forest…”
There’s an interesting philosophical thought experiment that questions human perspective and existence: “if nobody knows it’s there, or that it happened; does it even exist?”
In looking at the authority syndrome, I’ve often found myself in fear and wondering whether or not anybody will even see, recognise or pay attention to some of the creative ambitions and endeavours I want to put out for the world to engage with.
With enough confidence and motivation to create content, generate ideas and formulate concepts, I find that a sense of anxiety follows the desire to put it out there for display – not necessarily because it won’t be good enough, but that nobody will even care to engage with it, or worse: be totally unaware of its existence.
The desire for such recognition is rooted in all of us and social media proves this through our dependency and need for engagement through likes, comments and shares. There becomes a clear distinction between the comfort that comes with creation and the reluctance that comes with putting it out there.
Nobody wants to deal with the harrowing silence that might follow all of the hard-work and effort one puts into something so close to their heart, especially when countless hours and love are put into that process.
This fear spills over into moments that you feel most in control, leaving you with a set of expectations, which in turn extract feelings of being judged; being seen for who you really are; taking criticism; and dealing with any negative feedback from others.
Fighting Through A Lack Of Self-Belief
Both imposter and authority syndrome come from a place of a deep-rooted lack of self-belief; while imposter syndrome has you convinced that your voice does not matter, authority syndrome has you believing that your voice does matter, but that nobody cares and there is no real point in even bothering making use of it.
And as with all of these biases: they’re simply different forms of psychological self-defence mechanisms that try to protect and prevent you from the inevitable unpredictability that life can present you. Safety and security become a necessity, so our minds work to protect us from any potential threats or danger to our mental well-being.
It’s a difficult and painstaking process to deal with mentally, but it is important to remember who the common denominator is: Yourself.
You are the common thread in those thinking processes and need to be self-aware of the contradictory fact that you believe you matter one day, but don’t believe it the next day; you’re in possession of the power to break that vicious cycle.
Growth isn’t about resources, but rather resourcefulness and by taking the decision to grow, rather than struggle – you’ll find success in seeking ways to create a base of fans and interest inside and outside of your business. By understanding the psychology behind how, what and why you do things, you won’t only have insight about yourself, but insight into those that you work with and have in your business.
At the end of the day, you can’t please everybody and by finding acceptance in the fact that there will always be people that criticise the work that you do, everything becomes a lot easier. In order to build something of value, you have to trust yourself to put out the hard-work and energy, regardless of whether or not it’s seen, heard, criticised or loved.
By learning how your thoughts and emotions operate, you’re granted the ability to see that you’re not alone in dealing with the tumultuous environment that your powerful mind can often abandon you in.
You can carry these psychological insights through to the way that you motivate your employees; in hiring the right people; negotiating contracts with clients effectively; improve performance in you and your staff; market in better ways; and achieve your goals far more effectively.
Aristotle’s wise words echo through the ages: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” So in understanding how you think and coming to terms with your own psychological drawbacks, you can make the best decisions for yourself and your business moving forward.
Nobody really cares if you fail and you certainly won’t be punished for making mistakes in your own creative space, so don’t shy away from yourself and the stunning abilities that you gift to the world. Keep on creating, formulating and share it until nobody can look away.
Hopefully this resonates with you on some level and it hasn’t fallen on deaf ears, or ended up a fallen tree in a forest;
If it didn’t matter at all, I’m still fine with that; If it did and meant something to you: give me some feedback, or criticism. I’m still on my journey to becoming the best business coach that I can be, especially for someone like you.
Let me know how you feel and together we can come up with a way to turn that fallen tree into a loud and captivating euphony that you can be proud of:
+2783 253 3339
