Leaving Imposter Syndrome in 2022

It’s another year.

My book is still not published.

And, if you’re like me, you’re a bit in disbelief that it is already 2023. You may be asking yourself, “What did I even accomplish last year?”

With others’ New Year’s resolutions ringing through the air and last year’s failed ones haunting me this January, the doubt grows in my mind, “Should I even keep trying?”

Imposter syndrome can be an artist’s worst enemy. Do I really know what I am doing? Do I really have anything to say? I shouldn’t be doing this because I am not expert enough... The questioning of ourselves can be unending. For that matter, I know I have felt this not just as a writer, but as a teacher and as a mom, too. Then a statment by Alli Worthington on a Hope*Writers teaching caught my attention. She said, “There is nothing new, except the filter of your own experience,” and I found that thought strangely encouraging. Everything maybe has been talked about in books, millions of women have been mothers, BUT each of us is unique, and it is our unique way we have of being in the world that is something new. And THAT is worth pursuing!

In this New Year, we each have the opportunity to pick up the mantle of our experience and to share that with the world. A quote on the Goodwill Librarian’s page says, “A New Year is like a blank book, it has 12 chapters and 365 pages, and you are the author. My wish for you is that this year, you write the most beautiful story possible for yourself.” I echo that wish.

So keep writing or painting or mothering or whatever God has called you to do because the world needs your experience. Happy New Year, and may you be faithful and courageous in pursuing the story of your life in 2023!