Excuse the French, but “Kings and philosophers sh*t, and so do ladies”. This quote comes from Michel de Montaigne, a philosopher of the French Renaissance. The intention of the quote is to remind us all that even distinguished folk have to deal with the stench created by their own bodies. Yet we, the ‘common folk’, tend to be hyper-aware of the smell of our own digestive activities.

Now obviously I’m not writing about the results of human digestion, but if you think about day-to-day work, there are numerous times when we become hyper-aware of whether our capabilities and outputs are of the level of quality and skill expected by our peers, employers and clients. Or will they stink?

“I don’t understand, so I’m just going to respond how everyone else seems to be”

 “Oh my… this report I’m doing is such garbage”

“Am I on track?”

“I’m taking too long”

 “Of course they understand, they’re so much more intelligent than me”

Every one of those thoughts justifies in your mind what you are hoping nobody will realise: You often think you’re an impostor. You think that there are plenty of people around who are way more capable than you yet, astonishingly, you are the one who was given this job!

In every moment of our day, our mind is working faster than our body can respond. Thoughts and feelings come in and out and are experienced in many ways:  a sudden hollow feeling in your stomach or your mind’s voice speaking directly to you or complete engagement and belief in what you’re doing. The fact, however, is that when the mind’s voice tends toward the negative or the gut feeling is one of dread, our actions are affected and we validate our own Impostor Syndrome. We hold back from doing what we instinctively feel would be a great because we’re worried that others might think your work is inferior or flawed. So we follow the formula. We copy and paste from the last business proposal, producing a new one that is effectively identical, only the client-specific details having been changed. And then we submit hoping we actually did change all the details from the previous client’s version of the same proposal. No new ideas are presented, no great innovations, just the same thing because ‘just in case I’m stupid here’. Oh, and “I hope the new client likes this same idea just like the last client did”.

Your mind has the capability of holding your creativity and success hostage!

So, how do you get it under control?

As a coach, I’ve spent lots of time with clients helping them understand what their own mind tells them. There are a number of concepts and questions that tend to assist in the process of coming to terms with self-talk and utilising it as a tool to build success.

1. Reflective Observation

Often, people do not spend time in a reflective space with the intention to understand what their self-talk is telling them. Whilst a certain forgetful blue fish’s philosophy of “just keep swimming” is important to, well, keep swimming, it doesn’t address why you seem to think you’re drowning. Take the time to listen to the words that are being said in your mind and analyse the circumstances that inspired them. Reflective observation of self-talk can lead to an awareness of instinctual hints that you have better ideas or that there may be areas of improvement or simply that you’re being paranoid about nothing!

2. Internal Perspective

Firstly, let’s consider this from within yourself. Your mind is crazy. Let’s just face that. There is so much noise going on in there that it is often difficult to understand which thought is important and relevant to the topic at hand and which isn’t. If you could realise the contribution value that each of the prevailing thoughts has to your achievement, then maybe you can learn to filter away those that are irrelevant or impede achievement of your goals. Or you can understand that they are helping you be critical of your own work because you want the best result here. With a little internal perspective taking, your actions can be led by your own positive, success-oriented thoughts.

3. External Perspective

If we return to the quote at the start of this article, we can also realise that, whilst we’re hyper aware of our own stench, the ‘successful ones’ – your manager, your CEO, that super successful entrepreneurial friend – are equally aware of the stench in their own heads. We have a tendency to compare ourselves with people who have higher responsibilities, but if we invite the understanding that they, too, have self-doubt, we learn that such thoughts make us normal, and if you were in their role, you’d still consider yourself the same ‘normal’.

With a little work, we can bring ourselves to a point where self-talk no longer can hold us back, but can be utilised as a tool for our own development. A little reflective practice and a little perspective taking can help us to remove the mental bars that hold us from flourishing in the workplace. Suddenly, your sh*t won’t stink so bad.

For more information on dealing with self-doubt in the workplace, contact Inward Outward Coaching.