Today I am feeling the love! Firstly, it’s my birthday ☺️ and I am bursting. I feel extremely grateful for my extraordinary, beautiful life (all of it, even the hard bits) and when I think of the year ahead, I am just so curious and excited.
Secondly, I am still basking in the afterglow of last week’s book launch party to celebrate my book, Be The First – it’s important message and the hard work it took to get it out of me and onto the page! (see image below)
Thank you to those of you who came and made it such a magical, unforgettable night (and for your wonderful posts about it). I’ll be sharing more about the event both here and on social media in the coming weeks so watch this space. In the meantime, to those of you who have asked me if it’s available on Amazon, the answer is yes! Here’s the link: Get the book
Do tasks take you longer than they should?
Things taking longer than they should is one of the secret signs of Imposter Syndrome. It comes from overthinking and overworking and it means you’re not performing at your highest level.
In my lawyer days I struggled with this one a lot. No matter how hard I worked or how focused I tried to be, things always took me longer than I believed they should.
How many times did I sit down to review a credit agreement determined that it should only take me an hour, only to find myself multiple hours later, depressed and exhausted, with over 100 pages still to go? Too many! And because I have Imposter Syndrome I would always put it down to some sort of deficiency in me:
- I don’t know enough.
- I’m not experienced enough.
- I’m not good enough at this job.
This meant that when it was time to review the next piece of work, I’d behave in one of three ways:
- I’d procrastinate, putting off doing it for as long as I could; or
- I’d do the work but, while I was doing it, I would criticise and judge myself for how long it was taking; or
- I would try to compensate for what I thought was my lack of knowledge or expertise, by doing extra work.
Sometimes I’d do all three.
So just thinking “things take me longer than they should”, caused me to behave in ways which guaranteed that things would take me longer than they should!
There are no innocent thoughts, remember.
Now I know better. I know that if I want to get stuff done in the right amount of time I need to lose the thought drama, and show up from a place of sufficiency and belief. That means relaxing into who I am and all the powerful components that make me exactly the right person for the job. Showing up from here helps me to perform at my highest level. I laser in on the task, I find the resources I need and I just get it done.
In episode 105 of the podcast I discuss why things are taking you longer than they should, and what you need to do to change that. I explain the importance of showing up to your work from a place of sufficiency and belief so you can get stuff done in the right amount of time. I also remind you that sufficiency and belief aren’t built in a day. They need to be shaped, formed and built over time, and the best tool I know for doing that is your Imposter Speech.
