When it comes to checking your work, how many of these resonate with you?
- Checking your work always takes you longer than you expected
- Checking your work makes you feel stressed and anxious
- You never actively complete a piece of work, you just keep checking until you run out of time
- Checking a piece of work takes as much time as doing it the first time (or longer!)
If you ticked any one or more of the above, there’s a good chance you are excessively checking your work.
Excessively checking your work is one of the secret signs of Imposter Syndrome because it’s work that is driven by the fear of not being enough and the threat of being found out.
I know it seems easier to keep checking.
I know you’d rather be safe than sorry.
But as long as fear is the emotion that is driving your work, you’ll always fall short of performing to your highest level and you’ll struggle to attract the recognition you deserve. To discover the other costs of excessive checking, tune in to Episode 110 of the podcast:
Before you protest, I know what it’s like.
I know you work in a high performing environment. I know the standards that are expected of you. I know the level of execution that is demanded of you and the pressure it creates when there is little or no margin for error. But there’s a difference between checking your work as a quality control exercise, and checking your work from the fear you are not enough.
Only one of these approaches is an efficient use of your time and allows you to deliver at your highest level. If this is not the approach you are taking, then it’s time to start doing things differently.
