During the early days of my freelancing career, I received a call from a potential client.
“We liked your proposal but we were wondering if you could reconsider your fee. This one is too steep. It’s just a small article anyway. If we like your work, we will certainly commission more projects in the long-term.”
Suddenly, I could feel a familiar uneasiness growing inside me. I knew I was soon going to lose my power of negotiation because someone perceived my work mediocre.
In reality, it was not the client who made my work sound petty. I was the one belittling my creativity and skills.
Finally, I lost the contract (that too after lowering my rates!). Today, when I look back, I can think of a thousand reasons to have stayed assertive to the original quote. Neither I was a fraud, nor my work. Then why did I doubt myself?
As writers, most of us experience go through this turmoil, not once or twice but on several occasions. Be it the fee we charge for our services, or the quality of our work — someone randomly raises a question and our confidence shatters to pieces. Self-doubt slowly creeps in and suddenly makes us feel totally unworthy of all the praises we received for our work.
For those of you who don’t know what is Imposter Syndrome, let me give a simple definition.
Imposter Syndrome is a self-made limiting belief that will push you to doubt your capability and inject the fear of being seen as a fraud to the outside world. You quickly reject your accomplishments and constantly undermine yourself.
A writer’s job is lonely. We writers work in an environment where we set our own deadlines and mostly walk solo. It’s quite common to underrate ourselves and often we are too hard on ourselves.
However, imposter syndrome can be quite deadly, for a writer’s confidence and her business. So how do we beat it? The first step is acceptance. After all, there is nothing to be embarrassed about! Several writers are struggling with these bizarre thoughts. The key is to identify the problem and then crush it.
Personally, I am a huge fan of positive quotes. Inspirational words work wonders in boosting my self-esteem. Try these amazing quotes to uplift your spirits, inject confidence, and make yourself worthy of all the good things you aspire for.
1. “No one can make you feel you inferior without your consent.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
2. “I just don’t want to be hampered by my own limitations.” ~Barbra Streisand
3. “Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.” ~ Buddha
4. “Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” ~Marilyn Monroe
5. “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness.” ~Ayn Rand
6. “Never doubt yourself. Never change who you are. Don’t care what people think and just go for it.” ~Britney Spears
7. “It’s not how much you have that makes people look up to you, it’s who you are.” ~Elvis Presley
8. “I work very hard and I’m worth every cent.” ~Naomi Campbell
9. “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.” ~Nora Roberts
10. “If God wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
11. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ~Nelson Mandela
12. “The greatest sin is to think that you are weak.” ~Swami Vivekananda
13. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” ~Abraham Lincoln
14. “Nobody can hurt me without my permission.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
15. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” ~Maya Angelou
16. “Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
17. “Believe you can and you are halfway there.” ~Theodore Roosevelt
18. “You’ll never find rainbows if you are looking down.” ~Charlie Chaplin
19. “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” ~Aristotle
20. “My powers are ordinary. Only my application brings me success.” ~Isaac Newton
21. “The greater danger of most of us lies in not setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” ~Michelangelo
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Thank you for reading through. Do share your thoughts in the comments section. Also, sharing this post can bring a smile on someone’s face who is trying to beat the imposter syndrome 🙂
Original Image: Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Thank you Shubham. Yes, sometimes you do need the inspiration to regain the lost confidence. Since writers are mostly working alone, I feel good quotes are one of the best sources of motivation.
Great qoutes to find inspiration when feeling stuck.