#22 – Who Am I to Think I Can Do This? (Overcoming Imposter Syndrome)

In this episode, Dez and Mel explore the topic of imposter syndrome. They discuss the importance of self-compassion, the role of the nervous system in managing feelings of self-doubt, and the significance of taking small steps towards personal growth. The conversation emphasizes the need to stay authentic and supportive of oneself while navigating the challenges of stepping into new territories.

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Transcript

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Welcome to season three Road Back Podcast listeners. We're so glad. Yeah, we're so happy to be back together. I know it's been a few weeks. We got to meet and really have a vision and some structure and some dreaming for season three. And we're just excited to be on this journey with you. Thank you for those of you who've told us a little bit more about what you want to hear and what it is that you want learn and be a part of with us. So we are going to just launch into something that has been so fun to plan and prepare for you because we think that this is such a relatable human experience this feeling of being an imposter or even this language of like, who do you think you are to do this thing? And so we're going to share lots of stories we're going to tell on ourselves and hopefully you'll get some next steps and just some tools on how to support your heart. Ultimately, I think this is such a big part of the road back because oftentimes our heart will lead us into new things. And when we hit new territory is often when we hit into imposter syndrome. So welcome to our episode on imposter syndrome. We going to dive in and I think it's going to be a great conversation. So, Dez, what would you say about imposter syndrome? When do you notice that imposter syndrome tends to show up in your life? Oftentimes when we want to expand or get into something new, either it's we want to be a little more seen, we want to show up in a different way. Maybe we want a raise, we want to change something about our lives. We want something to be different. I believe that every human encounters this feeling of I'm not qualified, we shouldn't do this. We've tried this before and it didn't go well. I really hope that by normalizing imposter syndrome we'll understand that this is like a daily thing for me for sure, but for most of us. And there's ways to support ourselves in the appearance or the evidence that we're hitting this level is actually evidence that we're growing. I think if you're staying the same, you don't have imposter syndrome. If nothing's changing, you're really not going to feel like who do you think you are? Yeah, absolutely. We're throwing around imposter syndrome as though it's something that everybody understands, which I'm thinking the majority of our listeners will understand what we mean when we say imposter syndrome. Just in case you haven't heard that term or it's not something you really relate to. Really what we're talking about is when you come to the threshold of something new, you're wanting to step out. Perhaps there's a creative venture or idea in your heart or you're wanting to start your business or you're wanting to ask for a raise or do something that is taking you out of your comfort zone. Often that imposter syndrome is the thing that shows up when you're on that threshold of growth it sometimes comes as an internal voice or who am I to think I can do this? Nobody's gonna wanna see my paintings or listen to my poetry or come to my business. So-and-so down the road does it so much better. It's some of that self-disqualifying inner dialogue that tends to try to shut us down and stop us from taking some of those brave steps into really what is a level of unknown in our future. Maybe there's we feel the invitation to step out, but that imposter shows up and it is very human and very relatable. Absolutely. And I just think that even as you were sharing and breaking it down for us, so many of us, when we hear that language of who do you think you are? So and so is gonna think a certain thing about you or what are they gonna think, right? Oftentimes that's the moment we disqualify ourselves. I know that I have done this so many times on my journey. When I hit that level, when I heard those voices, when I felt like I was at that threshold of something, I actually stopped. I listened to that voice. And I was like, I'm not gonna do it then. You might be right; this might be too dangerous. And I think that there's a lot of compassion. I feel a lot of compassion for myself that I've listened and I've lost so much by doing that. And I even invite a sense of compassion for the listeners. And maybe you can start to feel that way towards yourselves, even as we're breaking down this journey, this human experience of, "Am I allowed to change? Am I allowed to grow?" Totally. Perhaps in your life you're feeling this currently. I just want to invite the listener to tune into their own systems as we're sharing some stories. Maybe there's places in your life where maybe it's quiet and maybe it's louder that you're hearing that question or that pushback of who do you think you are to do this? Mel, do you have a story that you want to share with us about your own journey? Imposter syndrome has been something that I've bumped up against a lot in my life. being able to reframe it and see it as an indicator of, I'm on the threshold of something, I'm on the threshold of growth or stepping out, I'm about to do something brave. That has been helpful for me to recognize this is normal, everybody experiences it, and it's showing me that I'm about to step out. Something recently over the last couple of years that I've done that's helped me combat my imposter syndrome as I've gone on my own mental health journey, and I've really taken a step back and examined what I believe in my spiritual life and my emotional life – as I began getting breakthrough in my own life, one of the natural byproducts of that is I found that I wanted to start sharing some of the things I was learning with other people. And I realized how much I like to educate people on some of the breakthroughs I'm getting. I'm one of those people who's like, I found this great tool. How do I share it with others? One of the natural ways that I started doing this was I had a Facebook account, I had an Instagram account. Sometimes I think, I could post some little tidbit of knowledge or wisdom that I was picking up. But what I also noticed is because Facebook and Instagram for me are a heavy saturation of people that I know that I've known for many years. And what I recognize is as I've gone on my own personal transformation journey, I would go to post something on Facebook or Instagram and I would find that I was self-censoring. I would have this picture of somebody pop up in my mind and I'd be like, oh, so-and-so who knew me when I worked that one job, I'm about to share this thing. And it was probably its own version of imposter syndrome cropping up going, well, what are they gonna think? And I noticed that it was happening enough that I thought I'm actually not bringing a lot of the things that I wanna share because I keep... censoring and only sharing a portion of it. I bring certain things that I felt would maybe be acceptable to people that I knew then I wouldn't say the rest. It happened enough that I got kind of frustrated with myself. And then I thought, you know what? I think I'm going to start a TikTok account because most of my friends and family were not on TikTok. And this was a step in itself for me. I probably started my TikTok account around 18 months ago, there was an appeal to it because I thought most of my friends and family aren't on TikTok. I'll have a high level of anonymity. And there's a chance for me to just kind of go in below the radar and I can start practicing sharing some of the things that I want to share. It felt like a playground for me to start experimenting; also did it partially for I thought, okay, it's going to help me become a better communicator. I didn't have a big goal of like, I want a million followers; it was less about that and more about that invitation of showing up more authentically. And I knew that I wasn't able to do that on the other forms of social media because the censorship I was shutting myself down too much. And I was like, TikTok culture is just come as you are. And I loved that. So I thought, okay, I'm just going to start playing around. I dive in, I get a few weeks and I'm practicing with different content and I actually hit one of the biggest walls of imposter syndrome that I remember hitting in a long time. I had had an idea for something that I wanted to do. It was actually a little series. I thought, I could do a series on this. I could do this, this, this and this. And I was all excited about it. And when I went to actually create the content that big, who do you think you are? Voice rose up inside and it threw me into a very intense kind of freeze state where I couldn't break through it for a while. I posted for a few weeks and then I hit that wall of this, do you think you are and why are they going to listen to you? It knocked me so hard. I didn't post anything for close to two months while I worked through some of that internal dialogue that was telling me all those different things. I had to come face to face with some of the visibility wounds because I was making the intention to show up authentically. It was bringing up things in my past in my nervous system of how do I feel about people actually seeing the real me? How do I feel about showing up in a way that I'm letting my true thoughts be seen? Does this feel safe? Does this feel like a threat? My nervous system was perceiving it as a threat. And so what I had to do was take a step back, regroup, and then after a couple of months, I kind of got myself back together and thought, I'm serious about this. I'm gonna have a go at it again. And so I went a bit further and then I went for maybe another couple of months or so and then I hit another wall. It felt like an expansion. And then I'd hit a new kind of level. And then I would contract a little bit and I'd have to regroup. And then I'd have to expand again. And then I'd hit another contraction and I'd have to pause and I'd regroup. Mm-hmm. I knew the invitation was for me to show up more authentically in my voice. For somebody else, it might be their artwork, their painting or their sculpting or whatever it might be, there might be something creative. For me, the invitation felt to step out and start creating around my voice. The imposter syndrome was showing up the more I was leaning into authentic expression. I don't know if this is a phrase that was coined before I heard our friends say this, but I remember her using the phrase authenticity hangover; And we've heard of vulnerability hangovers before, but authenticity hangovers are like their own thing of like, I'm showing up in the world. How does this feel? Am I safe? Is it okay for me to do this? Eighteen months in, I have grown so much in that TikTok space as I've embraced that journey into authentic expression for me, Mm-hmm. I've noticed that when I've come to step out and other things, for instance, when we started our podcast the work I'd done to confront imposter syndrome around my voice in the TikTok space meant that when I came to the podcast space, I didn't feel that same level of imposter syndrome because I had been strengthening that muscle around my voice, coming into this space felt less high stakes. I don't know that I would have seen the growth had I not then had a chance to step into this space with you and go, this doesn't feel so hard. It's like lifting a five pound weight after I've been working out with a 20 pound weight and feeling, I've gotten stronger; been a journey for me. The thing I want to highlight to the listeners, it's not so much about... do start a social media account. It's not about that. It's about where are the invitations that you are feeling drawn to stepping out on something. For me, I wanted to become a better communicator. But for other people, it could be something very different. I do think it's often linked to our creative nature, but it's not always. It could be pursuing a relationship a new job or anything that requires you to show up differently. So yeah, that's a bit of my story. Do you have anything you want to say to that? I love your story. First of all, it's so badass. I'm so proud of you for being a TikTok queen. I'm so happy for you. And also one thing I was thinking is that you don't just support your system once when the flare up or the of imposter syndrome. it's a constant support that's needed I think this is true. As long as I'm alive, I'm going to need to support my heart to feel safe, to keep growing and changing and knowing the things that we want to do or the new things we want to try or maybe we want to stop doing. Am I allowed to stop? Am I allowed to have this boundary? I think even in boundaries and things like that, this can flare up for me. I love this story because it's not one time you support yourself and then you'll never have to again. You talked about 18 months, and it's like a growing process. And here's the truth, what you're supporting yourself in now with the podcast is going to be supporting you for who knows what you're gonna have in five years. I so agree with you and I love that you highlighted. It's not just a one-off. I think sometimes because we're we're creatures of comfort and we want to have pleasure and avoid pain. And so sometimes when we hit up against these imposter syndrome walls, it's like, if I could just beat it this time and like put it aside and then just move on with my life and recognizing there's the process. I keep hitting walls, but yesterday I posted something, thinking of where I was when I started out and I'd like, 10 takes on this thing and editing it and da da. Yesterday I just recorded it and posted it. So I'm thinking, oh the practice of continuing to lean in, I'm going to keep growing this and the highlighting of just getting to support yourself is such a key I think. This is a great time to talk about how in the understanding of our nervous system, when we talk about supporting yourself, you're actually supporting your nervous system because when you're about to cross into new territory, when you're about to leave, like you said what you've known to be your life. It's an automated part of our nervous system we know we're gonna keep Dez in this box because we know how to keep her safe. The unknown, what's just outside or just beyond is something that we don't know. And so your nervous system is gonna try to stop you even though you cognitively want to do this thing. You're like, I wanna start a bakery and I wanna bake bread and I wanna sell my bread. You want that thing. Your system will tell you there are some red flags. A lot of the clients I work with, they'll have a lot of grief around times they went for something and it didn't work out. And that's a messaging that we get that we shouldn't move forward. Again, this is your brain and your nervous system trying to help you recall all the things that were dangerous or challenging before. It's actually really normal for those things to come back up. When you can understand that this is a biological, supportive, adaptive type of an experience that we all go through, this has helped me a ton. This is my nervous system telling me that it doesn't know what's happening in the unknown. But I want to go there. I want to do the thing that I want to do. And what's really important, and this is what I think I mean when I'm like, you can support yourself, is that there can be enough safe messaging for our nervous systems yeah, we're going into the unknown, but also the unknown could be great. You're telling me it could be crap, but it could be really fun. It could be really exciting. And what if when we go to the unknown, we're going to have new friends, new support? What if we're not going to be, whatever that story is like all alone and everyone's going to leave us? But what if it's not like that? This is a way your system's trying to keep you safe, but also it doesn't have the whole story. There's the option that it could go well. And there will probably be hard things, totally. And there could be good things that come from it. Mm-hmm. What you're even touching on is if we're not conscious of what is running our life in the background, we'll bump up against these walls and then we'll let it shut us down because if we don't understand this is my nervous system trying to keep me safe. This is a set of belief systems that I've held that maybe they've served me up till now, but are they going to serve me in the next season of my life? And am I willing to challenge the way that it's always been in order to grow, in order to step into that thing, knowing that, yes, it's gonna crop up. Yes, it's gonna try to keep me safe. And I don't have to be held captive to these belief systems or this nervous system. I can retrain my brain; I can retrain my nervous system. I can take the next right step. I feel like that's something that I come back to again and again. Sometimes when it feels too overwhelming, well, what's the next step? I don't have to take 50 steps right away. I can just take the next step. For the TikTok example, what can I do today that would post something that doesn't feel high stakes? There's ways that we can increase our capacity as we lead and lean into the unknown because the unknown can feel scary, but also the unknown can be an adventure. So again, how do I want to view? I can look at, my goodness, know, the unknown is this big scary thing that I am afraid of and all these things that could go wrong. Or it could be the unknown an invitation into the adventure of my lifetime. That's one of the reframes I've tried to do with the unknown is go, where's the adventure calling to me? Because I do like adventure. I know I'm wired for adventure. And the more I can embrace that and go, what does that look like for me in my life, my capacity? My adventure doesn't have to look like yours. We have an innate need for growth. We have to, if we don't keep growing, when you stop growing, you start regressing. Honoring that innate drive for growth for all of us, I think is just so important. And Dez, I wanted to ask you, I know you have some great stories. Do you want to share anything around your own journey with imposter syndrome? Because I just feel like they're so relatable for people. yeah, I'll totally tell on myself in so many ways. The reason I say I'm going to tell on myself is because I want listeners to understand like this is as human as we're saying it is and as relatable to me as it is to you. As I was thinking of all the many times I've had lots of self-doubt. I call it self doubt. Like a lot of my system being like, whoa, Dez, who do you think you are? What if no one comes? What if no one listens? What if no one buys that? I think I've been on the journey of supporting myself pretty actively. And it's connected similarly to what you were saying about why you started TikTok to be authentic, to like find your authentic voice and that's such a worthy, beautiful intention, by the way. I think one of the intentions I've had in my business is to stay connected to my heart and honor my heart in the process. Over the years, there's been lots of invitation, but this is so recent. This is what makes me laugh and giggle. I'm like, this is pretty fresh people, I'm going to begin a new mentorship in just two weeks it's like a new realm for me because I'm actually going to support other life coaches, mental health practitioners, life consultants, practice and hone in their skills. And so right away I say that, people are gonna be like, who the hell does she think she is? Like, why, what qualifies Dez? And so the amount of support I've needed to give my heart and my nervous system to not disqualify me before I even offered this. I can't even tell you guys hours and hours and hours of support. It's built over the years with everything I've done and new ways I've put myself out there. And I'm like, I'm going to do a group and I'm going to do a mentorship and I'm going to take them to Europe. All these things that I've tried and like you said, like building that muscle, expanding my container to feel the uncomfortableness of my nervous system of like, we're going into big territory. What you're calling like a wall. I had a big come to Jesus moment where I was like, whoa, I have to decide what I'm gonna do here because I'm at a mini conference with other life consultants. And on the first night I'm coming in and my teachers and mentors, people I just love and look up to so much, they share that they're gonna do a very similar thing in 2026 and they're gonna offer this group type of training. And I about threw up. I was like, what? I just was like, what? Right away, yeah, the message was no one's gonna come to your mentorship when they can go and be mentored by basically my mentor, why would they come and sit with me when they could go and sit with her? This was just a couple of weeks ago. And I had to go on a long walk with myself. And I noticed the messages. I noticed shame. I heard things like, what are they going to think about you doing this? I don't even know if they thought about it to two seconds, but who knows? Maybe they have. I don't know. But this is again, oftentimes our brain will be like, what does X, Y, and Z think about this?

This is what I believe: 20:44

this level of me being connected to my heart and growing in this ability to stay on my team invited, I use the word invited me, you said adventure and I was like, oh, for me, I think I connect with my life has invited me to this level of me staying on my team. Because there was a part of me that was like, we're going to take down the website. We're going to stop taking names. We're going to shut my program down that I've been working on for six months. I tell on myself in this way because we literally hold the power to disqualify yourself or to say yes. I am the only one. No one is holding a gun to my head. No one's making me stop. No one's making me do it. It's all inside of me. It's an internal work. I just really want to encourage people, you're the one with the power. You're the one with the options and the abilities to understand what your heart really needs or what your nervous system needs to keep moving forward. And it's okay if it takes time. I love that in your story, took a couple months. There's time and space for the support that we need. Long story short, specifically around this mini conference and me finding this information out, two days later, I was supposed to share. The night before I was like, I don't know. Cause I was still in this wrestle of holding onto me – to really being on my team and not disqualifying me. And by the time it was my turn to share, I felt authentic invitation again. I could feel my heart saying it's okay. It's okay if no one comes. It's okay if people flock other mentors of mentorship. I'm not gonna tell you that you shouldn't have tried this. I'm not gonna turn on you. I'm not gonna tell you you're not enough to do this. So when I had found that again in me, that ability to anchor my nervous system into this. Like there will be at least one person supporting you, Dez, in this unknown venture, and it's me, that helped me, and I was able to share and had great feedback, and I have a full cohort. I'm amazed. I'm humbled. I just keep, So that's my personal telling on myself story about this just a couple of weeks ago, so. Such a good story Dez, because I do think... one of the things you highlighted is when we see people who we perceive as further down the track or they're more of an expert, they have more qualifications, the bigger platform or whatever, fill in the blank. Then that comparison monster kind of sneaks in and goes, well, look at them and why would anybody want to look at you? That's just so real. I don't know anybody who hasn't had to deal with that feeling of comparison and trying to measure yourself up against somebody else's journey, somebody else's gifts. It feels like a trap to me and many times when I think of the number of times I've fallen into that trap. How many times have I told myself, that person did have the bigger, more experience, blah, blah, blah. I am disqualified. And I love that something that you've cultivated so well in your life is that belief that I can always be on my own team, even if not a single person signs up. I'm going to stay on my team. And I've heard you share how that's been a journey. You weren't always on your team. You weren't always the one who is going to be like, I'm going to champion you. But as you've cultivated that ability to go, I am not going to abandon myself in my dream. Even if I am the only one. I think there's such a key there. Sometimes the external results aren't going to be. Now, you've just said you've got a full cohort. That's fantastic. And even if it hadn't happened, it's almost like the deeper lesson is you choosing to stay on your own team is the real gold. You staying on your team, nobody can take that away from you if you refuse to abandon yourself. Correct, even in your example, because your intention was to be authentically you and to use your voice without censoring it. If you have that as your goal, it doesn't matter how many followers you hit. It actually doesn't even matter if you take two, three months off or a year off because your goal is to support yourself. So you may make adjustments inside that purpose. You can actually go at the pace that's right for you. And I think that's a very huge support to not compare, because I'm not comparing now in results, which is what kind of people are wanting to do. They're wanting to say, I wanna make the end prove to me that I should have done this. I wanna make how many people sign up for the mentorship prove to me that I should have done it. It could be anything that you're feeling or thinking. How's my boss gonna respond when I ask for a raise? I wanna make, when I this boundary for a person, how they respond to the boundary a meaning to me of whether I should have made that boundary. That is the pitfall. Because we can't control anything on the outside of us. I can control being on my team. I do have that power. You do have the power to stay authentic to your voice and not censor you. You do have that power. So you're kind of... ultra focusing yourself by being authentic, by connecting to internal intention, it makes you like laser sharp focus. You're actually creating the ability to keep flowing and moving through because you have this intention and goal inside. I love the way you're summing that up. I hear you saying really what you're doing is you're channeling your energy to the things that are important and that are going to move the needle forward rather than letting external opinions or metrics or reactions be the driving force. And it doesn't mean that you can't have external goals. External goals can actually be great. Having that metric of, how many people do you want in your cohort this year? If you didn't know how many people you wanted, how would you know when you were full? We're not making a black and white statement of you should have no externals here. The external things can actually be valuable to helping you know, OK, am I on track or not? But focusing on what we have control over is always a good idea. And letting some of the things that we don't have control over, such as how many people sign up or how many people follow me on TikTok is not something that I want to spend lots of my focus and energy on because that's not something that I can ultimately control. What can I control? Focusing on that is always going to help me move the needle forward And I love that you talked about the competition thing, I have a no competition policy for myself. Also no comparison. I want to focus on the path ahead of me and champion other people and cheer them on in what they're doing, but not make it about is your metric of success my metric of success because that's not comparing apples with apples really. Even if you and I both started a TikTok account on the same day and we posted the same amount of times. That doesn't really mean anything in the sense of what could take off for you. You could have a viral video go, get millions of views. If I look over at you and go, well, she posted 50 times and I posted 50 times and I don't have as many followers as her, so therefore I'm a failure. That is putting my power someplace out here rather than keeping it channeled into the things that I can control. I can control what I spend my focus and energy on. I can't control what you do. So why am I spending the time even comparing myself to you when you have a uniquely different set of gifts to me anyway? The things that you're going to be powerful in is going to further your gifts and your talents. There's a lot of needless, precious energy of our lives that I have spent. I've not been above this. I've been sucked into the, they're doing this. I'm not, I must be behind, they're ahead. But... it's been an intention of mine over the last few years especially when I notice my gaze going, what are they doing? Maybe I don't measure up and coming back and going, hey, what is within my control? What's within my locus of control? Where can I make a difference? If I notice that somebody is doing something and it's pushing a little envy button in me, then where can I use that as a mirror to say, what is it about what they're doing that maybe I'm wanting permission to do myself and I just haven't given myself permission to do that? Yeah, thoughts? I'm Oftentimes people will pop in our head and what they are going to think about us is also one of those informative voices one thing that I tell a lot of my clients, cause I do a lot of business consulting now with people who all different types of businesses, not just life coaches, they're getting into new territory. So naturally they're gonna have these, I like to call them growth pains, I tell them this, I'm like, okay, here's the truth. Probably most likely more people than you think are gonna be proud of you or think positive or not even think about it at all. Honestly, I tell my teenagers, I'm like, listen, no one's thinking about you that much. I could say that to myself. No one's really cares that much. There can be more positive than we are expecting, than that voice is telling us. I was thinking about like telling on myself things I've done is like, when a person might have a negative response to what I'm doing, it's not guaranteed. But I know when I've had that feeling of what does she think she is? What it had to do with is that I had a limiting belief. I had an internal rule about something and what that person was doing, how she was putting herself out there or whatever she said that was pushing on my internal rule. It was more about me. It was more about what was happening inside of me that what they were doing set off inside of me. I think about that too – is it really that deep? they think nice things about me. Who knows? And if it is negative, they could talk to me about it or maybe there's something inside of them or like in my case, there was something inside of me that this is pushing on. It's very relatable. My ceiling, you're busting past it like, what the heck are you doing? So it's all encouragement. It's all growth. It's all part of of our humanity. And I really liked what you were sharing about getting focused about what you can control, because for our nervous systems, that is so supportive. When you let your nervous system notice, these are all the things we do have control over in this unknown next level of our life, that helps you keep moving. So even on a nervous system basis is so important. So good. it in, the ways that we can even support ourselves and understanding it through the nervous system lens is, it's just really helpful because it helps us understand that it's not just, a mental thing, it's not just a mental block. There's multiple systems at work and at play here let's just think of a couple, no, no, that's right. And I, you know, telling on ourselves again. I used to spiritualize everything to the point that I didn't know how to take personal accountability or responsibility for my actions because everything was spiritual. It was the devil or, something like this. And learning, OK, there are multiple factors at play. That's I just love that you're highlighting some of those things. There's lots of ways to view this through different lenses. does I'm you know, eh trigger someone. just, you know, make it spicy. No, it's good, for the listeners who are listening, think because this is such a relatable topic, what are some questions that we would want to leave them with? I know one that comes up for me is, Where am I being invited to show up more authentically or even step out into something right now? I would follow that question up by saying, if you move towards doing that, stepping out or moving towards the invitation to be more authentically you, what is the story that's being told to you? What do you hear? What do you feel? What do you notice? Notice those things as nervous system signals for your system, and understand that it's trying to protect you, it's doing its job, and how can help support it with safe enough information to move forward? What do I mean by that? What are the things that you can remind your nervous system that you have control over in this unknown step? Even in our examples, I can stay on my team. That is something I can do. else, Mel? even what is one small step that you can take? What is one baby step? I've found that sometimes when things feel overwhelming because I want to do something or I know the desires in my heart, but it feels really big or it feels like a mountain that I'm having to climb and you're looking at the whole mountain going, this is is really scary. I just have to take the next right step. I don't need to take the next 30 steps right now. I just need to take the next one and then the next one after that. And if I can only handle addressing one step at a time, if I still do that 100 times over time, it's like that Chinese proverb, I think that says a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It is literally you breaking it down. Often overwhelm shuts us down because the process looks too big. So how can we break it down into something that is bite-sized? And maybe your bite-sized step feels very tiny. Maybe it's, I'm going to get online and look up something. I'm going to look up the information about that class I want to take. I'm going to look into what people in my profession who want to pay raise, what is the price range I could be looking at? What is that little next step that I can do that will support me continue to send the message I am on my own side and allow me to make forward progress. I have a little saying that I remind myself of and it is baby steps are still steps. Baby And those baby steps matter. So maybe you're ready to take a giant leap and if you are, go for it. We're cheering you on. Not everybody's ready for little steps, but yeah, even the big ones, we're cheering you on for that for sure. I love that question. I love even putting it our listeners' court to sort of notice what that tiny step might look like for themselves this week. As I'm just sitting with all these stories and nervous systems and hearts and dreams and people moving through life, I would just love to share thought that, I believe that imposter syndrome is not a sign that you're failing. It's not a sign that you shouldn't have done it. It's not a signal from God, meaning that you made a mistake. I truly believe that it's a sign that you're kind of at that threshold of the new level of the next step that you want to take. If you think about the road back overall as a theme for our hearts and our lives and just what we're inviting you as listeners into, every time you choose authenticity in your own heart and staying on your team, you are participating. You are taking that step on the road back to you. We want you to know that we are cheering you on and we believe in you. We think that it's worthy and it's beautiful that your heart and your authentic way of wanting to be in the world is worth supporting. So keep going. Don't stop. Don't give up. Yeah. we're just trusting that wherever you are in your journey right now, as you hear this, that there will be some nuggets that you can take that will act as encouragement and fuel for helping you take that next step back to yourself. So thanks for being here, friends. Yay for season three. We can't wait to dive into this new season with you. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.