Can I share with you a pet peeve that has been bothering me lately? There are too many people out here selling courses about things that they've just begun to learn themselves.
I get it. Given the current economy, many of us (myself included) are working towards building alternative streams of revenue for economic security and to generate wealth. I applaud any efforts towards greater economic freedom. But we cannot so anxious to generate income that we short our students by not delivering mastery.
This post is not meant to stir up any feelings of Imposter Syndrome (IS) within you. Instead, I'm offering the following to ensure we can battle the IS by developing expertise in the things we wish to deliver.
I remember sitting in a classroom during my doctoral program receiving advice that has stuck with me. My dissertation co-chair sat at the head of a conference table and said to a room of Black Doctoral Students "if you want to excel, just read." She went on to explain to us, that most of the other students we would encounter were really good at skimming texts and having superficial points to make about those texts. She believed (and I found to be true), that if we would just put forth the effort to read and understand texts, we would be heads and shoulders above others around us.
I guess she had more of an influence on me than I knew at the time.
True enough, reading has served me well. When there are things that I am passionate about or interested in, I do the work necessary to truly master it. I read widely and deeply. I write about ideas and re-read my own opinions to challenge them. I seek out experts and try to learn as much as I can from our interactions. Only then do I feel remotely comfortable enough sharing what I've learned with others.
This strategy has helped me immensely with the Imposter Syndrome. Because I know that I've done all that I can in the learning of a concept, I can stand pretty confident in it.
So that's my advice to you. If you want to battle the Imposter, deliver mastery.
K?
Only good things,
Dr. Tip