Imposter syndrome- the lies we keep telling ourselves
Moral of my story: You don’t have to be a professional chef to make great food
In my last blog post, I alluded to this stumbling block for me and in full transparency I am going to share more of my story.
Goodbye imposter syndrome- doing what I am meant to do
I have it, you have it, most of us have some version of imposter syndrome. Maybe you have not yet heard of it, but when you finish reading this, you will know exactly what I am talking about. My version and your version may look completely different, but in essence, it’s all imposter syndrome.
So what is it? Definition: an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud.
For me the story went like this: “You can’t start a food business because you are not a trained chef.” “No one will hire you because you didn’t go to culinary school.” “If you try it, you will fail because you don’t have a culinary degree or certificate.” No one actually uttered these words to me….it was all in my head. This negative self talk and doubt held me back from following my passion and truly starting a food business until the age of 48. ( I say truly because I dabbled here and there but was not seriously focused on it) Sure, I was busy with other things like a career in public accounting out of college and then raising 3 kids but every time I thought about it, that loop of lies would run through my head. Until one day I just decided to go for it because what it is the worst that could happen? You never get to find out until you try. It’s been two years and I am so glad I stopped listening to that story and jumped in. And you know what?? Not one person has asked for my culinary degree. They just care about eating good food.
How does this apply to you? In the past year of teaching virtual cooking classes, I have heard a lot of “stories” like “I am a terrible cook”, “I can’t cook”, “I ruin everything I touch in the kitchen”, “I can’t take your classes because”…..and they are all not true. What is it about these stories that have a common thread? It’s fear and fear can stop us in our tracks and prevent us from doing the thing. Fear as an acronym is False Evidence Appearing Real. I am here to tell you that you are so much better in the kitchen than you give yourself credit for. I have seen it time and time again in my classes where the person who told me they felt that way coming in, did a complete 180 and in the end felt confident, inspired and really proud. Here is a testimonial from one of my students which exemplifies this.
“I don’t like to cook!” You want to guess how many times I’ve said those words? Probably thousands. But the truth is I wasn’t ‘comfortable’ cooking because I didn’t know what I was doing. This afternoon, I took a Zoom cooking class from Debbie Brosnan. It was such a FUN class!!! Debbie did such a great job working with everyone especially since she had a wide range of experienced and non-experienced cooks.. The buffalo quinoa burgers were delicious. What a great way to spend quality time with friends.- Elda, MN
So what I am really trying to tell you is just do it! Just go for it. Do the thing that scares you or the thing you think you won’t be good at or aren’t good enough to do because in reality, you ARE good enough. If it’s kitchen confidence you are struggling with, just do it. Take one of my classes or try a new recipe or get together with a friend to cook along with them. I promise you, you will be so happy you did.
See you in the kitchen,
Debbie