Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Okay, so I'm going to get a bit personal now. Are you familiar with the term "imposter syndrome"? It's a term used to describe creative people who feel like they're not good enough to do what they love, to offer their services, to release their music. It's a condition that holds people back and stops them from following their passions. Can you imagine anything worse? A state of mind that stops people from sharing their magic with the world. It's tragic. Truly tragic. And yet at one point or another, we've probably all felt it. My mind hasn't always been the kindest to me. There are times when I've heard that nagging voice in the back saying things like,

"Why are you bothering? There's a thousand people out there better at this than you."

"Nobody wants to hear what you're doing so why are you sharing?"

"You made a mistake, you're clearly not good enough to do this."

It's hard. If you're anything like me, you know you have a calling in life, but your own insecurities and lack of confidence can stop you from ever achieving your goals. It held me back for years! But now I'm past that. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, as I really haven't achieved my goals yet. I may have officially launched Runic Audio but there's a long, long way to go. However, I've managed to stave off the Imposter Syndrome enough to take the steps that I have, to launch my business, and to share my goals, my dreams and my passions with the world. I'm going to tell you how I got there, so that you can do the same. You can't deny the world your passions. You need to share them, and I'll help you get there.

So for some context, I've been playing guitar for 14 years, and before 2020 - the cursed year - nobody outside my family had seen me play guitar, except a handful of people in college a lifetime ago. Those questions posed by the dark side of my brain stopped me from ever doing so, but In January 2020 I realised it was time to make some serious changes in my life.

Take Action. Any Action

The first step is to just do it. Forget the voice in your head and just take some small step forward. You need to build momentum, so just do something. My first action was to record a video of myself playing guitar and share it with my friends on Facebook. It was Sigh's Corpsecry - Angelfall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibwTe8CIbgs

The reaction was truly overwhelming. The love and support I received from my friends and family was incredible, especially considering that most of them aren't at all into this style of music! This gave me a much-needed confidence boost to push forward and upload another video, and then another, and then another. After some time, I took the next step, and shared my video to a Facebook group called Rock The Lockdown, and by doing this, I exposed myself to a group of complete strangers who, unlike my friends and family, didn't have to be nice and supportive! But, they were. My videos were met with great success and requests to a link to my YouTube channel. I didn't even have one!

So with this momentum building, I then created a YouTube channel, mostly as a place to upload and organise my videos more than anything, as storing them on my phone was getting a bit messy. I still didn't actually expect anyone to watch them. Yet, as of the time of writing - 12:40pm, 20/8/20, I'm sitting at the following figures;

64 Subcribers

30 Hours spent watching my content

1100 Views

Now don't get me wrong, this is still smalltime, but for me, and my expectations, this is truly incredible. It's far beyond what I ever expected when I started, and it's proof that the voice in the back of my head was wrong. People do care. People will watch. I am good enough to share. This momentum is what also gave me the courage to launch Runic Audio on 02/08/20. I've created this website and this blog, and I have the confidence to share the most personal aspects of my life with you guys. That's progress. That's a success.

None of this would've been possible without that first action. That first upload. It was terrifying. I was so nervous about putting myself out there and getting feedback, but I forced myself to do it anyway and I'm so glad that I did, because that one action changed my life. If I hadn't done that, you wouldn't be reading this. I would still be a dreamer, afraid to actually take any action to make those dreams come true.

So just do it. Take your first step.

I've also created a video on this very topic for my YouTube channel in which I add some more personal details, so if you want to see more, check that out.

https://youtu.be/8WJ1yWP9zis

If this has helped in any way, I'd love to hear from you. Please contact me via email at daniel.bone@runicaudio.co.uk or send me a message over Facebook or Instagram;

www.facebook.com/runicaudio

www.instagram.com/runic_audio

If you don't know how to take that first step, or even which step to take, then again, please reach out. I'm more than happy to discuss these things and give any advice I can.

Onwards and upwards,

-Dan