Reader,

It was 2019, but I remember like it was yesterday.

I was already doing creative work writing and podcasting, but I wasn’t making the progress I wanted to make. New ideas kept stalling out, even though I truly believed I could help people.

So, I signed up for a 30-day challenge to try to get past what was holding me back.

The Challenge: Take something you’ve started to create and repurpose it into a product you can quickly sell.

My Hope: Joining the challenge would help me overcome perfectionism and procrastination so I could finally get the project out into the world.

For the challenge, I chose to work on a curriculum for tackling imposter syndrome. I had some notes down but still had a ways to go toward completion.

Only the deeper I got into the assignment, the louder the voice of my own imposter syndrome grew.

I stalled out. Put it off. Picked it back up. Got busy with my kids. Debated trying again. Ignored it.

But it wouldn’t go away.

The challenge ended. I didn’t finish.

In fact, it took more than a year for me to wrap it up and get that project out into the world.

Not because it required a year to complete it.

No. Because I’d spent so much of my energy battling a series of doubt-induced questions aimed straight at the heart of my desire for all women to be free of imposter syndrome—including me!

Who am I to be doing this?

Will anyone want this?

Am I doing it “right”?

It was a constant barrage. Every time I started to work on it again, I was forced to face the tapes in my head telling me that I didn’t measure up and had no business doing this.

But it was in facing those questions, head-on, with the truth of God’s Word, that I finally grasped two important lessons God wanted me to see:

First, imposter syndrome is more common than I realized.

If you have a big dream, chances are you’ve also struggled with it.

But trying harder to prove yourself, do better, ignore it, or stuff it down isn’t the solution.

You know what is?

That was the second thing I learned:

The gospel has a response for every struggle, including imposter syndrome, and here it is:

You don’t have to try to be “enough” because Jesus already is.

And when you know your value and worth are secure in Him, you can be freed of the need to prove yourself through the work you do.

Take that in for a minute. Don’t you feel your shoulders starting to soften just a little?

This is where things finally shifted for me.

Jesus has already given everything for us.

And because we belong to Him, we have a living hope, an inheritance more valuable than any earthly treasure or human approval.

That truth alone slows down my breathing…even as I type this sentence. It calms my nervous system. Makes me better able to hear (and believe) what God says is true.

That inheritance?

It will never fade.

It can never be lost.

It is a gift.

And we didn’t do anything to receive it.

It’s already ours—in Christ!

So every time imposter syndrome tries to raise its ugly head, I know where my hope lies…and it’s not in anything I’m able to do, make, or produce.

It’s completely and totally with Him.

Today, I’m thankful for the 30-day challenge that turned into a year-long endeavor.

As frustrating as it was at the time, God has used it again and again to remind me why I am so passionate about what I do and how He is so faithful to walk with us as we dream our big dreams.

There’s no “source” that will sustain the kind of work we do around here, other than Him.

That project I mentioned above?

It eventually became Dreamers Unleashed, a 7-week small-group experience where Christian women learn to recognize the lies of imposter syndrome for what they are, replace them with biblical truth, and move forward with greater confidence in Christ.

I’m considering bringing Dreamers Unleashed back for another live cohort, and I’d love to know if this is something you’d be interested in.

Interested in joining the next Dreamers Unleashed cohort? Click here to let me know.

No commitment required. I’ll simply keep you in the loop as plans develop.

There’s nothing more powerful than when women come together to defeat the lies that attempt to keep our dreams in hiding. I want that freedom for you, so if you’re interested in doing this work together, click here to let me know.

Until next week, my sister in Christ, I am...