Do you feel “not good enough” as a highly sensitive creative?

I attended the online video Q&A session today that marked the end of The INF Summit. Both INFP and INFJ personality types are introverted intuitives who are also deeply sensitive. One question that came up repeatedly was: “How do you deal with feeling like an imposter as a sensitive creative?”

When you are creating something and offering it to the world, you are not sure how it’ll be received. You might even have creative wounds that call into question the value of your very essence as a creative person.

It’s easy to feel like we are not good enough, as if we don’t have enough to offer the world, as if we are just faking it.

I know I have had imposter syndrome for a long time as a highly sensitive INFP.

I didn’t call it that. For a long time, I didn’t resonate with the words “imposter syndrome” at all. What I did feel was a feeling of “not good enough,” of not having enough to offer the world. Feeling like this — like a fraud — can become a huge creative block.

In the summit, when this question was asked, different people had different answers for it. I found some of them really interesting. So, I thought I would do a post on some ways to think about imposter syndrome as a highly sensitive creative that can help you in your own journey.

One of the speakers talked about how, sometimes, it’s good to feel like an imposter.

Her idea was that “if you are too comfortable in a room, you are in the wrong room.” You are stuck in your comfort zone. So, if you feel like an imposter in a room that is full of people who are more accomplished or knowledgeable than you, that’s a good thing.

Growing is about getting uncomfortable. It’s about becoming someone bigger, and while you are doing it, you will feel a little bit like an imposter.

There’s definitely truth in this idea, and I felt like it was a great way of framing this feeling. Sometimes, we actually don’t know enough.

As highly sensitive INFPs and INFJs, there are situations in which it is good to feel like an imposter. It means we are stretching and growing.

Someone else said that as we own our own stories, we feel less and less like imposters.

So, if we are pretending to be ahead of where we are or pretending to know more than we know, then obviously, we’ll feel like imposters. But when we are authentic about what stage we are at and truthful about it when we talk to others, then we won’t feel like we are putting on a mask.

We won’t feel like we are pretending.

This is a cool idea to think about as well. Are we being authentic? Are we trying to appear like experts at something that we are not an expert in?

Authenticity brings a feeling of being comfortable in your skin. It doesn’t matter if you know more or less than someone else. You can share your own story, your own journey, right from where you are.

You might also feel like “a fraud” or a fake if a talent or gift comes to you too easily.

This was an interesting idea that Jacob Nordby talked about. Each of us has their own gifts. There are some things that come easily to us, which others might admire, but that we discount because these gifts come too easily.

This was an interesting point. A talent that comes naturally to us — that we haven’t worked hard for — is something we’ll not tend to give ourselves full ownership of. The example Jacob gave was of him writing something easily and quickly that other people really resonated with. These people thought that his writing was a gift while it had come so naturally to him that he didn’t think it was such a big deal.

As a highly sensitive creative, there’s one idea that I’ve found personally helpful to deal with “not feeling good enough.”

Years ago, I was caught up in a lot of shame around not expressing myself creatively. It took me a long time to let go of my creative wounds and start walking my path as a highly sensitive creative.

Now, I think a little differently of how I was at that time.

I was a little seed that had not yet sprouted. I had all this potential inside me that I had done nothing with. Because I wasn’t living up to my potential, I had a lot of inner shame around selling myself short and not walking the path of the artiste I knew deep down I was.

Today, I think of myself as a small plant. The seed of the artist in me has sprouted. It has found nourishment and grown. I have taken many steps forward in my creative journey.

But I am still not a full-grown tree. I am a plant.

But does that mean I am less?

I think by risking to sprout, I have taken steps forward in faith, faith both in myself as well as faith in something bigger that I don’t quite understand.

So, I am not an imposter when I am speaking with other writers and artists who are more accomplished than I am. They are like full-grown trees.

And I am a plant talking to a tree.

It’s not about being an imposter. It’s about what stage of fruition we are in. It’s about where we are in our own journey with creativity.

What do you think? If you resonate with this idea, feel free to email me at creativecoachingsf@gmail.com. I would love to hear any thoughts you might have around this. I love conversations around becoming more creative and what the creative process looks like.