Have there ever been moments in your career where you looked around and thought, how did I end up here? I don’t deserve this job. Maybe it’s during prep for a board meeting presentation or during onboarding at a brand new job, and you start to wonder how you’re in the position you are. What you may be experiencing is imposter syndrome.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, imposter syndrome is “the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own effort or skills.” Is that the underlying belief you operate under in the workplace? I know that I’ve experienced these thoughts in my own career.
So how do we navigate this mindset in a biblical way?
1. Acknowledge imposter syndrome is true.
There is no way to look at Scripture and think we have earned anything by our own skills or merit. God is the one who appoints people, just look at Paul! In Acts 9:15, God is instructing Ananias to pray for Saul (later known as Paul). God tells Ananias, “Go, for Saul is My chosen instrument to take My message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel” (NLT).
Just as God had appointed Paul for a specific purpose, He has done the same for you. God is the one who gave us our skills, our creativity, our ability to see broken systems and improve them, and every other thing we utilize during our careers. We read in 1 Corinthians 12:4 that “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all” (NLT). Whether you are in ministry or in corporate America, you can use your gifts to glorify God, because that’s why He gave them to you!
2. Make our aim to steward what God has given us the best we can.
Rather than placing pressure on ourselves to measure up and gain validation from our performance, we should seek to steward our opportunities to the best of our abilities. We read in Colossians 3:23 to “work willingly at whatever [we] do, as though [we] were working for the Lord rather than for people” (NLT). This should be our default operating system.
When this is our perspective on work, everything begins to shift. Suddenly, we aren’t worried about how we’re perceived or about earning the approval of others. We begin to rest in the approval we have in Jesus. Now we can take a breath and seek to do the very best that we can—not because we crumble under the weight of criticism, but because we are stewarding our jobs for the glory of God.
Imagine being an employee or boss who is unoffended in criticism, quick to own up to mistakes, and who seeks to do the very best they can for God. Instead of feeling that we need to earn our position or measure up, we embrace the fact that everything we have is because of God. When we adopt that mindset, we can rest in the specific plans God has for our lives. We can rest in the approval we have in Christ. Pride, in any form, is no longer something that has a hold on us.
This is the kind of person I want to be, in and out of the workplace. What about you?
Heavenly Father, thank You for looking at this world and appointing the seasons and times. If that is the reality for creation, then that’s the reality for my life. Remove from my heart any desire to please people, gain favor, or measure up in my own strength. Transform me by the power of the Holy Spirit so that I can steward what You have placed before me to the best of my ability. Remove pride that tells me I need to climb the ladder wherever I am or have notoriety. Instead, as You do a deep work in my soul, just remind me that I am Your child and that is enough. Amen.
