God created each one of us beautiful, wonderful and unique. He created us to be great and do great things in the earth to fulfill His mission and goals. God created us to be on His team. If you know anything about God, He’s no slouch. He’s an MVP — in fact THE MVP and He selected each one of us to be on His team. If you have ever been on a team, you know that the strong team captains only pick valuable, strong players, that can add value to be on their teams. If you apply that logic, God must know that we are each valuable, strong players or He wouldn’t have selected us for His team. He knows you’re special — now you need to know it too.
You hear a lot about this imposter syndrome, but God didn’t give us this complex — the world did. Why? To keep each of us from our destinies. To keep us from being the value-add player on Christ’s team. To keep us from impacting the world. But we are not imposters, less than, or not good enough people — we are victors waiting to be awakened and released or rather unleashed on the world. In order to release and unleash your Victor within you need a few things.
Prayer. When someone wants us on their team, we need to hear it from them. We can’t just take someone’s word for it, so ask Him. Go to God in prayer and ask Him why He wanted you on His team. Ask Him what value are you, can you add to the kingdom. Ask Him to show you what and how. Ask him to give you the vision to see what He sees in you and the fortitude to build up and enhance all of gifts and talents within just waiting to be cultivated. Ask God to encourage you and remind you of who He made you to be. Ask Him to silence the background noise that comes to drown out His voice and love in your heart. Ask Him to be a fence – a hedge of protection for you, your beliefs, and your mind. Ask Him to illuminate your path and embolden your victor’s light to shine so that all can see.
Hype Tribe. Everyone needs a hype tribe. Get one. What’s a hype tribe? They are your cheerleaders (honest cheerleaders but cheerleaders none the less). They are your enthusiasts. They build you up. They celebrate you and your growth and accomplishments even when you don’t or don’t recognize them. They magnify the good that you are and they remind you of it constantly. They combat your negative thoughts and ideas with energetic love and encouragement. They are like living campaign posters cheering you on the road to victory. You don’t need an entourage — just a few good folks who are real with you, who build you up, and remind you to do the same. They become the people that you hear in your head and envision sitting on the left hand side of your shoulders helping you to combat the negative band of comments that sit over there to your right.
Reminders. You have already accomplished so much, overcome so much, conquered so much, yet you still don’t get it. You still don’t get that you are a victor. Why? We downplay or we just plain out forget. We forget all the times we crushed this or that. We forget all the progress that we made. This is why we need to remind ourselves of where we have been and where we are. Remind yourself of your victories. Write them down and frame them. Put them in a prominent place where you can see them and be reminded. Remind yourself that you can do it or that you are awesome. Get signs and spread them around. Recently my parents visited and my dad remarked at all the positive reminders around the house from the mud room to the upstairs playroom. In the mudroom when we hang out coats it says, “You can do anything,” in the kitchen draped over the oven doors, “Pray More Worry Less,” in my bathroom sits framed affirmations, and in my office there are signs like “Simply Blessed.” Even in our backyard, I have painted rocks with words like Blessed, Love, Peace, Victory. Remind yourself at every turn that you are the awesome person God created you to be, remind yourself of your wins, and remind yourself that He is there to help and will help.
Self-Belief. The most important thing to unleashing the victor within is to first have the belief within yourself that you are a victor, that you are victorious, and that you were created for a purpose and to go great things. I can tell you all day everyday, your parents, spouse, siblings, friends, etc. can tell you. They can remind you of your successes. They can be your hype tribe. They can sing your praises. But until you believe it within yourself and for yourself all of the pouring in will never matter. Your self-belief is like your foundation. I used to make pottery and when you build a cup, you start with the bottom of the cup as the foundation and then you add the slab or coils to create the cup. If I pour into a cup that has no bottom (or foundation), everything I pour in goes out; it gets wasted essentially. The encouragement, upliftment and motivation being poured in, rests on the foundation of your self-belief.
So, I hope you will use these nuggets and tell that old imposter to hush. (I think the real imposter is the devil — resist him [his thoughts placed in your head and his lies] and he will flee.) Tell your imposter within to fall back and usher in, awaken and unleash your victor within. Let me know how it goes. It’s a process for sure and I’m always here to listen and support.
Be blessed!
Latoya
God Applied 