Lydia Fenette

And what I said to them all the time is, at some point in your life, especially as an adult, you have to accept that no one gives you a gold star.

You have to give yourself the gold star.

You are old enough to know if what you've done is good, if your work quality is good.

In my case, I got off stage and an auction went well.

I know.

I don't need anyone else to tell me that.

And again, going back to that confidence piece, what happens is if you are looking for other people's praise and they don't give it to you, that takes away from your confidence too.

So accept that there are no gold stars for doing the things that you want to do in your life and really take ownership of your life and make sure that people understand that you give yourself the gold star and that's enough.

And the final, the M, is make your point and don't back down.

A lot of times people will start to backpedal as soon as they're challenged, even if they're in the right.

If you know what you're talking about and you have the confidence to back it up, make your point and don't back down.

Don't forget that your opinion matters just as much as anyone else in the room does, and never forget that.

So the next time you feel like you have imposter syndrome creeping in, I suggest you slam it down.

I think that you can be confident in certain areas of your life and not confident in others.

I mean, I've certainly seen that with people who are confident in their work life, but maybe not so much in their personal life.

But again, I think at some point it all starts to blend together.

Maybe not when you're 18 years old, but as you move through your life into your late 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s and beyond, I do believe that all of those things

do inform one another.

Like you can't be confident at work unless you are somewhat confident personally, because you can't walk into a room and own a room unless you're feeling confident on the inside.

And that's what you're going to need to do to succeed in work.