Have you ever encountered an impostor complex? When, even after receiving an education, a person is afraid to start working, it seems to him that he cannot cope, that his knowledge is insufficient, it is difficult for him to start doing a new business, even if this is what he dreamed of and even if he spent a lot of time and effort on your education. Where do these doubts come from? These doubts are the impostor complex. Note the complex; the person himself is not an impostor. When working with such a complex, it is important to go through the five steps of liberation step by step. Let's look at them. Step one. You need to understand the difference between an impostor (swindler) and a person on the path to the state of a Master. The swindler calls himself something he has never been, says that he knows how to do what he has never learned, takes on what he that you are absolutely not ready to invest any significant effort or time. A person on the path to Mastery is not yet a Master, but he is a student, and if you have skills, education, knowledge, but do not yet have practice, you are a student, but armed knowledge and desire to work. And you can't be an impostor. It’s just time to put your knowledge and skills into practice. Step two: Work on your inner critic. Oh, those inner voices that criticize and make you doubt your own abilities. Listen and remember where they are from? After all, this is not your voice, but your parents, childhood friends, perhaps teachers or kindergarten teachers, or some other significant adults in your childhood. Perhaps then they were somewhat useful, because you needed to be guided, educated, raised. But now you have grown up, and only you can decide what you are and how you will continue to live, who to work with, and your work and knowledge will help you go in the right direction, discarding unnecessary doubts. Step three. Think about who is the ideal of a real specialist, see how ghostly he is. If you consider yourself unworthy to start doing your own business. Not a real specialist, then who is real? Many people who were later recognized as Masters of their craft were not perceived as such at the beginning of their journey, but they followed the intended path and eventually gave people new ideas, beautiful works of art, and scientific discoveries. So, boldly go ahead! Step four. Here you have to work with toxic shame. In principle, among all the steps, this is the most important, because it is the topics of the other steps that are mainly focused on. It is toxic shame that underlies all the doubts of the impostor complex. Toxic shame is not modesty, it is precisely a toxic, psychologically and psychosomatically poisonous state of shame, when you want to hide, it will turn into an invisible dot. Because criticism, condemnation, rejection and blaming other people cause psychological pain and fear. This happens when you are rejected, ridiculed, harshly criticized, and given little support in childhood. Toxic shame is formed in early childhood, when the child’s heart is wide open, he so needs acceptance and kindness, and in return - manipulation and cruel criticism. But you shouldn’t be offended by anyone, everyone acts as they have learned, so in order to get rid of toxic shame, it is important not to get stuck on grievances, but to understand that if as a child you found yourself in situations where someone provoked the development of toxic shame, then and he himself learned this pattern on himself. Therefore, just accept the fact that you have grown up and can stand up for yourself and decide how to treat criticism. If you are ready to put work into what you love and develop as a specialist, then you need to learn to respect your efforts and not depend on the opinions of everyone. Step five. Work out the secondary benefit. This is a very subtle point, as is usually the case in matters of secondary benefit. Well, it would seem, what is the benefit of an impostor complex that prevents you from moving forward? But that’s the point, because if you succumb to this complex, you don’t have to make an effort, you don’t have to leave the familiar, albeit swamp, of your old life. Are your dreams worth it?.