Welcome to Notes On, the newsletter from The Imposters Club. Every month we’ll be sharing what’s on our minds, what we’ve been loving, and thoughts & tips from our community.

WE’RE BACK!

We’re so excited to present The Good Enough Guide, a special series helping you feel good enough and choose a life that’s good enough for you.

Over 10 episodes we’ll support you in navigating imposter syndrome and self doubt, as we ease the restrictions that have defined our lives for the past year.

If you’ve been feeling anxious about what’s next, you’re not alone. We’ll be talking our way through the potential anxieties, triumphs and lessons that have come to define the “new normal” (yes, we’re sick of that phrase too).

From redefining success to giving your body some love, coping with change to advocating for yourself, we’ll be chatting to experts for their practical tips and sharing your voices- because we really are all in it together.

Listen to The Good Enough Guide wherever you get your podcasts.

Have you forgotten how to socialise?

We want to hear YOUR voices and share them on the podcast. Over the coming weeks we'll be asking for voice note submissions of your experiences, thoughts and stories on different topics that affect our lives. So, we'd love to know: 

How do you feel about socialising after lockdown? 

• What is making you anxious about socialising?

• How have you found socialising since the restrictions have started to lift?

• What impact has the pandemic had on your social life?

• What have you missed the most about your social lift?

• What do you want to change in “the new normal”?

• How has the pandemic impacted your dating life?

Send a short 30 second voice note including your name and age to theimpostersclub@gmail.com and we'll feature as many as we can on the podcast!

That bloody new normal

It turns out that quite a lot of us are feeling a bit nervous about re-emerging into the world.

After the past year (and a half, almost), it feels like we’ve forgotten how to do, well, everything. How to actually be around people, how to commute, how to share a workspace again. Some of us can barely remember how to cross a road or order in a restaurant. 

And while we attempt to reconnect those neural pathways, we’re feeling a tonne of pressure. The pressure to have learnt a new skill, picked up a side hustle or got promoted The pressure to have ‘glowed up’, coped seamlessly with immense fear and loss and baked four hundred loaves of sourdough to graciously distribute to our community. In short, pressure to have achieved something- anything. Those of us who have spent fifteen months surviving rather than striving for betterment are comparing ourselves everywhere we look and thinking, ‘have they done it better than me?’

We’ve been through a huge period of collective uncertainty throughout the pandemic, and now we’ve emerged, blinking, to find that the goal posts have moved. It makes us feel unsure, out of our depth and leaves us worrying if we’re even good enough for this new world.

There’s an opportunity, amidst all this, to create something beautiful somehow. But how do we even start to move forward when we’re exhausted from everything that’s come before? 

The answer, it seems, is a simple one: slowly. 

It’s gently asking ourselves which parts of our old lives we genuinely miss, and which parts we don’t mind leaving in The Before Times. It’s understanding what fills our cup, gives us energy and brings us fulfilment. It’s taking slow steps forward towards a life that feels good enough for us, rather than a life we have to measure up to.

The new normal might be a phrase that makes us cringe, but it’s worth persevering with. Creating a new normal- one that makes us feel brighter, healthier, safer- is probably the best thing that could come from over a year of grief, worry and sadness. It’s a version of normality in which we’re aware of our resilience, our values and our priorities, and can start to feel confident in every stage of our lives.

Not sure how to get there? Don’t worry- we’ve got you. Welcome to The Good Enough Guide.

The Good Enough Guide to Redefining Success

In the first episode, we discuss what success means to us, why fulfilment is more rewarding and how to redefine your vision of success. We speak to Abby Dixon, aka The Whole You Coach about living a life in alignment with your values- and figuring out what those values actually are.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

Things we’ve loved

Listening to We Can Do Hard Things - It’s no lie that we loved Glennon Doyle’s third book, Untamed, and now our dreams have come true with the author’s brand new podcast. Talking honestly and compassionately about the hard things in life, this podcast isn’t to be missed. MM

Reading Marian Keyes’s Rachel’s Holiday - Rachel reluctantly agrees to go to rehab to get everyone off her back, even though she definitely doesn’t have a problem- right? Rachel’s Holiday is desperately funny, quietly dark and incredibly moving- I could read and re-read Marian Keyes’s novels every day. SKK

Watching Starstruck - Comedian Rose Matafeo wrote and stars in this brilliantly funny sitcom about Jessie, who realises her one night stand is actually a film star. It’s a relatable look at modern love, being twenty something and how female friends actually talk to one another: funny, silly and crude. MM

Relaxing with our Foreo UFO 2* - We’ve been winding down in the evenings with at-home mask treatments from Foreo, featuring different ingredients and individual LED and temperature settings, based on what our skin needs each day. Mel described it as angels caressing her face. *This product was gifted as part of Foreo’s sponsorship of The Good Enough Guide.

The Club: Rose Wardle on shimmying back into the world

Rose Wardle is an actor, currently based in London. She’s represented by Authentic Talent in NY/LA and Victoria Lepper in London. She’s also currently developing a pilot series about Invisible Illnesses, based on her experiences with Rheumatoid Arthritis. You can listen to Rose discuss this in our episode on Hidden Disability, Invisible Illness and the Creative Industries, which also features actor Gabriella Leon. Here, Rose talks us through readjusting to productivity, socialising and staying grounded as the world unfurls.

The ‘new normal’ that we collectively coined back in July…Sep…tober (time is a concept) is finally upon us. We can sit inside pubs, balance out cinema chairs and hug our loved ones - with a manual in tow. 

It now feels as though we’re currently entering the ‘adjustment’ phase. And if you’re a freelancer like myself, there’s a chance you may have spent the last year doing a lot less than you’re accustomed to. Not only do we now need to adjust socially (& work out how we ever stuck to that many plans in the first place) - but as industries reopen, we can be a little more hopeful about the prospect of work picking up.

Personally, I very much feel like some sort of hybrid sloth-Bambi, balancing on feeble legs as I try to readjust to the concept of productivity. So here are 3 tips to keep you productive, inspired and grounded as you shimmy back into your desired industry;

1. Productivity: How can you make it work for you?

Do you tend to excel more when you have several smaller tasks, or perhaps when you focus solely on one larger project? I used to feel as though I had to be excelling at 902 tasks at any one time to feel and appear ‘productive’. Through trial and error, I’ve actually found that I’m much better off when I engage in one main task (writing, learning a new accent, filming a self tape) per day or half day. If and when time allows it, I find that the quality of work is vastly improved by this shift in focus. Experiment, and find out what works for you.

2. Inspiration: Follow and learn from your ‘Expanders’

We all have people we admire and idolise when it comes to our careers. It’s also very expansive for us, both consciously and subconsciously, to have something to aspire to and believe in. Try to surround yourself with other people (whether that’s in person or through following them on social media) that spark energy and creativity in you. They don’t even necessarily have to have the same career trajectory, so long as they expand your mind and belief system enough to keep you motivated.

3. Grounding: Find your meditation 

For some people, the act of meditating itself can feel extremely foreign and surprisingly counterproductive. But don’t have to religiously follow a transcendental or mantra practice* - meditation will look and feel different to everyone: for my Dad, I’m pretty sure its fishing. For you, it could be reading fiction, taking your time with cooking, or the classic practice of walking and listening to a podcast (The Imposters Club, naturally). Find whatever works for you, and maybe even change it up depending on the day - but try to make it a daily practice.

*If you do enjoy meditation, I’m borderline obsessed with a dude called David Ji, who you can find on Insight Timer. His voice legit resembles a galaxy caramel.