Imposter syndrome can be a very lonely experience. Whether you’re a leader, founder or creative – the need to take risks and make hard calls comes hand in hand with a sense you’re doing this all alone and have no idea what you’re doing. The hard part is: sometimes the latter half of this statement cannot be reframed and it is entirely true. 

You may not know what you’re doing! But you don’t have to be alone. In addition to surrounding yourself with a strong network of supporters who understand your context, you can also draw upon the spiritual strength that comes from “pulling in your posse.” This technique, made popular by Wendy Palmer and the coaches at Leadership Embodiment, draws from Totemic Psychology to identify and visualize those symbols, people and objects that give us the necessary strength outside ourselves to move forward. Because, well, we ultimately stand on the shoulders of the giants before us.

Our overly individualistic world has disconnected us to the deeply rooted totemic traditions of the past that would draw meaning to one’s existence from the intricate web of influences that made us: our ancestors, the land, the animals, symbols left behind. We have a rich history of relating to the world and each other to make sense of daily life – before our Cartesian mental models reoriented our Western mindsets to favor the power of  “I” over “we.” However, our world is still rife with symbols, animal mascots, totems and ancestral crests that pay homage to the meaning-making of the past. 

This relational connection to something greater than us that carry shared meaning and transcendent power is a useful tool in times where we feel alone. We can “stand on the shoulders of the giants before us” through visualization techniques where these personal totems of deeper meaning can come to life, and supply us with the courage, conviction and commitment to move forward – especially when doing it on our own feels so impossible.