Bruce Springsteen, An Imposter?

 Bruce Springsteen, an Imposter?
Thanks to TheaterMakers for essence of this article
Pretty much everybody in songwriting and performance has struggled with this to varying degrees, yet I think songwriters take the lion’s share of the Imposter Syndrome.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of this illogical illness, but if not: Imposter Syndrome is that feeling of not belonging alongside one’s peers. That somehow your status or success is undeserved (or shouldn’t exist).
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Bruce Springsteen confessed that his biggest fear when he stepped out on stage was that the audience would discover that he was an imposter. https://charlierose.com/videos/16872
Most everyone has struggled with this.
Now, let’s be clear… “success” is a sliding scale and there are as many ways to measure it as there are people to perceive it. Am I a GRAMMY winner? No. Has my writing been covered by a popular artist? Not yet. Does that make me any less of a success?
The honest answer is: no, but it feels like it sometimes…
Because being a “success” as a songwriter can sometimes just mean that I found an hour out of my week to actually work on my songs (when I’m not doing my office work, working on other people’s projects, spending time with my family, etc). And it is easy to look around you and see other people “succeeding” and be discouraged or feel as though your own accomplishments pale in comparison.
Succeeding may mean completing a song, performing a song in public, or recording a song. These are important milestones for the quiet development of a career.We’re all moving at our own pace. And that’s okay.
Try not to constantly measure yourself with someone else’s ruler, and keep an eye out for the wins you do have. Give yourself achievable, manageable goals and keep taking them on. I guarantee those wins will get bigger as you go.
That brings me to another contributing factor to imposter syndrome in our field: the definition of what it even means to be “a songwriter.”
A few years back a friend of mine was finally at a point in her life where she was able to make the big, scary choice to quit her job and focus on songwriting full-time (and it’s funny, even just writing this shows the weird bias we have around songwriting… her “job” was the thing she did during business hours and her writing was somehow this OTHER thing, despite it being just as, if not more, important than her “job”). Now her JOB was SONGWRITING. By even the most draconian of standards, everyone would agree she was a SONGWRITER.
But she was always a songwriter (and she would agree).
It’s not an all-or-nothing game… You don’t have to be writing full-time to be a songwriter.
You don’t have to be making money off of your songwriting to be a songwriter.
Heck, a lot of the time you don’t even have to be SONGWRITING to be a songwriter (songwriters spend a whole lot more time observing, analyzing, and thinking than they do actually creating output).
There is nothing quantifiable about the term songwriter that should make you afraid to use it or apply it to yourself.
 We all have goals, we all have things to learn, and we all have obstacles. Let the successes of others fuel you, but never let them make you feel as though you don’t belong or that you are anything less than what you are.
Did you write, are you writing, or will you be writing? If yes, then you’re a songwriter.