How do you know when you know enough about a topic to teach it to others?
Some people learn a little bit about something and immediately turn around to teach it. They launch an offering or a paid service, positioning themselves as experts.
Other people, myself included, are more hesitant to share our knowledge in this way.
Speaking for myself, I tend to strive toward mastery — or at least robust fluency — before positioning myself as a teacher of that topic.
I tend to share my learnings with others for free for a long time before I make the bold move of creating a paid offering.
Many would-be course creators fall into this camp. Something about creating a paid offering can tend to bring up feelings of doubt and the dreaded imposter syndrome.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I’m wrestling with this challenge in a current project. I offer this to help you if you’re currently facing the same challenge.
My Astrology Journey
There’s no question that astrology is having a renaissance moment. The memes are all over social media. Many popular websites cover every transit and lunation. Movie producers consult with astrologers on release dates.
My blog offers additional evidence: many of the top-viewed essays on my blog are about astrology, even transits that are no longer happening.
I have been studying astrology regularly for the past 5 years, although my exposure to it goes back a decade. Over the past four years I’ve become much more fluent in it, thanks in part to working with my own chart daily and writing about it.
Since 2020, I’ve shared the weekly “astro-weather” forecast on a weekly Zoom gathering. I’ve even taught a few mini-classes for friends, and I’ve done private chart consultations for friends.
Astrology for me is a very practical discipline; it has become an important tool in my productivity arsenal, helping me see the bigger picture of life events and guiding me to right timing for decisions and life direction.
I love to talk about astrology and share insights with friends.
Astro-Literacy Workshop
Recently, as I shared some insights with a friend, she admitted that she found this interesting and helpful but she didn’t fully understand what I was talking about. She said she felt dumb to ask questions on what seemed like basics.
That gave me an idea to offer an introductory workshop on “astrology literacy” — to help her and others in her shoes better follow the cultural conversation around astrology.
Simple enough, right?
The material I plan to teach is not even close to the limits of my knowledge. I am certainly a long way from being a master of this discipline, but I know enough to teach the basics to people who don’t know anything — or who know a lot less than I do.
And yet as I started to formulate the curriculum for the workshop, I found myself plagued by the concern that I don’t know enough to teach it.
Partly, that’s a function of my continued study of the discipline.
Astrology is a nuanced topic. As I uncover new layers in my learning, sometimes struggling to understand more complex topics, I lose sight of the parts I’ve already mastered. This leads to doubt and imposter syndrome.
It’s important to remember that you know enough.
3 Steps to Counter Imposter Syndrome
If you’re a content or course creator who is struggling with feeling like you don’t know enough to teach others, what can you do when these doubts arise?
Here are three steps to take whenever fears and doubts arise.
(1) Name It
It’s always important to recognize what is happening and name it, which is what I’m doing in this essay.
Going into “research mode” or “learning mode” are classic forms of resistance that arise when we are preparing to teach.
In the moment when you find yourself going down the rabbit hole of “I just need to research a little more” or “I need to learn more before I can teach,” pause and check yourself.
Recognize that is just a form of resistance arising from fear.
Question why you believe you need to do more research or learn more.
(2) Normalize It
Step two is to normalize it.
Teaching is a big growth step in our learning journey. It forces us to confront the limits of our knowledge and understanding. Not to mention the feeling of responsibility you might feel for getting it “right” when you teach.
Fear and resistance are a natural part of the process. There’s nothing “wrong” with your feelings and actions.
In fact, your attempts to learn more before teaching are admirable; they are a sign of conscientiousness and caring.
(3) Neutralize It
The final step is to neutralize it.
Acknowledge that voice in your head that says you don’t know enough, then consider this:
If someone came to you right now for help with the topic you want to teach, would you be able to help them without looking up anything?
The answer is definitely yes.
Maybe you wouldn’t be able to answer every last question, but you know enough to help someone else take a step forward in their learning journey.
Each time I talk about astrology with friends, I’m reminded of how much of my knowledge for granted. Things I assume “everyone” knows are simply not known by most people. This holds true for any topic in which we have fluency.
Whenever we are trying to teach something that we are still learning, it’s easy to take for granted what we already know that other people don’t know.
You Know More Than Enough
We forget how much we know and how long it took to learn what we know.
Even if you knew everything about a topic, your would-be students wouldn’t be able to absorb it all at once.
In fact, the more you know, the harder it can be to teach the basics to someone who has no knowledge at all.
Students can only absorb so much new information at once.
Focus on what you’d share with a person if you had no access to notes or outlines.
Remember to keep it simple, so that your students can actually absorb and integrate what you teach.
Ultimately, this approach will lead to a greater impact than trying to feed them through a firehose of information.
You know more than enough to teach someone who doesn’t know anything at all.
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