What is imposter syndrome?
Ever felt like you weren’t good enough? Maybe before a talk/presentation/event you’ve had that panic of ‘oh my god what if they find out I don’t know what i’m talking about’ Maybe you struggle to accept compliments for fear of appearing arrogant or you fail to accept that your hard work is the root of your success and not this ‘luck’ you claim to have.
All of these are traits of what is commonly known as imposter syndrome
‘a pattern of behaviour where people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalised fear of being exposed as a fraud’ (www.psychologytoday.com)
Imposter syndrome can really put the breaks on performance, business and personal growth, due to its direct links to procrastination and avoidance behaviour.
Key traits of imposter syndrome include, hiding from doing things incase of being ‘found to be a fraud’, avoiding decision making, being overly self critical, deflecting compliments, having negatively fuelled core beliefs and in some cases lying to avoid being ‘found out!’
If we delve deeply enough into imposter syndrome, the clients I have worked with, after much discussion, have identified that the stimulus for this comes from our Core Beliefs. Now Core Beliefs are values and principles which we have created and believe to be absolute truths. They determine how we perceive and interpret the world and grow with us.
An example of a Core Belief which I see with many performance clients is ‘It is bad to be arrogant’.
Now this is a core belief which I have found to be directly linked to Imposture syndrome.
Let me break this down…
If we are saying imposter syndrome is a pattern of behaviour which elicits a doubt of accomplishment within a persons’ ability, then the direct opposite of this would be an individual being able to accept, and dare I say it, even celebrate their knowledge and achievements, holding themselves accountable!
Sounds simple enough….but if we look at the traits of ‘arrogance’ as we perceive this …
\ ‘Arrogance = proud in an unpleasant way and behaving as if you are better or more important than other people' - Cambridge Dictionary
Hmmmmmm….so maybe this fine line of being ‘proud of our achievements’ and being proud in ‘an unpleasant way’ is what is causing us to shy away from celebrating our accomplishments…therefore holding us back from accepting them…after all we wouldn’t want other people to think we thought we were better than them….so to avoid this ‘pride’ in our own work altogether is a sure fire way to not offend anyone! (ahhh so British!)
So by not wanting to come across as arrogant we are encouraging the antitheses… self criticism and imposter syndrome. The fear of a slight risk of offending someone according to our Core Beliefs is enough to prohibit our personal growth and take risks within our careers and personal life.
Yet we know that these risks which seem the greatest are usually the ones which reap the rewards and push businesses and people forward.
So what can we do?
First of all, let's accept this!!!
By fighting our Core Beliefs we are creating inner conflict. Core beliefs are principles we have shaped our world with, so trying to change them over night seems a pretty stressful idea!
However using this to our advantage and re-modeling our ideas sounds like a lot less work.
Is there a way in which our little imposter monkey can actually help us progress?
Yes! Absolutely!
There is a strong argument which states how imposter syndrome encourages growth. By questioning your knowledge and abilities you are continuing to seek new information and growth. You are aware that you are not the ‘finished product’ (who is!??) therefore you will continue to develop which leaves you open to new opportunities!! I guess when you put it this way its pretty awesome.
How about by replacing the ‘cannot’ and ‘not good enough’ with ‘there is so much more to learn’ and ‘ I am always expanding and open to more knowledge’ ‘i cant wait to see how I can improve on this!’ We can reframe this negativity into a positive and use it as fuel to keep progressing!
A podcast I listened to recently spoke about the idea of being sufficiently de-satisfied, the idea of being happy but also with ambition to learn and grow…
Be excited to see what you can learn and achieve, feel empowered to unlock your potential and step briefly into the future and look back to where you have come from….feel that? That is the sense of achievement of things which are to come!