Defeating ‘impostor syndrome’ is a must

June 8, 2015
Filed under: Coach's Corner — Tags: , , , — jonimar @ 12:34 pm

Q: I’ve been the COO for three years, yet I still question how I got here. To avoid being discovered as a fraud I work 14 hours a day, six days a week. It is draining and I’m burning out. How do I stop this crazy cycle?

A: Your fear and self doubt are both common and especially prevalent with high achievers who strive to give their best to every endeavour. Research shows that even with evidence of competence or capability, 70 per cent of people suffer from a phenomenon called the ‘impostor syndrome.’

Unfortunately, running to stay ahead of your anxiety will never allow you to savour your successes or feel a sense of satisfaction.

A common mistake is to attribute your successes to external forces, and blame yourself solely for every failure.

Reprogram your thinking by identifying what you did to create the win and acknowledge yourself for it. Rebalance your thinking. Focus your attention on what you are doing well. Stop fixating on the one small item you did wrong that is likely now magnified out of proportion. End the self-defeating comparison game. How can that even be fair when you downplay your successes and elevate others? You automatically lose when measuring other’s outsides to your insides. Their appearance of confidence is no match for your feelings of anxiety.

Acting as if you are confident can lead to actual confidence by altering your brain chemistry. Psychologist Amy Cuddy explains this in her 2012 Ted Talk, Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.

The gift of the self doubt to date is it has motivated you to accomplish great things, however at a great cost. Self awareness is the first step to managing the syndrome. Now observe when it is running you and apply the steps above to thwart it.

Reprinted from The Province, June 7, 2015.

Comments

Comments are closed.