We Are All Imposters...Until We're Not!

Does it ever feel like no matter how hard you work, it’s just not good enough? Do you find that you have spent hours working towards perfecting your skills, trying to get your efforts recognized, and still feeling like you just don’t belong?

You’re not alone.

70% of the population has experienced symptoms consistent with Imposter syndrome according to multiple data stats. While Imposter syndrome is not an official diagnosis, it can rob you of the opportunity to experience a positive mood after achieving or working so hard towards your goals. This can lead towards reinforcing negative thoughts of self-doubt, feeling like a fraud, and may potentially cripple your self-esteem.

Despite your concrete achievements, you still find ways to discount your progress; you find ways to give credit to other people or contribute your accomplishments to external sources such as: Good luck, or right timing. You start to create a pattern that perpetuates the cycle of irrational beliefs. Rather than focus on what you have done to earn the credit, you accept the external sources as facts and quickly move onto a new task, a new goal.

This can be a hard pattern to break.

When we live in the constant thoughts of believing we are frauds…we are imposters, we stifle our opportunities to grow; we lose our time to experience purposefulness and miss the chances on finding meaningful experiences in our work. This may lead to difficulties in our relationships, in our work environments, or in our personal lives.

So what do we do when we believe that we are imposters?

YOU FIGHT IT!

Challenge that feeling and stop doing yourself a disservice!

Keep these 4 steps as tools to have on your fighting journey:

Step 1: Reflect on the achievement.

Step 2: Remind yourself of the work and the effort that it took to get there & praise that.

Step 3: Remember the mistakes you explored and learned from your journey.

Step 4: Share your thoughts and feelings with a trusted mentor, colleague, friend, or partner so that they can offer perspective and context.

Feeling or thinking that you are an imposter is not unique to you. We all experience these thoughts from time to time and when we do, the feelings that come from it feel like our truth. However, our truth can be found in our hard work, our efforts, & tears. Our truth comes from the grit that we endured and push through to get there!

If you struggle beyond imposter syndrome and notice a pattern of negative thoughts, shame or depressive symptoms reach out to your local #rootcapcounselor and set an appointment today by emailing rootcapcounseling@gmail.com.