"What if this was just luck? What if I'm found as, like, a fraud? What if I'm not good enough?"
Simple questions on impostor syndrome, answered by an expert.
Simple questions on impostor syndrome, answered by an expert.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00imposter syndrome is essentially when you achieve something like so incredible and you start to
00:03question yourself you start thinking what if this was just luck what if i'm found as like a fraud
00:07what if i'm not good enough yeah it absolutely sucks
00:19so you might recognize that you have imposter when you're really anxious about making mistakes
00:24and when you do make mistakes you're very concerned about how they are perceived by
00:28other people feeling that they're going to reveal that you don't belong where you belong
00:33or that you're not as good as people think you are and it can also look like over functioning
00:38and over work where you are constantly functioning and working at levels that are far beyond other
00:44people and feel like if you stop doing that you won't get what you have gotten in the past
00:53the number is that's typically reported about 70 percent of people experience imposter syndrome so
00:57about three out of four so people often think oh this is an experience of early career it's not
01:03senior level executives can experience these specific executives can experience it if you
01:06haven't dealt with it you can likely experience it throughout your career and then also too a lot
01:11of people say women only experience it the research is inconclusive and suggests that
01:15that actually both gender genders can experience it were you ever pressured to do well in school
01:25yes would you ever criticize for every mistake that you make uh yeah were you constantly compared
01:29to assembly holy crap imposter syndrome comes from the experience as of childhood and from family
01:35dynamics and so typically there are three typical childhood roles that are common so you either were
01:42the intelligent one so the one in which things were easy for you and um when things didn't come
01:48easy for you you felt like it was it was evidence that you weren't as smart as everyone thought you
01:52or the hard working one and that's the one where there there was usually somebody designated as the
01:57intelligent one you weren't that one and so everything as a result had to come from extremely
02:01hard work and then there's a third type which is um when you didn't get labeled as either one of
02:07those as a result of either abuse or neglect um and so your achievements were about kind of getting
02:13out of where you were in terms of circumstances in childhood it's not a mental health condition
02:21in and of itself it is correlated though with several diagnoses including anxiety depression
02:26um and low self-esteem and and chronic burnout and so for example if you are constantly worried
02:33that people are going to find you out as a fraud it can make you very anxious you have this fear
02:36of being found out and that someone will eventually show you up to be a fraud and not worthy of all
02:41the responsibilities you've been given in terms of depression it it really can leave you feeling
02:45bad about yourself all the time because every time you screw up you feel like it's some kind
02:48of revelation that you're a fraud i stumbled upon this comedian cheryl underwood talking about her
02:56early on in her career she had to act in a bunch of scenes with tupac and she was freaking out
03:01naturally but tupac said to her do what got you invited the first step is really knowing where
03:06it came from someone understands that if they really realize okay if this got started as a
03:11result of something that happened as i can break this this doesn't have to be the rest of my life
03:15it's not and it's not um characteristic of who i am how are you talking about yourself your skills
03:21your accomplishments to yourself and to others that is really reinforcing imposter syndrome and
03:26keeping it stuck in the way that it is um and then how do you choose a different narrative that
03:32actually is probably more accurate and more relevant to the situation that will help push you
03:36into really believing who you truly are another step is really dealing with um telling people
03:43about it and not not living in your own kind of you know private hell sometimes around it and
03:48really sharing this experience with other people or confidants and really being able to celebrate
03:53your wins and and moments of of accomplishment with them it's hard to overcome your imposter
03:59syndrome and it takes work and it takes effort and if you really want it badly it's really possible
04:03but you have to commit to doing the work