About 75 percent of all women suffer from impostor syndrome. Feeling like you’re just winging it, that you’re not really qualified to do what you’re doing, that you don’t really have your act together, and sooner or later you’ll be exposed as a fraud .
It may be reassuring that you are definitely not the only one. But it can really ruin your life. It makes you insecure, wary, unnecessarily modest. You miss opportunities, you sabotage yourself. Or you’re working way too hard to prove yourself. Not to mention the unkind and undermining things you constantly tell yourself in your head.
I recently wrote a new “about me” page for my website, where I open up about my own skirmishes with the impostor. You can read it here.
But what can you do about it? Because please don’t tell me you are going to spend the rest of your life being weighed down by the idea that you’re not good enough, and sooner or later will be exposed!
I’ll give you a few tips.
1. be transparent. Not unnecessarily modest, but simply honest. Be upfront about your diplomas and qualifications, your experience, talents and ambitions.. Don’t beat around the bush. Then you know for sure that you have nothing to hide.
2. Separate your feelings about yourself from the facts. If necessary, hire someone who can look objectively.
3. collect evidence of your successes
4. own your successes. In other words: recognize that it was you who arranged this, got it done, organized, wrote, made this etc. And what results it yielded
5. get to know and defuse your critical voice
You may find it difficult to do this all by yourself. The good news is: I have two 1-on-1 spaces opening up in May.
Book your free exploratory call here.
Hope to see you soon!
