Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

One of the issues with success is that we sometimes end up in places and suddenly think, “Wait. How did I get here? Who am I to be sitting at this table? Do I really deserve this?” 

Imposter syndrome is real and it can be debilitating. It keeps us from using our voices, from sharing our unique perspectives, and from taking necessary risks.

I’ll share a moment of imposter syndrome I have felt recently. 

• As you may know by now, I am writing a book. I have a complete manuscript and it is about to be handed off to a professional editor. On most days, I feel pretty good about it. I am also an avid reader (as you also likely know). There are moments when I am reading and I run across a particularly moving passage or a great selection of words and I am suddenly in awe of the writer. My next thought is usually “Who do you think you are, thinking that someone might actually pick up a book written by YOU and be moved in any way even remotely close to that?”

Here’s the thing. Even writing this, I worry that you are reading this and thinking “Yeah, seriously, who DO you think you are?” But I also have heard from enough incredibly successful women that they have thought the same thing along the way and even still have these thoughts. And I think about what would have been lost or missed if they hadn’t managed and overcome their imposter syndrome. 

Sometimes it’s as easy as getting out of my head and saying one of the following lines to myself:

• “If she could do it, so can you.”
• “I’m not for everyone. I don’t have to be for everyone. But I know there are at least a few people out there who need me to take this risk.”
• “How will you know if you don’t try?”
• “But what if you are?” (qualified, important, capable, …)

Sometimes I have to dig a little deeper, but often one of these reminders will pull me up and out of the pit. 

What I’ve learned from the people I admire from afar is that imposter syndrome is not something you get over completely. It’s something that will keep showing up when I’m taking a risk or doing something new, and I just need to have a strategy to manage it. 

Do you face imposter syndrome? What are your strategies to deal with it?