Imposter Syndrome – what is it and how can we overcome it?

Do you ever think:

Who am I to be talking about this?
Am I really capable enough to be offering this service and charging clients?
How does everyone else seem to know exactly what they’re doing?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone!!

This feeling that you aren’t as qualified, that you don’t belong, that you’re about to be exposed as a fraud is called imposter syndrome… and it’s universal. This is to say heaps of people suffer from it, particularly women.

It doesn’t matter how successful you are, you can still be crippled by it. In fact, smart, ambitious, high-achieving people are more likely to feel like frauds!

Keep scrolling for a mindset tool that will help you overcome the imposter syndrome…

How imposter syndrome impacts us

These “fraudy” feelings and imposter thoughts:

keep us playing small
hold us back
stop us from taking action towards our goals
feed our fears
feed our inner critic
are linked to low-vibe emotions like; sadness, frustration, anger, loneliness – and no one is going to succeed in business and life when they feel like this!

Yuk.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

There is some good news though! There are ways to combat these thoughts and feelings. First of all, you need to be AWARE imposter syndrome is creeping in and then have tools ready to overcome it.

What’s a tool to fight off imposter feelings?

A super powerful (and actually quite easy to do) tool to fight the imposter feelings is creating a brag sheet – a document that acknowledges and celebrates you and each of your achievements.

Sounds awesome doesn’t it. Because it it <3

How to write a brag sheet:

Create a digital folder/ spreadsheet/ word document (whatever suits you best) where you will collate all the information.
Spend some time finding ALL the lovely feedback you have ever received from clients/ friends/ family/ colleagues/ ex-bosses, your grandma and copy and paste it into one place. This may be a bit of an admin task but once it’s done it will a) feel AWESOME and b) be super easy for you to keep up to date as you go forward.
Create a section called ‘strengths and successes’ and write down as much as you can. Think about how you’ve got to where you are today. Which of your natural qualities and abilities have enabled you to get this far? What have you accomplished? What are you most proud of?
List your failures, focussing on the lessons they taught you and how they lead you to where you are now.
Finally, read it over and recognise you are EXACTLY where you deserve to be – just look at all the evidence you have to prove this!
Print off your brag sheet, have it somewhere visual/ easy to access digitally and look at it regularly.

Ultimately, this tool is designed to transform some negative belief systems that are keeping you small and preventing you from shining like the amazing star that you really are.

It’s an opportunity to take away a bunch of power from your inner critic and to feed your inner cheerleader instead. And sometimes, the imposter syndrome and that negative inner dialogue is so loud, we need something practical like this brag sheet to drown it out.

Tips to supercharge this tool and overcome imposter for good:

This should be a working document. Put a reminder in your calendar each month or quarter to update it with every new achievement and compliment – small or large.
If you’re struggling to think of your strengths, text 5-10 people in your sphere (mixture of friends/ clients/ ex-colleagues/ family) and ask them what they think your strengths are. Chances are lots of them will say similar things and you will get a great insight into your strengths.
Every time I get a nice email, I save it to a “feedback’ folder in my emails. This would be a brag folder 😉 I still recommend copying and pasting these nice words into your brag sheet though so you have it all in one beautiful, loving place.

Does writing a brag sheet seem impossible?

Perhaps your imposter syndrome/ low confidence/ inner critic is particularly strong at this moment. Take a breath. It’s OK. It can be really hard to switch off a certain way of thinking. Schedule a free 30-minute call with me and let’s do some brainstorming together. I can be your cheerleader until yours is strong enough to take over.