Impostor Syndrome: Why Accomplished Women Doubt Themselves

In 20 years of working with clinicians and leaders, I’ve noticed something.

The more educated and accomplished a person is, the more capable they are, and the more likely they are to feel like a fraud—especially those with the title, the credentials, and the people who seek out their opinion.  They're the ones telling themselves they've somehow gotten this far by a fluke, or by somehow fooling people into believing in them.

I know my readers, and I bet that many of you recognize yourselves in these words. Here’s a different way to look at it. That voice, the one that insists you're just an impostor?  That isn’t a sign something is wrong with you. It’s a sign of a gap.

On the outside, you show up calm, prepared, in control. On the inside, you feel the doubt, the overwhelm, the winging it. So you compare your inside experience to everyone else’s outsides. Of course you come up short. And you're aware, too, that people experience you differently than you do yourself.  The brain interprets this disconnect as more evidence of something wrong. But everyone has an inside. Every polished colleague in the room is a mix of calm strength and hot mess, just like you.  And me, too.  So many people experience impostor feelings in some shape or form. The feeling is real. The conclusion is not. In my new blog post, I talk about where the impostor experience comes from, three patterns that set the stage, and why the next credential or promotion never fixes it. Plus what to do the next time the voice shows up.

Read: Why You Feel Like an Impostor

This is also the first in a series. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll send two short follow-ups. The first is about what to do once you catch that old voice: how to change a belief that has been running for years. It’s not the way most of us try. The second is about why this work is so hard to do alone, and what makes it possible. Let's work on this together.  Stay tuned. Here in your corner,~Penni 

 P.S. When your energy runs low, the impostor voice gets louder. If you’ve been feeling it, take the free Burnout Assessment here.