Freedom from Impostor Syndrome

I wrote about this disruptive condition in my weekly newsletter a couple of weeks ago and explained in more detail how there are only a few people unaffected by it at some time or other in their lives.

As I said in the newsletter it’s quite difficult to pin down the root cause and unfortunately there is no one answer we can apply for everyone. It’s not an ‘illness’ so there’s no treatment, vaccine or ‘pill’ we can prescribe to get rid of it.

It’s also very difficult to deal with it alone. A ‘diy’ approach could cause even more ‘problems’ and may be counter productive. What is needed is what therapists and counsellors call ‘an intervention’. It’s not a term I particularly like as it makes the process which needs to be followed sound simple, but in reality an intervention could be a long and detailed process.

Believe me, impostor syndrome is by no means easy to eliminate, but it can be done. There are three steps. First to understand the root cause and then to trace the journey we took to get from ‘there’ to ‘here’ and then to establish a new way of thinking and feeling so we can prevent it in the future.

We can’t effectively do this by ourselves but need coaching, therapy and mentoring to make it happen. Personally, it took me around seven years to achieve this and I know through my own experience how to help.

Wherever we are in life and whatever level of this anomaly we’re experiencing we need to deal with it to make the progress we’re looking for.