So, today is the last episode on our series, “Lies We Tell Ourselves.” 

This series is foundational to everything we teach in my business. Because we’re never really taught in our career that our ability to achieve our goals doesn’t come from good breaks or great bosses or networking or even being great at what you do. Sure, those things are important. But you can HAVE those things and STILL find yourself stuck and miserable.

Why?

Because you can work as hard as you’d like but if you don’t learn how to manage your mind you can easily find yourself living in uncertainty, fear, self-doubt no matter how success you LOOK on the outside. If you don’t purposefully direct your brain, what’s going on INSIDE can make you miserable. 

And when you’re not connected to the real source of the issue, it’s easy to spend your time chasing opportunity. Looking for the perfect boss. Or the “right” title or salary. Or a better culture. Or whatever.

And I’m not saying those things aren’t important. But what I AM saying is that you can have all the great things. You can have everything you always said you ever wanted. And still be miserable. And you might not even know why if you don’t connect into what’s going on inside.

In your brain.  

And that concept is especially relevant today because we’re going to talk about the last “lie” in this series which is “I’m a fraud.”

This is a hallmark of Imposter Syndrome, a pattern of thought that causes you to doubt your abilities, hence the thought “I’m a fraud.” And it disproportionately affects high achievers, especially those who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. In fact, researchers say up to 80 percent of people report having Imposter-like thoughts at some point in their career. 

I’m very well acquainted with this one so I’ve got a lot of perspective to share here that I think will be super helpful for so many of you. 

So, let’s dive in.

Now you might hear a statistic like 80% and wonder, how can that be true? Well, apparently it is, because according to the National Institute of Health, in 2019, there was a review of 62 studies on Imposter Syndrome and according to THAT, up to 82% of people report having thoughts along these lines at some point.

And it’s also important to note that most of them are women, though it does affect men too. And as I said earlier, it disproportionately affects high achievers. It can impact anyone in any profession at any stage of their life – from college up to the most senior level corporate executives or entrepreneurs.

And the problem with this Imposter thought pattern is that you end up working harder than you need to because you’re holding yourself to impossibly high standards. And it will eventually take a toll on your emotional wellbeing (and maybe physical too). And even though you’re literally KILLING yourself to deliver top caliber – maybe unachievable – standard of work, the thought pattern actually can impact your work performance. 

So, what does Imposter Syndrome look like? 

Well, it’s characterized by a pattern of thought that’s grounded in something called “perceived fraudulence.” I sort of think about it as a set of “beliefs” or rules that a high achiever develops that maybe early on in their career drives them forward. But eventually, because it’s a level of performance that is unattainable and so therefore, is unsustainable, if it’s not addressed, it can have the opposite effect. And honestly? It just makes you

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