Feeling Like A Fraud

Our minds are powerful. That power can help us achieve much more than what was once conceivable as possible.

I repeat: your mind is your greatest, most powerful weapon.

When your mind power is not operated towards the right direction, it downward spirals, and becomes the greatest weapon against yourself.

The greatest self-sabotage is caused by imposter syndrome.

Feeling like a fraud is your biggest enemy. Men and women equally experience it, but it is said that more women admit to having it.

It is estimated that 70% of people experience imposter syndrome in a new academic or professional environment at some point in their lives.

Contrary to belief, imposter syndrome often doesn't just "go away." The syndrome is a symptom of something much deeper that the individual was not aware of, until they find themselves in a new stage in life, or in a new environment.

Meaning, imposter syndrome can be dormant, and not a big deal, until you're in a situation where you're truly challenged. A big role. Entrepreneurship. Pushing for more success than it was ever expected of you. A new boss, company restructuring, or merging.

Being surrounded by a bunch of accomplished and/or critical people can bring out the worst self-doubt in you.

WHAT IMPOSTER SYNDROME FEELS LIKE:

1. You got to your current level of success by a series of luck, gimmicks, or coincidences, and you'll be found out that you're actually unfit to deserve success.
2. You don't belong where you are, and you won't be able to handle what's coming up next (because you're a fraud).
3. You will soon be stripped and revealed of your incompetence, and you'll pay the price with public shame, demotion, and fail your loved ones.

WHAT IMPOSTER SYNDROME DOES TO YOU:

1. You can't perform and learn. You constantly feel unsafe, fear making mistakes, fear saying and doing the wrong things. You fear mistakes, which acts like a confirmation that you're no good. Under this constant fear, your performance truly goes down. Your mind will give you exactly what you continue to picture and see.
2. You have massive fear around being visible as your true self. You doubt yourself constantly, and need others to validate you, and reaffirm your thoughts.
3. You make safe choices so you don't have to risk finding out that you're not good enough. You never shoot for anything much bigger, because you already decided in your mind what is "realistic" for you. This fear of rejection leads you to make safe choices in your profession, and even when it comes to making other big decisions, such as choosing your intimate partner.
4. You see the world in clear hierarchy, with some people much better than you, and you're much better than some others, and you rank yourself somewhere between. You have a drastically oscillating level of self-belief that is tied to the externals: your ranking in this hierarchy. How you feel about yourself literally changes from day to day. You need a lot of "proof" and external validation that you're okay.
5. Inauthentic persona: Persistent anxiety and panic leads you to connect inauthentically with others. You either become an all-time happy person who is always positive and pleasant to others (to cover up and suppress the negative feelings), or, become withdrawn, isolated, and even "cold" or "rude" in your demeanour.
6. You devalue yourself and shoot yourself in the foot. You settle for less salary for a more "comfortable" environment. You always try to prove your worth by giving a lot. You know you're successful, but have a hard time feeling that you are. You start something that matters to you, and don't follow through. You have a hard time with focus, and looking after your best interests. You don't have the resilience to continue when things don't pan out easily.
7. You stay in your comfort zone, even when you know the path you're in is not what you ideally want for your long-term vision. You stop planning past your current "reality." You make changes, but mostly, you stay in some version of your "reality," rather than giving a chance towards what you really want.

The verdict? Imposter syndrome is a silent and a soft killer that quietly holds you back, without being obvious. It keeps you from living in high energy and joy. It keeps you from fully experiencing your life. It wrecks you professionally, which means, your personal life will also be affected. It keeps you small, and you'll unconsciously keep making yourself smaller, that eventually, you look back after years have gone by to realize that you've missed out on so much in your life.

What is the antidote? Building real confidence, resilience, and personal power through deep self-reflection, self-identity, and role repair.

Authority-based conditioning (parenting, traditional schooling) makes most modern day humans easily susceptible to imposter syndrome. Overcoming it requires one to rebuild yourself from the ground up, and free yourself from toxic comparisons and punishing subconscious patterns.

Trust the power of your mind, and learn to hyper-focus towards your excellence.

To find out more about how to help yourself in your situation, book a chat with me here: https://go.oncehub.com/Julia-Cha 

About the Author:

Julia Cha is a best-selling author and a success coach for women leaders ready to shatter glass ceilings. With her expertise in subconscious transformation, she guides her clients to create their dream life in all aspects: a thriving career, financial abundance, and supportive relationships.

Learn more: www.juliacha.com

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