Stop Imposter Syndrome Robbing Your Trading Potential.

"I feel like a fraud" and "I feel like I don't deserve my success!" are all too common sentiments of people with a certain kind of low self esteem.

In this week's Mindset Reflexology 'stop imposter syndrome robbing your trading potential' edition, I'll give you reasons why imposter syndrome occurs, who it's most likely to affect and, of course, what you can do to help yourself feel more like the real deal you actually are. Here's to living life with confidence.

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Now, let’s continue and explore this further ...

"The exaggerated esteem in which my life / work is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler."

~ Albert Einstein

Qualified, able, and conscientious people feel tormented by thoughts of not being the 'real deal'. Fears of being found out, exposed, and uncovered as the imposter they feel themselves to be rip away at their self esteem like an inner sadistic heckler who just won't shut up.

And often these highly capable people turn to more knowledge acquisition as their ‘default’ mechanism for overcoming imposter syndrome. This has probably helped them in their previous vocation, so it makes perfect sense to them in trading. Unbeknowns to most it actually works 180 degrees against them in the trading environment.

Jeff (not his real name) is a past client of mine who lived in fear that he'd be uncovered as a fraud at any moment.

He knew this fear was illogical. His Masters in political science, years of experience, and having way more qualifications than most of the people he worked with proved it.

Yet he still sometimes felt like an imposter in his work and this was also showing up in his trading.

Fear of being found out can make us hide our real selves.

Imposter syndrome is something to be overcome in order to thrive in life and work. Especially when, objectively speaking, you are the real deal.

So what do we know about imposter syndrome?

Self esteem shrivels you from the inside

Imposter syndrome - feeling like a fraud - really means feeling unable to internalize one's achievements, abilities, and talents. It's often accompanied by feelings of being overvalued by others and a discomfort with positive feedback. In this way, we can see it has parallels with low self esteem.

Imposter syndrome is not generally considered a psychological disorder as such, but studies in the 1980s found that two out of five successful people considered themselves to be frauds and overvalued.

This really blows my mind! It means that there are millions of capable, smart, able folk who are selling themselves short and not really fulfilling their life and trading potential.

So who is most likely to fall prey to this negatively distorted sense of who they are?

Well, guess what, it's those good folks who tend to be efficient, skilled, conscientious... and prone to guilt.

Essentially, imposter syndrome is the bias of low self esteem clashing against the rocks of disconfirming positive feedback and the discomfort that causes.

We feel fraudulent when we feel overvalued.

In a way, imposter syndrome is delusional - but don't get me wrong here … there are degrees of imposter syndrome.

Real imposters vs. fake imposters

Imposter syndrome is not a psychotic delusion. People with it understand cognitively that they are qualified and experienced. They know they have the knowledge and the ability to trade profitably.

It's just that they feel that they are not really up to the level of success they occupy (or desire to occupy).

Now, of course, some people really are 'not up to it' when it comes to trading.

A 'genuine' imposter, for example, might well have gaps in their skills, knowledge, or ability that gets in the way of trading well and leads to problems. Real imposters, however, tend to have an elevated, rather than a diminished, sense of entitlement and rarely worry about feeling fraudulent. They're much too busy being fraudulent!

Then there are those who are not fraudulent, but incompetent. And there are two kinds of incompetents:

• The first kind know they're inept, recognize they're 'not up to it', and seek to put matters right - either by getting suitable training or looking for another profession more suited to their skill level.
• The second kind don't know it and just keep bungling along.

The long and the short of it is that imposter syndrome is not some kind of psychotic delusion, but more a bias of feeling that primarily operates at a subconscious level.

So how might you transcend 'imposter syndrome', this most pernicious of self limiting distortions?

Tip 1: Don't try to argue yourself out of it

Like any self esteem issue, imposter syndrome is a kind of extreme thinking, a belief. And beliefs can be strong - to the point that some people are prepared to literally die for them.

My point here is that a strong belief can sometimes be strengthened rather than weakened by direct (though well-intentioned) contradiction.

I do see this all the time in the trading education industry. You can’t reduce a strong belief like imposter syndrome by constantly contradicting it, whether this be from the outside to from within yourself. In fact this type of well intentioned thinking actually strengthens the hard wired circuitry of the brain.

Is it any wonder so many otherwise very clever and successful people really struggle to understand and resolve their trading blockages.

Consider this: people suffering from imposter syndrome quickly brush aside any proof of success as something else - luck, timing, other people 'being nice', or the result of managing to convince others that they are more intelligent and competent than they 'really are'.

Imposter syndrome is a highly efficient way of discounting positive feedback. So trying to counter it directly with direct positive feedback isn't the way to go here. This is why affirmations, LOA and other strategies to counter imposter syndrome simply don’t work.

No amount of positive affirmations will work in diminishing imposter syndrome.

Positively motivated affirmations in an attempt to contradict your emotional self is still contradiction. And contradiction of any sort isn't great for a winning partnership between rational and emotional minds. Which is precisely what is required for successful (and peaceful) trading.

As when approaching any form of extreme belief, we need to be both subtle and respectful if we're to have any hope of modifying our feelings so that different facets of life can come into view.

Tip 2: Bring in Dunning-Kruger

Rather than confronting your own self negativity head on, you might later say something to yourself like:

You know... I can't help being reminded by all this of the Dunning-Kruger effect. That's the phenomenon researchers have identified where the poorest performers are the least aware of their lack of competence and the best performers feel overvalued because they just can't believe that other people can't do what they do so well...

Then change the inner narrative and talk/think to something else.

This is an example of 'seeding' an idea for the unconscious mind.

For seeding to work, it should be presented as indirectly as possible and left alone long enough to 'take' in the emotional mind, undisturbed by the conditioned responses of the conscious mind.

Describing known patterns, such as both the Dunning-Kruger effect and imposter syndrome, is a great way of presenting reality objectively and learning how to pattern match to yourself for yourself. This allows you to see the truth of your own cognitive distortion more easily 'from the outside', thereby loosening its grip on you.

But again I stress that it's not so effective to jump straight in with this immediately after you have experienced feeling like a fraud. Often seeking input and guidance from a trained expert (especially one with an understanding of the trading environment) is your best bet.

Ideas that will help strengthen your objective 'mindful' observing self can be considered and integrated later, when you are less anxious to defend your limitations.

The final tip is one I have found to be incredibly powerful in loosening all forms of imposter syndrome.

Tip 3: Remind yourself that it's all made up

When somebody is really efficient, creative, driven, or able in any way, it can be hard for them to understand that not everyone finds what they can do easy or even possible.

Okay, so that's clear. But there is, I think, another reason why millions of people can feel perfectly genuine when some title or role is bestowed upon them. And when you clarify this for people (and maybe even yourself?), it can feel like a huge relief.

Remind yourself that all institutions, all titles, all organizations and fields of study, all job titles, and all august and traditional academic and professional bodies, were, at one time, simply made up. Imagined. Dreamed up. Invented and instituted by someone.

An idea like this is often best reflected upon while you are away from the bubble of trading.

I might recommend it to you something like this:

"And you know, when you think about it... and feel about it, it's not surprising that so many people fall into feeling somehow that they are an imposter. Maybe it's because it's easy to forget that everything was, at one time or another, dreamed up by someone because... it's all made up. Humankind started off pretty basic, maybe living in trees with other primates. We came down from the trees, but we didn't find Cambridge University or Harvard or the tax office or electrical engineering jobs or psychologists already waiting for us. It's all made up. We were a bunch of primates in trees and at some time in our history someone invented universities, medical establishments, legal procedures, titles... it was all made up... And through the ages, all that stuff was simply... made up... from make believe by someone... ideas that came into someone's head... a process that began tens of thousands of years ago... in the seeds of the imagination... as paintings on cave walls... it was all made up... and that's fine... you can be cool and relax with that... and maybe even be an innovator yourself... as this is part of your human heritage and destiny..."

People are so often overawed by institutions, job titles, and 'ancient' professional bodies. So it can be a great thing to contextualize all that.

In your efforts to truly understand human nature and its relationship with the markets and trading them profitably, the study of trading can take you down many roads, some of them way back into human history.

Remember this: you are not an imposter, you were born worthy. The same as everyone else. Whatever you achieve in life makes you no more or less worthy. Your trading outcomes have nothing to do with you worth. Trading is simpy something we do to test our competency and engage in continuous improvement (and make good money along the way!)

Till next time; happy, peaceful trading!

Ash

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