What is Imposter Syndrome? - Video Transcript

Hey everyone, I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist and today I want to talk about impostor syndrome um if you don't know what this is, it's basically a conflict between our self perception and the way others perceive us. So um oftentimes we will see ourselves as being less smart or less skilled or less competent than other people in our field and sort of feel like were fraudulent, um you know, that's where the word imposter comes from, sort of like we're an imposter and everyone else in our industry or our field kind of knows what they're doing and and is competent in what they're doing, but the problem is this is not at all how others perceive us.

So we often spend time sort of overcompensating for these feelings of being an imposter by working more and any sense of success or achievement that we experience, we kind of brush off or we attribute it to luck or sort of something outside of ourselves. It's it's really hard for us to acknowledge our achievements.

So this is extremely common in high achieving people. Um it does tend to be a bit more common in women and minority groups, but it can definitely affect men as well. I've had several male clients who have experienced imposter syndrome. So I think it's important to just kind of be aware of your beliefs about yourself and your performance in your field or your industry and to really try to reframe them or challenge them if you find that you are um feeling fraudulent or feeling like you're not as competent as your peers and I think it's important to remember too that, you know, there's so much to learn, there's so much knowledge out there that it's just impossible to retain it all or to even have access to it all, you know.

Um so you might as well pick a few areas to really focus your energy on and become more of an expert in versus having your hand and everything, but really ultimately just kind of being mediocre and not very um very educated or very skilled or knowledgeable in any of the areas, you know, so um definitely try not to compare yourself to your colleagues.

You might be really good and excel in one or two areas and they might be really good in or excel in other areas. And so that doesn't mean that one of you is better than the other, it just means that you have different strengths, right? And that's that's sort of what makes a um a team or a corporation or a company work is that everybody has something to bring to the table.

So you can't do it all. You know, you can't be perfect and just keep that in mind that um if you are experiencing impostor syndrome, this is extremely common and there are ways to kind of shift those beliefs about yourself, so if you're still struggling definitely reach out and see how I might be able to help, you can leave a comment or ask a question, be sure to follow me, um, at cathartic space counseling on facebook and instagram, and I put out new videos every week.

So stay tuned for new content and hopefully you'll find it useful. Um, have a great weekend and I'll see you next time.