Imposter syndrome holds you back and keeps you from taking that next big step. If you let it overpower you, nothing good will ever happen in your life. You will remain where you are, stuck in an unhealthy loop. In this episode, April Shprintz shares a simple yet impactful exercise that will help you escape the grip of imposter syndrome and unlock a more meaningful version of yourself.
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The #1 Fix For Imposter Syndrome
I am so glad you are here. Something that has been popping up in more and more client conversations and conversations with folks via social media and reaching out to me when I email is imposter syndrome and how feeling that fear of taking that next big step is holding folks back. I’m sure if you are a regular reader, you know I have done an episode on imposter syndrome where we talked about the three things that I use to help me get through it.
The first one is that I know everyone feels this feeling that no one is there when they first get there. You are stepping into a new role. You are stepping into a new thing. The second one is a sign that you care. Imposter syndrome means nothing more than you want to do an amazing job, and then the third one, which I say is to borrow belief. Whether it’s from the person who promoted you into this new role, your spouse, your significant other who’s asking you to do this new challenging thing, or even clients who have hired you to help them borrow their belief that you can do this new big thing.
I say this all the time but everyone feels this every time they go to challenge themselves in a new way. If you are someone who wants to do the borrowed belief, but you are like, “How do I do that? Where do I get that from? I can’t even remember who believed in me when I’m in my head and I’m not knowing how I’m going to move forward with this big challenging thing.”
I have a great exercise for you so that you can proactively prepare yourself with a winning book that will help you in these times. I say proactively because I want you to do this when you are not in imposter syndrome. The thing is when you are in it, you can’t see all these wonderful things that you would see so much more easily when you are in a good place.
When you are in imposter syndrome, you can't see all these wonderful things that you would see easily when you are in a good place. Share on X
The next time you are in a good place, I want you to start to gather these things. On your phone, put them in your Notes app so that you can easily reference them when you need to and you will have them with you at any time. The first one is a list of things that you have done that everyone said was impossible.
For me, this would be going to college, being on television, starting my own company, having that company be successful, and making $1 million. Any of these things that you wanted to do that were important to you and you went and made them happen and other people said that they weren’t even possible because those are things that you easily forget when you have already accomplished those meaningful things.
Imposter Syndrome: Meaningful things other people said weren’t possible to achieve are easily forgotten when you have already accomplished them.
The next thing I want you to put on there is congratulations from others. Snap a quick screenshot when people say, “That’s amazing that you did X. I saw this and it was phenomenal.” Those times that you inspire other people or they want to recognize how great you are. A lot of times, if you are a high achiever, you do not celebrate your wins with anywhere near the intensity that you beat down on yourself when you think you didn’t win. When other people share that with you, I want you to keep it and put it into this list of things that you are going to look at when you are suffering from imposter syndrome.
The other one is, the impact you have made on others. This is different from the congratulations. Maybe you didn’t win some big award. Maybe you didn’t do some huge thing, but you did something that touched someone, that helped them, that impacted their life. You did something that to you may have been a Tuesday, may have been such a normal thing, but, “That thing that you said to me the other day, that text you sent, and that time you took to call me on the phone and lift me, that changed everything for me.”
Imposter Syndrome: Even though you didn’t win some big award, what’s more fascinating is how you touch someone else’s life.
I want you to keep a list of when people tell you that you have made that impact on them. If you are having a hard time coming up with this, do this with a friend because a lot of times, they are a lot more aware of how impactful you are to other people than you are. This is the last one. I want you to put on that list the times that you surprised yourself.
Imposter Syndrome: Most of the time, your friends are a lot more aware of how impactful you are to other people than you are.
You know you have done it. You have accomplished something or figured something out, or gotten through something that you thought, “I didn’t think I was going to make it,” and you did. You surprised yourself at how well you did with it, how quickly you were able to overcome it, or how it ended up being not that big of a deal. Put it on the list.
The next time you are suffering from imposter syndrome and you have reminded yourself that not anyone is in that place of being there when they first step into something, it does mean that you care. Remember when you go to borrow belief, all of these reasons that you can borrow that belief from so many different places, the biggest one being your past and what you have done before, this is possible for you because look what you did before you got here. Here’s to your success.
