Overcoming imposter syndrome is something I believe most women desire. Many women I have worked with have experienced impostor syndrome in their business or career at least once. Here, I would like to give you a different perspective on how to beat imposter syndrome. What if imposter syndrome was not what you thought it was? Could it be something completely different?
What happens if it is actually a part of your identity that you haven’t embodied yet? This is what I want to discuss, along with overcoming impostor syndrome in a way that feels natural to you.
What Is Impostor Syndrome?
Imposter syndrome is a popular topic for women. It is something that I’ve experienced in the past myself. And it is something that my clients experience. It is something many women in business will experience at one time or another in their life.
In short, impostor syndrome is the feeling of being a fraud, or having the inability to feel that their success is deserved. Often this happens when there is a disconnect between who you are and who you desire to be.
Many women will experience this at some stage. There are many reasons why women feel this, which also depends on your personal experience and level of conviction in your gifts and expertise.
Without going into the ins and outs of impostor syndrome, I want to give you another perspective.
After working intimately with over 4o0 women and training thousands more, I notice impostor syndrome shows up very differently for each person. And more often than not, the problem they were facing went a little deeper than impostor syndrome.
I asked myself, “what if it is something different?”
There is science behind why women experience imposter syndrome. However, what I have discovered for 15 years of working with women, is that imposter syndrome may be masking something deeper.
Overcoming impostor Syndrome
Which is why I wanted to write on the link between imposter syndrome and identity, along with overcoming impostor syndrome. What I see is that knowing who you are as a woman will mean you may experience imposter syndrome less, then if you weren’t grounded into your identity.
When you feel questions arise within you such as, am I really cut out for this? Should I change direction? Maybe I should burn my business to the ground? It may be one of these things, but it may not be any of those.
What if you’re working against your unique gifts, talents and genius? Could you be doing something completely different to what you should be doing? But you feel like you’ve stepped into this work because of expectations, or it is something you’ve fallen into?
You feel you have imposter syndrome. You may be telling people that you have imposter syndrome, but deeper there’s something else going on.
Most often or not, it is not being fully connected to yourself, but there could be other reasons. I’m not saying that it is the actual reason. From experience and what I see and understand is that sometimes it goes deeper than that.
There is a link with being disconnected from yourself and not knowing who you are in your core. When you love what you do, you fully embrace your work. You can just keep working and getting in the zone of work, then you can find yourself starting to disconnect because you have lost yourself in your work.
Integrating New Levels of Identity
As you elevate higher in your career or business and you haven’t taken the time to connect with yourself along the way, imposter syndrome will arise. This happens because you need to take on and integrate new elements of your identity. For example, your business is at 6 figures, but you are working towards a seven figure business. Then there are different steps that you need to take in order to get there.
And there are different layers of identity that you need to integrate and hold first. You need to take on those traits, the behaviours, the qualities, and then you need to embody them. The same process applies when growing your career.
What happens when you have not yet embodied this? This is when imposter syndrome can start to come up. You may feel like imposter syndrome is holding you back from stepping into more leadership. This happens as there is a part of you that you haven’t yet grasped, and you know that there’s something you need to be doing. But you are not able to identify it yet.
You might hear people talk about overcoming imposter syndrome. Yes, you can do belief work, you can journal your thoughts and your feelings and behaviours. Yet you wonder why you keep circling back to where you began and it becomes this endless cycle.
When you ask yourself, am I really cut out for this? I want you to ask yourself: “Is this what it is or is it something else? Maybe you need deeper conviction with yourself. Perhaps you need to really grasp onto these layers of identity to step up in your business. Or maybe you need to understand the clarity on who you are as a woman.
Evolving Into The Woman To Hold Your Body of Work
As you evolve into the identity of a woman who is building this body of work, it usually means is that you need to get reconnected to your bigger mission. And understanding the passions, the talents and expertise of what you do and why you have stepped onto this path.
I want you to think about getting reacquainted to your true identity. The woman who defies all labels, conditioning and societal expectations and brings her whole self back into her purpose. And I want you to see what happens when you defy those things.
Imposter syndrome came up for me a few years ago in my business when I had worked with a mentor that actually took me away from myself and I realized that while I was on this path, there was something missing.
As I stepped into this path of work that my mentor advised I move into, I just wasn’t holding the results. I didn’t feel completely fulfilled. It was a feeling in my body that I just couldn’t rest. That’s probably the best way to describe it. And imposter syndrome was coming up and I was wondering why.
Embodying Your Work
And I realized it was because I hadn’t fully embodied this work. It was not the thing I was here to teach and share. There was an identity shift that I couldn’t hold on to because I wasn’t embodied in this work. That is a separate topic as well. What I want you to understand is that if imposter syndrome is coming up for you, I want you to reflect on the following questions:
What haven’t I integrated yet to feel fully embodied in this work?
What do I need?
How will I know once this work has been embodied?
When you are stepping out into your business or you’re growing your career or business, the same process occurs. This is key to overcoming impostor syndrome.
Levels of Awareness
Every level on our journey takes a different level of awareness. You need to take on different traits as you move up. And you will discover that not only do you need to get more connected to yourself, but when you fully understand yourself, you know the work that you’re here to do.
When you know the work that you’re here to do, you have a depth to your work that brings you into heightened awareness of service. This happens because the body of work you are bringing into the world, has become integrated. But if you don’t have the depth, you will find imposter syndrome comes up because you can’t go deep with your clients.
It’s always the surface level that you’re scraping on. And a lot of businesses are built from this. Although this is an unpopular opinion, a lot of businesses are built from a surface level of awareness in their talents or expertise. And I know that you’re reading this because you are very solid in your zone of genius, and overcoming impostor syndrome is important for you to flourish in your body of work.
Stepping Into Deeper Conviction Within Yourself
You may not need to burn your business to the ground. Just have a think about what elements of your identity that you need to take on. What do you need to let go of?
We do feel imposter syndrome when we are in between stages of letting go of what we don’t want to do anymore. And stepping into that version of ourselves that know we need to take our business to that next level.
You’re getting incredible results for yourself and your clients but the thing that is missing is the deeper conviction within yourself. When you have that deeper conviction within yourself and in your genius, then overcoming imposter syndrome becomes easier. This is just a different perspective on what it is and how it can show up for you.
When you are further along in your path or business and if you have lost vision of who you are, you may feel like you haven’t fully integrated who you need to be to be doing this work. There is always an element in my experience of working with many women for all of these years. There is always an identity shift that needs to occur in different areas and phases of business.
But imposter syndrome will often be a symptom of that bigger problem of needing to really understand yourself better.
Reconnecting with Yourself
I believe we don’t choose our purpose, it chooses us. We unconsciously know the work we’re here to do, but it’s how we lead ourselves in this process that matters and that will get us the results. And it takes a deeper connection to ourself for it to occur. Our role is to actually rise into the woman we need to be and embody that woman who can do this role as a leader, as an entrepreneur or as a creative and if you are on a path, as a mother.
Because it is when we deepen our connection with ourself, we unlock more confidence and conviction within. And everything else will align when we are able to overcome imposter syndrome.
Have a think about whether there are any other areas that may not be aligning for me right now? And what can I do to understand them? It may be worth pulling out a journal and asking yourself this question, along with what do I need to do to change this?
The philosophy and brand of the woman beyond the business is built on you being able to lead the woman beyond the business first, so she can go and experience a fulfilling life and business. And when you overcome impostor syndrome, it can help you flourish in your soul work.
If you would like to deepen your self concept and overcome impostor syndrome, you can download my guide to reconnect with yourself HERE.
