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Life Coaching - Impostor Syndrome
A persistent internalised fear of being exposed as a "fraud"
Impostor Syndrome
Impostor syndrome is a psychological pattern whereby individuals deny their accomplishments and have a persistent internalised fear of being exposed as a "fraud".
Discounting external evidence of any competence, suffers of impostor syndrome remain convinced they are frauds, and do not deserve all they have achieved.
Impostorism
Individuals with impostorism attribute their success to luck, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent than they perceive themselves to be.
Impostor syndrome affects both men and women equally. Evidence suggests high achieving and/or high IQ individuals are often more prone to Impostor Syndrome.
Conquering Impostor Syndrome
Impostor Syndrome is a learnt and conditioned behaviour and therefor changeable - If you can begin to understand this then you are well on your way to conquering Impostor Syndrome!!
Life Coaching - Changing our Thoughts
In our formative years we make decisions based on experience of our environment, our parents, siblings, education, society, friends, and personal experiences. Often these decisions are distorted if we have not had an adult help us make sense of these experiences.
These decisions formulate an internal ‘narrative or story’ about ourselves and the world around us. This internal narrative can lead to unwanted thoughts and feelings such as Impostor Syndrome or simply put (feeling of not being good enough). Impostor Syndrome can greatly colour and shape our relationships, mental clarity, careers, performance and ultimately happiness BUT it doesn't have to be this way.
Neuroscience can offer the evidence that the brain can and does change 'physically' throughout our lifetimes according to the circumstances we find ourselves in, this process is called Neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to physically change continuously throughout an individual's life. This can and has been perfectly observed with meditation and fitness/exercise.
There is a plethora of research on effects of mindfulness
on the brain. Evidence suggests that long-term or short-term practice of mindfulness
results in different levels of activity in brain regions associated with anxiety, 'fear' and the ability of the body to heal itself.
This is very exciting news for anybody suffering with Impostor Syndrome as it proves that the brain and associated thoughts/beliefs can change with any methodical 'practice'. The old adage that 'a leopard never changes its spots' can we challenged and in fact it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks!
Science has now proven that we CAN change any of our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, behaviours including 'not good enough' thoughts and feelings on a deep permanent physical level IF we want to. This is the 'job' of the life coach.