What Is Imposter Syndrome
Do you have Imposter Syndrome? It's thought that over 70% of business owners do at some point in their career.
How would you know? Well if you constantly second guess yourself, self doubt, criticise, feel like you're not good enough or feel that you're playing the part of a business owner, but that you don't really know what you're doing, constantly compare yourself to others and find yourself lacking ..then the chances are that you have Imposter Syndrome. This is a hot mess of harmfulness and will stop you from progressing if you don't get it under control.
There are actually 5 types of Imposter Syndrome. Do you recognise yourself in any of these?
1. The Perfectionist: If it isn't 100% then it isn't worth doing. You pull everything apart and over think constantly.
2. The Super Woman: You need to be in 100 places a second, and no-one can do things as you would. You can't manage everything and suffer burnout frequently.
3. The Natural: Things always seem to come easily, you have a natural flair for things, so when a new challenge comes up if you don't get it right first time you assume you can never conquer it. You are your own very harsh critic.
4. The Soloist: You prefer to do things alone, you like things done your way. You refuse to delegate and loathe to ask for help. Independence is great but you take it to another level.
5. The Expert: You know your knowledge is vast, but you never believe you know 'enough' and fear being caught out and not being able to answer to questions.
This is a very real syndrome that holds thousands of people back in business, and in life. One thing to remember though is that you know more about your business than any other living person on this planet.
Setting small goals and realistic to do lists and then ticking the off and marking AND CELEBRATING even the smallest of achievements can be a good start for self help. Being mindful of the things which hold you back and starting to address them by challenging yourself can also help.
If you'd like to get to the root of the issue, hypnotherapy is a super powerful tool, which can help to 'rewire' the thought processes and eliminate self doubt.
Let me know if you think you suffer from Imposter Syndrome and what you do to combat it!