The Dreaded Imposter Syndrome...

This has come up A LOT on my calls with coaches recently, so I thought it was about time I addressed it. 

As far as I can tell...

No one escapes imposter syndrome.

No one.

And it seems that new and struggling coaches have it the worst.

Thoughts like...

Are pretty darn common.

Maybe you can relate?

​Back when I was working on my doctorate, I had a cohort of 4 other students going through school with me.

One day we ended up having a conversation with our advisors about Imposter Syndrome. We were confessing that we didn't feel completely confident in our abilities. 

Our advisors laughed and shared that neither did they part of the time.

These were college professors teaching Ph.D. level students. All of them had been teaching for at least 10 years, had published many papers in prestigious journals, and were pretty well-known in their particular fields.

And they confessed that they still felt the dreaded imposter syndrome.

Wait. What? 

​It blew my mind.

On one hand it was a relief to know that I wasn't alone. That other people felt it.

On the other hand it felt like "Oh Crap. I'm never going to get rid of this feeling. That sucks!"

Years later, I've come to learn that imposter syndrome shows up any time we even think about stepping outside our comfort zones.

Doing something new.

Something important.

And that it's actually a good thing because it shows that we're stretching ourselves.

That we're growing as human beings.

And that's not a bad thing, right?

So I say... bring on the imposter syndrome... I'm ready for a good stretch.

How about you? Does this change how you think about Imposter Syndrome?

Let me know in the comments below.