Experiments With Hope - Episode 32: Imposter Syndrome

NOTE: This episode was recorded on February 5th, 2019 and moved from YouTube on January 23rd, 2021.

One of my new writing students asked me about how to overcome imposter syndrome. I'll start by saying that imposter syndrome is mostly physiological. It has very little to do with your beliefs about what you're capable of or what you deserve. In other words, the anxiety is not the problem. That's normal and will only go away with experience. What matters is the STORY you tell yourself about why you're anxious. This determines whether you master your anxiety, or whether it masters you. 

Our left brain fears uncertainty. It likes labels. It NEEDS to put a label on our anxiety. The problem is, the labels are often wrong and even irrational. For example, in a previous podcast on The Science of Self-Sabotage, I cite scientific experiments that PROVE how the left brain is more likely to "lie" to you and mislead you. Imposter syndrome is one such rationalization. But, what if you simply treated your anxiety as a general, labeless physiological state?

What if you didn't label it as a sign of Imposter Syndrome, or anything else specific and negative? What if you simply refused to give it a label, and accepted it as a normal response to doing something new? In the first book of my series Single Serving Wisdom, I say that our fears are almost never as bad as the stories we tell ourselves about them. This is true. When a state of fear, anger, loneliness, or anxiety comes, sometimes, it has a lesson to teach us. Sometimes, it tells us that we've been neglecting a tangible need. But, other times it's simply our natural response to doing something unfamiliar. 

Want to know how to overcome imposter syndrome? Accept your general anxiety about writing as a normal physiological response to doing something new, and leave it at that. Treat any additional interpretations as your left brain trying desperately to label the anxiety and make sense of it. 

Connect With Seth Czerepak

https://gettr.com/user/sethczerepak
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethczerepak/
https://sethczerepak.com?utm_medium=Video&utm_source=Rumble&utm_campaign=Experiments+With+Hope&utm_content=Episode+32