Do You Feel Like a Fraud At Work?

Do you ever find yourself plagued by feeling that you are not as competent and talented as everyone around you is? Not as good at what you do as your peers and friends think? Do you feel like a professional fake, that at some point somebody is going to catch you out and see that you’re incompetent, or at least not as competent as others believe?

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome, those feelings of fraudulence, is an incredibly common but relatively little known thing. Something like 85% of people questioned in a survey in 2019 reported that they experienced those feelings some or even all the time. 80% of the male and 90% of the female respondents identified feeling that way, even though only 25% had heard of the term imposter syndrome. The numbers affected is often higher still in people who are in a minority group in their professional world.

It can be incredibly easy to let ourselves feel completely trapped by those feelings. One thing that imposter syndrome does very well is to put us into a place of isolation. Of feeling that we are the only ones experiencing this horrible draining thing. It makes us believe that everyone around us is completely deserving of all and any praise and plaudits they receive, while any that comes in our direction is undeserved, almost as if we’re cheating our way through life.

Imposter Syndrome and Me

I say ‘us’ and ‘we’ throughout this article because I talk about imposter syndrome from a position of knowing those feelings intimately. My work in spreading the word about imposter syndrome, and how to reduce its influence and impact comes from dealing with my own imposter syndrome. I changed worlds after being made redundant and stepped into the dog world. I now write books and give support and advice to people on living with the complex and sensitive characters frequently known as reactive dogs.

Learning about dogs and then moving to educating others about aspects of canine-human relationships kicked imposter syndrome into high gear from the off. I dealt with that by setting out to learn all I could about what was causing these thoughts and how to deal with them. I learned so much that I have created workshops for others (links can be found on the Workshops page) and released a book on the topic (link in the Useful Links menu or on the Conquering Confidence page). Now I am putting that knowledge into use by helping others online.

We Are Not the Only Ones

Purely by looking at the percentage of people that related feeling the effects of imposter syndrome, we can tell that we are definitely not alone. While hard to contemplate doing, one of the best first ways to start tackling imposter syndrome is to talk about it. Find a group of our peers and be honest about the self-sabotaging thoughts that run rampant through our heads. Often, we’ll find that others around us – even who we see as the most confident of people – will be experiencing the same thoughts and feelings. They just cover it effectively.

If that doesn’t feel like something you can contemplate in person yet, you can come and join my Facebook support group. There you will find a guaranteed safe space to talk and get support from people who understand and can empathise with what you are feeling. Through that group, there will also be the chance to access live workshops with me, with potentially more opportunities developing to work on tackling the negative thought as the group and associated services grow.

Come and join us and we can beat imposter syndrome together!