Have you ever had that nagging feeling that you don’t deserve the success and recognition you’ve earned? Maybe you constantly worry that you’ll be exposed as a fraud, despite evidence of your competence?

If you can relate to these thoughts, then you may be battling a little something called imposter syndrome.

In my coaching work, this is often the foundational obstacle to not achieving one’s absolute best in any performance, or life, situation.

As I have been working on a new Master Class regarding overcoming imposter syndrome, I thought I would share a few thoughts about what imposter syndrome is all about, how it affects your performance, and most importantly, how you can conquer self-doubt to take your performance to new heights.

So, what exactly is imposter syndrome?

Well, picture this: You achieve something amazing—an impressive promotion, an award, create a new piece of art or maybe even begin to launch your own successful business. But deep down, you can’t help but question if you truly deserve it.

You might brush off your achievements as mere luck or convince yourself that others are just overestimating your abilities. That, my friend, is imposter syndrome in a nutshell. It’s like wearing a mask, pretending to be someone you’re not, all while fearing that you’ll be unmasked as a fraud!

Imposter syndrome can also mess with your performance. Picture a talented musician who refuses to perform in public because they believe their skills are subpar. Or imagine a brilliant student who downplays their achievements, thinking they got into that top-tier university by sheer chance. When you doubt yourself and attribute your success to external factors, it’s like slamming on the brakes of your potential. You become stuck in a cycle of self-sabotage, afraid to take risks, try new things, or even acknowledge your worth.

It’s like having a front-row seat to your own performance downfall.

Thankfully, there’s hope! You can break free from the clutches of imposter syndrome and unleash your full potential.

Here are some tried-and-true strategies to help you overcome self-doubt and enhance your performance:

Your mind is amazing! It is in the full time business of keeping you safe. It reminds you to be careful. It warns you of not acting too foolish. It points out everything that could possibly go wrong if you take too much of a risk.

It absolutely LOVES to hold you back from anything and everything that might hurt you physically, emotionally or in your relationships.

It’s on the job 24/7, running like clockwork.

As great as that may sound, there is a problem with this – there is rarely a good reason for living a life of safety. In fact, as a newborn you came into the world absolutely fearless! Research tells us that the only 2 universal fears that everyone on the planet arrives with is the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. This means that every fear you possess as adults, and that your mind carefully guards against, is LEARNED.

Negative experiences, painful relationships and distorted teaching all led to the creation of your own unique set of fears, fears that were actually non-existent at birth.

As a child, you accumulated fear after fear which, with each new fear quietly growing within you, led to the disappearance of that outgoing, joyful, fearless part of you that made life so exciting and fun.

Before learning to be afraid and anxious, however, every day and moment was a possibility of experiencing something new and wonderful. If it went well, we loved it! If it went poorly, who cared, because the next thing in our life might be even more wonderful!

Yet, I wonder what happened to that bright-eyed, risk-taking explorer. Where is that creator and adventurer that lived each moment to the fullest? Did the fears that you learned permanently bury, under layers of cautiousness and anxiety, your potential for an exciting life?

Well, I have great news,

You never, EVER lose that part of yourself.

In spite of the anxiety you feel, the things you anticipate, and the worries you obsess over, somewhere, sometimes way, way down, is that original, loving, caring ‘wild and crazy’ child inside of you who really knows how to play and live.