Stop Calling It Imposter Syndrome! Here’s What’s Really Going On
Let me say something that might ruffle a few feathers...
“Imposter syndrome” has become one of the most overused, misdiagnosed, and frankly most convenient labels of this generation. We slap it on every moment of self-doubt, every bout of nervousness before doing something unfamiliar, and every time we wonder if we’re actually qualified to be in the room.
And in doing so, we’ve accidentally made a very normal — and very fixable — experience sound like a permanent condition. The problem with this is, it creates a constant narrative that reinforces perfectionism. There’s no good fruit in that!
The clearer we are on a concept and how we relate to it, the more authority we can have over it. So, let’s get to the truth of the matter so we can stop being paralyzed by it!
First, What Even Is Imposter Syndrome?
The term was coined in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes to describe high-achieving women who couldn’t internalize their own success. They attributed their accomplishments to luck, timing, or charm; basically anything but their own competence. They lived in quiet terror of being “found out.”
This is an unfortunate mental position to take but, it sounds familiar, right? Of course it does! We do this to ourselves on the DAILY. This breeds self-created obstacles, but it also creates another problem; we’ve adopted a specific psychological pattern and turned it into a catch-all excuse for everything that feels hard.
It’s important we make this distinction in order to apply the solution that’ll help us break patterns, break bad behaviors, and break through to success that feels right.
What It Might Be Actually Going on With You
It could be your DISC wiring. If you’re a High S or High C in your DISC Profile, self-doubt and second-guessing are literally baked into how you’re wired. High S’s process deeply before acting and can mistake their own thoroughness for inadequacy. High C’s hold themselves to impossibly high standards and interpret anything less than perfect as failure.
For High D’s, imposter looks like overworking, over-controlling, and refusing to ask for help because needing help feels like evidence that they don’t actually belong at the top.
For High I’s (and I say this as a card-carrying member of this club) we experience imposter syndrome as a performance trap. We are naturally enthusiastic, expressive, and people-oriented, which means we’ve often gotten ahead on our energy and our ability to inspire before our systems and structures caught up. So, when it’s time to deliver the details, the strategy, or the follow-through, that little voice shows up and says, “Uh oh! They’re about to find out you’ve been winging it.”
None of this is imposter syndrome! That’s your natural style working against you without self-awareness to balance it.
It could be an environment problem. Let me say the thing that most don’t want to talk about in today’s climate: sometimes the room actually IS set up against you. Whoops!
If you’re a woman, especially a woman of color, in a corporate environment where people who look like you are consistently underestimated, interrupted, overlooked, or told they're “fatigued” by you, your nervous system is responding to a power imbalance. Calling that “imposter syndrome” puts the burden of fixing a systemic problem entirely on you. That’s not just inaccurate, it’s unfair to you.
It could be unprocessed fear. Fear of visibility. Fear of success. Fear of outgrowing the people around you. Fear of finally being seen (and then judged). Fear of starting over - AGAIN. This is coachable, but it requires you to name it honestly instead of hiding it under a clinically sounding label that lets you off the hook from doing the real work.
It could be the Shrink Cycle in action. This is something I talk about with my clients constantly. The Shrink Cycle is the pattern of minimizing yourself, your ideas, and your accomplishments to keep the peace or avoid standing out. It doesn’t feel like fear in the moment. It feels like humility. Whether you believe you’re being noble by keeping the peace or humbling yourself to a situation or person, they’re both false. You’re actually being fake or “nice” but in a more palatable way. Over time, this approach builds into resentment, stagnation, and yes that gnawing feeling that you don’t belong somewhere you’ve absolutely earned the right to be.
So What Do You Do With This?
Stop diagnosing yourself with a syndrome and start getting curious about what’s underneath the doubt! Curiosity is KING in both interpersonal relationships and the relationship with yourself.
Ask yourself: Is this a wiring issue, an environment issue, or a fear issue? Because each one requires a different response. One requires self-awareness. One requires advocacy and boundary-setting. One requires a coach, a conversation, or a breakthrough that helps you finally move past the story you’ve been telling yourself.
What it does NOT require is shrinking, hiding, or waiting until you feel ready. Spoiler alert: the feeling of readiness is a myth. Confidence is built by doing the thing, not by waiting until the doubt disappears. The negative narratives disappear when you choose to physically move past them. So get to steppin’!!!
The time, the place, or the season you’re in are not an accident. You were not promoted by mistake. You did not build what you’ve built by chance. You did not acquire your wisdom or expertise by stumbling upon it. The sooner you stop calling your thought patterns imposter syndrome and start calling it what it actually is, the sooner you can finally deal with it and overcome it.
So, what’s REALLY underneath your self-doubt? Drop it in the comments
Let’s Get to the Root of It
If you read this and related to it, let’s talk. Book a free consultation and let’s figure out exactly what’s keeping you stuck and how to move through it for good.
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