Ep 17: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - The Key to Unlocking your True Potential

One of the reasons why I love producing this podcast for you is that we get to explore topics that will empower you to overcome obstacles. And unlock your full potential. In today's episode, we'll delve into the phenomenon of imposter syndrome and its impact on achieving your goals. It can be a formidable barrier to realizing your dreams. 

And as you continue to listen, you'll hear that I'm going to attempt to unravel the complexities. Of imposter syndrome and offer you some strategies that I've used myself. To overcome it. But first you'll need to understand what it really is.

Transcript

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One of the reasons why I love producing this podcast for you is that we get to explore topics that will empower you to overcome obstacles and unlock your full potential. In today's episode, we'll delve into the phenomenon of imposter syndrome and its impact on achieving your goals. It can be a formidable barrier to realizing your dreams. And as you You'll hear that I'm going to attempt to unravel the complexities of imposter syndrome. and offer you some strategies that I've used myself to overcome it. First, you'll need to understand what it really is. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright, and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you're a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You To be in conversation and you're a lifelong student in this podcast. I'll share with you my life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, all the stuff that wasn't taught in teacher training, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools. strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt. And you want to dive deep and set yourself up for success. I'm so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously. So expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Welcome back to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers podcast. I'm Monica Bright, and today we're discussing What might be a touchy subject. Imposter syndrome. Touchy because no one really likes to admit that they're dealing with it. Often, it's this little voice that festers inside your head. And you end up having an entire conversation or multiple conversations. With yourself around one initial thought making up stories and possibly even outcomes to interactions or situations. But here's the thing. These quote unquote made up stories most likely haven't even happened yet. And what's happening is is you're attempting to predict the future and you can't. This episode was influenced by a recent VIP day that I had with a teacher. If you don't know what my VIP days are, they're six hours with me where we work on areas of your business or teaching that you realize you need one on one support for. I've had VIP days where we deep dive into sequencing. Another one was an anatomy refresher. And the one that prompted this episode was about strategies to reach a certain goal. Off the bat, it might sound like what we worked on was strategy, but what I soon realized as we were working was that this teacher was suffering from imposter syndrome. That was simmering below the surface of how she was showing up, how she was or wasn't able to get things done, and why she wasn't seeing any growth over the years. So the first thing that I want to say is I get it, realizing and acknowledging that you're dealing with imposter syndrome. It's tough, right? Because it seems like this thing that we can just ignore or get over. Or not even acknowledge at all and it won't affect us, but it does and it will. One of the reasons why I love producing this podcast for you is that we get to explore topics that will empower you to overcome obstacles and unlock your full potential. In today's episode, we'll delve into the phenomenon of imposter syndrome and its impact on achieving your goal. It can be a formidable barrier to you realizing your dreams. And as you continue to listen, you'll hear that I'm going to attempt to unravel the complexities of imposter syndrome, I'll offer you some strategies that I've even used myself to overcome it. First, you'll need to understand it and what it really is. Imposter syndrome is defined as a psychological pattern where you doubt your accomplishments and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of your competence. Common signs of imposter syndrome include self doubt, perfectionism, fear of failure, and comparing yourself to others. Any of those sound familiar? There are root causes that contribute to the degree to which you experience Impostor syndrome and it's different from one person to the other. Some of those causes could be your upbringing, societal pressures, unrealistic expectations, and the pursuit of perfection. So if you have all of these societal pressures and expectations as well as your experiences, In your growing years, how are you supposed to navigate life and focus on the goals you want to accomplish? Well, that's the big question. And we're going to try to tackle it in this episode. When you take time to understand it and see how and when it shows up in your life and practice ways to get over it, It gets a little easier to navigate. I'm not going to promise you that you'll never experience imposter syndrome. Instead, you can have go to strategies in place when it does show up, and it will. The question is, what are you going to do about it when it does show up? Let's dig into the root causes of imposter syndrome and see if any of these resonate with you. All right, do you have high standards and perfectionism? If you set exceptionally high standards for yourself and strive for perfection in your work or achievements, you're more susceptible to imposter syndrome. You may often fear falling short of your own unrealistic expectations and worry that others will discover your perceived shortcomings. I'm going to give you a quick example of this and help you realize the difference between high standards and perfectionism and just wanting things to be right or to turn out right. So, I was thinking about painting my kitchen cabinets, and for anybody who knows me, they know that my favorite color is green. And so, I was trying to decide between two colors of green. One was a deeper, more olive, army green than the other. And I couldn't decide. Which one I liked better. So I just kind of went back and forth, back and forth. And then I landed on one, went to the home improvement store, got the paint and started painting the cabinets. And I love my cabinets. They're awesome. The color green is, is great. So I picked the lighter shade of green. And once I was all finished now, this took forever. Okay, so I'm just going to say that. To paint all the cabinets and the drawers and the doors and all of that, it, it took a good deal of time. And when I finished, I realized that I liked the darker. Green a little bit better than the lighter green, but I was finished with this painting. And so I call it the 80 percent rule where I like this color green like 80%. The darker green is the 100%. I like it. 80 percent is good enough for my kitchen cabinets and no one who comes to my house to see my newly painted cabinets. Ever said, man, I mean, it's green, it's, it's good. It's just not perfect. Nobody said that, right? So I have to get over this idea that if I don't choose the hundred percent green color that I like, but I chose the 80 percent color and it's still, I still love it. I still love it. So I didn't get caught up in the whole. Perfectionism and going back to repaint them all again, just so they could be one shade darker. So think about how that shows up in your life. Now, another question is, do you find yourself comparing yourself to others? This is easily done, especially with this social media world. It's easy to hop on a social media app and then start seeing other people's postings and compare yourself to them. But when you constantly compare yourself to others, especially to other teachers who appear more successful or more accomplished, that can start to fuel feelings of inadequacy. and imposterism. Also, when you compare yourself, it often leads to you downplay your own achievements and attribute your success to luck or external factors rather than acknowledging your own competence. Have you ever heard of attribution bias? Do you tend to attribute your successes to external factors, such as luck, timing, or the help you receive from others, rather than recognizing your abilities and efforts. If so, you might be experiencing some form of imposter syndrome. This attribution bias undermines your sense of self worth and reinforces the belief that you're not truly deserving of your accomplishments. Next is, do you experience fear of failure? I'm sure we all do on some level, but there's a lesson in failure. If you experience fear of failure, just know that it's a common underlying factor in imposter syndrome. So you might avoid taking risks. Or pursuing opportunities for fear of being exposed as incompetent or inadequate. And it often stems from a deep seated belief that any mistakes or setbacks will confirm your status as an imposter. Whoa, you might want to go back like 15 seconds and listen to that again. That's huge. Take a moment to think about your early life experiences, childhood experiences, parental expectations, and upbringing can contribute to the development of behaviors that look like imposter syndrome. Did you hear messages of perfectionism? Did you hear a lot of criticism? Or did you experience conditional love from your caregivers? If so, this commonly instills a fear of failure and creates unrealistic standards for achievement that persists into your adulthood and it shows up in your work life. Now, can you identify any cultural and societal pressures that have been placed on you? Societal norms and cultural expectations can exacerbate feelings of imposter syndrome, particularly if you're a part of a marginalized or unrepresented group. If you belong to a minority group, you might face additional pressure to prove yourself leading you to heightened feelings that you're an imposter just trying to fit in. What happens when you feel a lack of validation and recognition? If you feel this lack for your achievements, it can reinforce imposter syndrome. When you receive little praise or acknowledgement for your efforts, you might internalize the belief that you're not truly competent or deserving of success, regardless of your accomplishments. And that's just not true. You do. But the symptoms of imposter syndrome are getting in the way. So, I just want to, as a side note Recently, I've been binge watching The Crown and I'm on the season where Diana and Charles are married. He's still the prince, but he's feeling a certain kind of way about her celebrity status and her getting the attention and he's not in a great position. So, When he sees her getting more attention than he's getting. And it's so fascinating just to watch his behavior after he realizes he's not getting attention like she is. The things that he does, if you haven't seen it as like, well, he'll run out and cheat or he will speak very unkind. And that's a nice way to put it. to her to squash her down and make her feel small or make her feel little. And it's, it's really sad because She's a beautiful young woman trying to find her own way because of his beliefs about who he is and the attention that he needs. He can't let her grow. He can't let her shine because then that will make him feel a way about himself. If you haven't seen it, watch it. Um, it made me feel icky on the inside, just like, Oh, come on, come on. And then to think that you're in partnership with a person that wants you to feel or be smaller than you are, it's just, Oh, it's just never good. And you never want to be that person, right? That exhibits this kind of behavior because you don't want somebody else to shine or what somebody else is doing. Makes you feel a certain kind of way, this, uh, continued and persistent feeling like a fraud is going to undermine your self confidence over time. And when your self confidence is undermined, it starts to impact your life. You start to feel stagnation, which leads to feelings of inadequacy and paralysis, preventing you from taking action towards your goals. procrastination, letting deadlines pass, neither of which are going to serve you well in your career. Self sabotaging behaviors. Ask yourself, how are you sabotaging your success? Behaviors such as avoidance, And playing it safe in the effort to avoid failure or the feeling of failure. And then finally limiting beliefs. So you have to dream big, right? Bigger than you can even ever imagine. One of my favorite quotes is this one. You must learn to trust that there is a future waiting for you. That is beyond. Learn more at alaskagranny. com please subscribe to AlaskaGranny channel What you might be able to grasp at this present moment. And I keep that quote on my desk so I can be reminded of it all times. When you operate with limiting beliefs, it means you create your own self imposed barriers to success. And you sabotage yourself again and again. There are even more effects imposter syndrome has on accomplishing your goals. limited satisfaction. Even with success, you may struggle to fully appreciate or celebrate your accomplishments. Instead of feeling satisfied or proud, you might downplay your achievements, attribute them to external factors, or dismissing them as negative. Insignificant. Persistent doubt. Even in the face of tangible evidence of your competence, you may continue to doubt your abilities and question whether you truly deserve success. This persistent doubt undermines your self confidence and perpetuates feelings of inadequacy. Fear of exposure. Achieving goals can intensify The fear of being exposed as a fraud or imposter. So when others acknowledge your accomplishments, you might fear that you'll be quote, found out or exposed as incompetent, which leads to heightened anxiety or self doubt. So let me ask you a question around this. Say if you're working at a studio or something, and your manager asks you if you want to teach a workshop. around, let's go with like anatomy, right? But this is for students, not for yoga teachers, right? But a workshop around anatomy. And instantly, your first thought is, who am I to be teaching that? And if I teach that specific workshop to students are Are they going to think that I am a fraud or am I going to be found out as incompetent? Notice when somebody asks you to do something and your initial thought is, uh, who am I to be doing it? Right? Right? Or, I don't know if I'm the person that should be doing this, right? It's like, they asked you to do it for a reason because they believe that you can. And, are you getting in your own way? Thinking that you can't. Alright. The next is the pressure to maintain performance. Success brings added pressure, for sure, to maintain high levels of performance. Thanks for watching. Bye. and meet heightened expectations. If you are ineffective in dealing with imposter syndrome, you may feel compelled to continually prove yourself and live up to perceived standards of excellence, all the while fearing the consequences falling short. Comparison and self criticism. Both of these fuel feelings of inadequacy and self criticism leads you to discount your own achievements, viewing them as inferior or less worthy compared to those of others. I'm sure you can imagine that achieving goals can sometimes exacerbate imposter syndrome by amplifying feelings of fraudulence or self doubt. As you reach new milestones or receive recognition for your accomplishments, You may experience heightened imposter syndrome symptoms, doubting whether you truly belong or deserve. So it's super important that we find ways to quell or get these symptoms under control. Think about if you struggle to accept praise or positive feedback for your achievements. Dismissing compliments as undeserved or insincere further reinforces feelings of imposter syndrome. Can you take a compliment? Learn Or if somebody does compliment you, do you brush it off immediately as opposed to receiving it and accepting it? Finally, risk aversion. And this is huge because it's the avoidance of taking on new challenges. You start to play it safe or you stay within your comfort zone. And resist opportunities for growth. Phew, that seemed like a lot to get through. And for some, it could have felt a little heavy. It was my intention to go through all of that so that you could experience in your body, how it made you feel. If you had a visceral reaction to any of that information, I totally get it because it's tough to hear. And it's hard to hear how you're getting in your own way. But the good news is we're getting on to the good part now. We're going to talk about how to navigate imposter syndrome and what kinds of strategies you can use to quell the feeling. I'm going to give you five strategies to overcome imposter syndrome. So if you have a journal, pull it out because you'll want to come back to these from time to time. to help you as you navigate imposter syndrome. All right, number one, recognize your achievements, acknowledge your accomplishments, and celebrate your successes, especially the small wins. We want to acknowledge those. When you celebrate milestones, achievements, it reinforces positive self esteem and reinforces your sense of competence and self worth. I remember I was doing a special thing on social media where I had a free giveaway and it was to go to this link, sign up for it. In exchange for an email, you could download a PDF. And I have five new subscribers on my email list, and that seems small, but I celebrated it. Five new people to form a deeper relationship with. And that's the way I looked at it. As opposed to, oh man, that's all I got was five. I didn't get ten. I didn't get twenty. No, I celebrated getting five. It was a huge, small win. All right, number two, reframe negative thoughts. You have to actually see a thought as negative, see it as negative, and then identify it as such and then practice turning it around to either a neutral thought or a positive thought. One thing I do, and I got this from one of my business coaches, is I actually say to myself when I, when I have one of these thoughts. is I don't agree with, right? That's it. I don't agree with. And that single statement helps me move past negative thoughts that aren't going to serve me. So try doing that and see how that helps. Number three, cultivate self awareness. I would urge you to live in a constant state of self awareness. What are your underlying beliefs? and consistent thought patterns. See them, learn them. Are they serving you? Can you shift them? You have to become friends with your inner critic so that you can learn to work with it and not against it. But get self aware all the time. Number four, seek support. The best advice I can give is get a mentor. Engage with your peers or seek counseling or therapy to help unravel uncontrollable thoughts, especially when you can't do it on your own. I love that therapy doesn't carry the same stigma that it used to because it's so valuable and it's necessary to hear an objective voice from someone who wants the best for you, and finally, take action in the form of small. Achievable steps towards your goals, break tasks down into smaller, manageable steps, and focus on taking consistent action. Move forward despite your doubts so that you can build confidence and demonstrate your competence over time. These small steps are necessary. Every step can't be a big one. It's the small ones that compound, and you'll look back a year later and know that a result you've experienced is because of a small step you took a year ago. All right, here's a bonus. Embrace a growth mindset and realize that failure is a natural part of the learning process. It's in the failures or the mistakes that you learn valuable information. So get comfortable with them and get the takeaways that you need from. All right, I'm going to give you six more real time strategies to navigate imposter syndrome, many of which I use. And remember, I want you to practice, practice, practice these over and over again. It might not make conquering imposter syndrome perfect. But practicing helps a lot. So the first is to acknowledge and label the feeling. Recognize that what you're experiencing is imposter syndrome and realize that it's a common phenomenon experienced by many high achieving people. individuals. So put a label on it. Number two, challenge those negative thoughts. Challenge your negative self talk and ask yourself if there is any real evidence to support your feelings of inadequacy or fraudulence. Often these thoughts are based on irrational beliefs rather than objective reality. Then number three, focus on evidence. Remind yourself of your past successes and achievements. Reflect on the skills, knowledge, and experiences that have brought you to where you are today. Look for concrete evidence. of your competence and capabilities to counteract feelings of self evidence, evidence, evidence. Number four, practice self compassion. So be kind and compassionate towards yourself. Treat yourself with the same level of understanding and empathy that you would offer to a friend facing a similar challenge. Acknowledge that it's okay to feel vulnerable and imperfect. Thank you. And that self worth is not contingent on constant success or validation from others. Number five, set realistic expectations. I want you to adjust your expectations and recognize that perfection is unattainable. Instead of striving for flawless performance, focus on doing your best and learning from mistakes or any setbacks. Embrace the growth mindset and view challenges as opportunities for growth and development. And then finally, practice mindfulness, which we all preach as yoga teachers, right? So a little practice for yourself is good. Engage in mindfulness techniques such as deep breathing, meditation. to help calm your mind and ground yourself in the present moment. Mindfulness can help you observe and accept your thoughts and feelings without judgment, reducing the intensity of imposter syndrome symptoms. All right, I know that this sounds way easier said than done, but continued practice again and again will help you deal with imposter syndrome differently over time. Everybody experiences imposter syndrome. The difference is Some know how to handle it better than others. Imposter syndrome is a common challenge that many of us face on our journey towards success. However, when you understand the impact it has on reaching your goals and get serious, about implementing strategies to overcome it. You can reclaim your confidence, unleash your potential, and achieve your goals with true authenticity and resilience. Remember, you're not alone in your struggles, and with determination and support, you can conquer imposter syndrome. All right, this conversation is honestly step one. If you're an entrepreneur or if you're pursuing a yoga teaching career where you're your own boss without understanding and tackling imposter syndrome, you will potentially let it get in the way of everything you're trying to accomplish. I have a unique way of helping you identify and navigate imposter syndrome in my coaching program for teachers. In the business of Yoga 2. 0, I realized that it's impossible to run your own business if you cannot get out of your own way. So we work on that because you can have all the skills and the templates and the tools and the strategies you'll ever need. But if you believe, quote, I'm not good enough, or am I being a fraud? This kind of thinking is going to affect your business every single time. Applications open soon. I'm so excited to help you right where you are in your business, especially if it's getting in the right mindset. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that there are so many opportunities for you in the teaching world. You know that my goal is for you to love teaching yoga And let it be fulfilling and rewarding. And sometimes it takes deep, reflective work to get there. If you love this episode, let me know, subscribe to the podcast. So you're always in the know when a new episode drops and share with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. Because teachers have asked for business related episodes. I'm excited to bring you even more. for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Finally, don't forget to join my newsletter. That's just for yoga teachers. I'll link it in the show notes below and I would love for you to join us so we can always stay connected. All right, that's it for now. Bye.