Written by: Alicia Rios Wilks, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Most of us have said that we suffer from “imposter syndrome”, but what is it really?
Imposter syndrome describes the condition of seeing yourself as a “phony” or a “fraud”, plagued by constant self-doubt, anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. It’s most common when a person changes career or starts a new role/position after a job promotion. The good news is that it’s not linked to actual talent, adequacy or capacity. Feeling like an imposter doesn’t mean you are one objectively, it means you’re identifying as one, subjectively. The bad news is, staying in this experience will sabotage your results and hold you back from reaching your full potential.
If it’s not based on the truth of our ability, then why do we get this “condition” in the first place?
The underlying cause of the experience we label “imposter syndrome” is simply when our identity does not align to the person we’re trying to be, and the role they play. It’s the inevitable outcome of stepping into a new persona whilst still seeing ourselves through the lens of our old understanding, experience and expression of Self (identity). Taking on a new position often requires you to go beyond the way you were showing up before. However, we naturally perceive ourselves through the lens of our past experiences. Our mind always looks to the past to inform us in the present – that’s the basis of learning. It’s a necessary part of survival. How would we navigate life if we still “knew” nothing? Everything we think we know is simply what we’ve learned – hence why people can believe they know things that contradict each other. Believing something doesn't mean it’s true for anyone else. A big part of what we think we know is who we are. Because we learn it in our first 4-7 years of life. We learnt it by creating memories to which we’ve assigned a meaning and interpretation. In other words, we’ve taken our life events personally. The subconscious mind is wired to take results personally – asking "what must this mean about me?". It wants to understand what we, as an individual, have and what we lack so that it can figure out how to ensure we can get what we need and want. So in an attempt to understand how to navigate life, it literally makes up stuff about us – making decisions based on the information it perceives in that moment. It’s doing its best to know who we are and what to expect from ourselves. But it starts this process in childhood, when we’re physically very limited and dependent. So of course it comes up with all sorts of beliefs about how we’re limited – what the personal development world likes to call “limiting beliefs”.
So what we know about ourselves is not, in fact, who we are, it’s who we’ve made up.
What stops people from adapting to their new role is believing that their current understanding of Self is not a choice, but a factual awareness. Thereby assuming they are actually limited as such, in the present.
The mistake most adults make is believing in the identity that they first created as a child. Thus assuming that what they think and feel about themselves is based on the truth of who they really are.
And that brings us to the mistake that even the personal development world is making – trying to fix and improve who we are
The typical route of trying to overcome imposter syndrome, eliminate self-doubt, or treat self-worth and self-belief issues is all sending our mind the instruction “there’s something wrong with me, I need to change myself”. That, in every way, actually reinforces the very identity we’re trying to get out of. Now you understand why people get stuck in the self-improvement hamster wheel. That’s also why people go down the “fake it ‘till you make it” route. Once they’ve trapped themselves in an identity that says “I’m NOT who I need to be to get these results”, of course the only way forward appears to be “faking it” until they convince themselves, and the world, of their competency. But we realistically, and rather obviously, can’t lie to ourselves. So it doesn’t work. We exhaust ourselves from the constant fight against our own identity, and we end up sabotaging our results. Of course we stay feeling like an imposter, because we are faking it – intentionally!
So how do we escape self-doubt and stop being an imposter?
Our identity will not allow us to prove ourselves to be anything else. So to create new results, we must stop orienting from an old identity that's struggling to imagine we can succeed in that area. That means no more attempts to “improve” ourselves or cure our “condition” of imposter syndrome. Because if you’re trying any of that then you’re still coming from the old identity. Here’s the important nuance. Once we accept that our identity is not us, it’s our creation, then we accept that not only did we create the way we are being right now, but we can create a new way of being (a new identity) just the same.
It’s not a syndrome, it’s a misalignment of identity. And we all have the power to create a new identity.
Rather than trying to force and change yourself into something different, inadvertently telling yourself you’re not enough right now, you can harness your inherent power to bring a new identity into being, just like you did before, only this time it will be created with conscious choice.
The results we SEE (external reality) align to who we’re choosing to BE (internal reality).
How would you understand and experience yourself if you’d already succeeded in your desired results? That is the new identity you must practice embodying. Literally embody – you must choose to FEEL that way within your body.
If you want to start walking the walk and talking the talk i.e. taking the right actions to succeed in your new role, then you must start living that success internally first.
Our actions create our results. But our outer actions align to our inner experience. If you aren’t experiencing the emotional feeling that the desired results give you, then you don’t know how to feel like the creator of them and so you won’t be able to express yourself in a way that creates them.
This is not a fix or a cure (you don’t need one). This is the way to stop being an imposter. The choice to step into, to practice, and to reinforce a new identity is how we bring our desired potential down from our unlimited nature, into our limited experience.
If you want to create, and stabilise, your new identity in the fastest way naturally possible by re-coding any misaligned instructions that your mind is holding onto, then you book a chat with me here.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube, or visit my website for more information on how you can escape unwanted patterns to live in Radical Freedom.
Alicia Rios Wilks, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Alicia Rios Wilks is a multi-award-winning thought leader on a mission to spark a Radical Freedom Movement. She is an innovator in combining human consciousness, mind and body transformation, and breakthrough performance. Like many of her clients, Alicia had spent much of her life feeling powerless, unsatisfied, and limited. To create her own transformation, Alicia brought together top research on the nature of consciousness and the structure of reality and pioneered a revolutionary method designed for the most powerful and rapid transformation humanly possible. She has since dedicated her life to helping others harness their innate power to release emotional blocks, live as the fullest expression of their true self, and intentionally create their dream life. She is the founder and creator of Radical Freedom, creating heart-centered spaces for others to learn how to live an unlimited life, connect to their unique superconscious genius and live their true nature and purpose.
