I had a bad bout of imposter syndrome last week. I felt like I didn’t belong in my role, and that I was a fraud. Starting the day was anxiety inducing. I was expecting to be told that I was doing a terrible job. I needed help from someone. Thankfully, my company offers a few free coaching sessions, and I went to my first session this week. Here’s how my coach helped reframe my anxiety.
Not all anxiety is bad. There’s a bell curve, like with stress. Too little anxiety, you’re bored or coasting. Too much anxiety and you can’t function. Having just enough anxiety lights a fire in your belly. This feeling of anxiety was kicking my ass into gear. It was pushing me to learn.
Think of the opposite scenarios. I talked about not feeling like I knew enough to be called a staff. But my coach posed this question, what if you knew everything? Bored, was the answer I gave her. If I knew everything, I’d go looking for a new challenge. Talking about the opposite scenarios helped get my head out of the negative story I was telling myself.
What did the company see in me? This question was asked by my coach in the session. She went on to ask about my experiences when I first joined a company. What was my learning curve like? These questions helped me see that I had some valuable experience to bring to my role. It might not be technical skills, at least not yet, but I had non-tangible skills to bring to the table.
Working on imposter syndrome is a work in progress. And reframing my anxiety this way doesn’t magically make it disappear. But now I have these questions in the back of my mind when I start to think I’m a fraud. I hope they help you.