Imposter syndrome is something I first learned about when I worked for a national therapy health association and my job role was to work on marketing areas that included segmenting demographics.
This “syndrome” I saw mentioned daily in certain circles with the mostly 30s age demographic at the time.
I was well into my 40s back then and this “syndrome” was attached to the generation younger-than-me: the Millennial generation.
They were the largest cohort generation in the workforce and were common faces to me in the daily office I worked in.
They are two age groups (older and younger Millennials).
On the outside, we all blended in.
And when you peel the onion to learn more about common age group differences, you notice different behaviors from different thought patterns.
In my GenX generation when we were the same working age, we showed up to work with a fully professional persona in the office.
We learned that we kept our attitudes and moods at home.
We also didn’t openly share personal struggles, vulnerabilities, or insecurities (as that showed weakness that we were taught not to show).
We weren’t in an openly sharing social media climate that’s today’s zeitgeist, and plays a part in any businesses’ marketing.
Work and personal life was kept separate like a dividing wall in a cubicle so we were at least two personas.
And living in a bubble by comparison to today’s standards, we often didn’t know we had personal issues as we kept problems repressed for most our life (where hours were mostly spent at work).
But we did have self-doubt problems stemming from our pasts and were at the root of at least how we looked out to the world.
Some are the same ones that all humans have had since the first modern brain existed on earth.
And today’s evolved modern brain society has common labels like Imposter Syndrome.
The Imposter is a development of a human mind problem we all have because we have an ego in our mind.
Ego was something I became aware of over my journey and personal growth desire.
Looking back to my past, I was deeply impacted starting from my first grown up job and even earlier in the house I grew up in.
We are all fed lies from our ego mind that can become unhealthy at any time and grow worse when daily fed.
High ego thoughts are all the negative thoughts about ourselves or others that naturally pop up like we’re not worthy or “who do we think we are?”
They crowd out calm and loving thoughts.
This includes healthy ego thoughts that help us with our healthy ambitions like “help me to help you and all of us grow.”
So ego is not all bad.
But unhealthy ego is the type of ego we encounter that causes problems and can grow at any moment.
In our lives, we interact with other ego minds that can cause or trigger such issues.
Or we can let our ego naturally show up as over-confidence (masking our insecurities) by not catching our thoughts and behaviors.
If we observe, we know when it’s ego because it’s not actual truth. …Like boasting for something that hasn’t yet occurred..
It’s not the fact of what is happening.
And sometimes we can see others blaming others or projecting some negative idea or personality trait onto others without consciously knowing what they’re doing.
The left hand doesn’t fully know what the right hand is doing as they’re not in aligned mind-body control.
It’s like objects in the mirror are too close to see.
The object is the mind and the ego mind can play tricks.
In those cases, a person is blinded by their ego as it’s invisible to them, and subconscious ego is also a force that deliberately tries to hide the truth from the person.
If not careful, it can turn into lying toxic behavior from the unaware person that undeliberately creates drama in the world.
They may often not know that, but they are aware of their actions.
Transformed and healthy ego minds can see this clearly.
These minds are usually good at studying people and have a lot of self-awareness.
They’re often thinkers vs. feelers.
In company with others, a high ego dialed up can look attractive to ego in others that are blind.
Like, they have a magnetic personality compared to a wallflower.
This can also show up in groups like people leaning into the office gossip or coming up with groupthink plans that aren’t for the overall good.
Ego can affect any of us any time we’re awake, and any time we are around people long enough.
But if we create habits to reset grounded truth in ourselves, then that helps to keep our ego healthy-focused.
We can objectively and constantly ask ourselves: “what’s actually going on here?… and is that how my mind perceives it by the supporting thoughts I have?”
And if not, we can productively walk away from our own thoughts.
If our high ego persists, we can better quiet our ego minds with practicing walking away techniques that work for us.
Around others and daily stressful situations, like drivers cutting us off on the road, there’s not much productive we can do then except keep our ego calm and find the higher ways and thoughts.
Re-centering, finding time away, or work-life-balance can be one of the best temporary solutions to regroup and gain back some peace.
Longterm, developing a healthy habit to be daily aware of ego in us, and vigilant to nip it in the bud when our ego arises when triggered, so it doesn’t grow at all.
…And it doesn’t lead to or make us captive to believing the lies that we aren’t enough.
Letting the mind wander and go where it wants to is dangerous in our world because it can bring on Imposter Syndrome.
Letting go of negative thoughts and unproductive mind voices when they start is a good defense to prevent high ego episodes that can turn into Imposter Syndrome that can last a while.
Shutting out negative sources is good daily upkeep practice, like watching 15 minutes of news or reading the daily news, but not binge watching to energize our ego.
…Because all you have to do is turn on the violent or angry news to work up your ego.
…Or scroll social media to dial up the Imposter.
And then there’s the negative spiritual forces that exist in the world we live in and our ego mind channel.
With multiple layers of loud negative force threats coming at us, we can easily feel bad about our imperfect or fallen world… and ourselves.
We’re just one piece of news away from our constant ego daily threat, and the outcome can be an episode of Imposter Syndrome.
And if we’re feeling stressed or tired, we’re more susceptible to feeling bad that carries over into how we feel about ourselves, inviting in more unhealthy ego and the Imposter living inside us.
Unhealthy Ego and Imposter Syndrome
An Imposter Syndrome allows the negative ego thoughts to spin out of control into counter productivity that can sound like repeated or obsessive negative tape messages.
Even fully aware you may not know how to stop them.
You can temporarily distract by taking a walk but the thoughts usually come back later.
Having an uplifting repeated mantra like “I am loved” or “I am worthy” helps to shut out and replace the negative self-destructive thoughts.
That can successfully work temporarily situation-by-situation, but it can be a vicious cycle as a triggered Imposter works its way back in and can keep you stuck or paralyzed.
A better way is acting in humility where we can move forward with quiet confidence, taking baby steps. Slow and steady wins the race.
We also strive to eliminate confusion inside us from mixed message thoughts that stop us from taking action.
We make moral decisions and life altering opinions black and white in our minds vs. leaving them gray, but we don’t have to share our opinions aloud as that can bring on unhealthy ego interaction.
That means we figure how we think about certain situations and things and declare that as our thoughts.
We create boundaries that our own mind can’t cross.
Because we don’t want to create further doubt in our mind that the ego can turn inward into self-doubt (Imposter Syndrome) in nanoseconds.
And you can do something starting today that transforms your future Imposter life to non-existent.
The answer to ending this self-doubt cycle (and forever) is reaching and growing your higher self.
Finding a spiritual life and quiet time can be the vehicle needed that makes you look in and up for answers.
It was for me.
Because spiritual growth works from the inside out to transform personal growth desires when workplaces offer little in those areas.
…And time at work often stunt our personal growth when we put our personal selves aside from 9 to 5 for the work or business we’re in.
With purposeful growing spiritual alignment that can take some small steps and time, the better idea is to grow out of mostly living from our outer person we live in (that’s the one we see in the mirror when we get dressed for work).
Remember the professional persona I mentioned I grew up in.
We grow and learn more about out who we are inside and how we can develop the better qualities like self-control, contentment, patience, wisdom, peace, and love.
These are all transferrable qualities in life that help the rest of your life in many areas.
We can rid of Imposter faster this way when we know who we are inside and develop our mature selves.
We can also call it out…
Millennials do this well without feeling any shame.
They declare, “I’m feeling Imposter Syndrome.”
That brings the ego to visibility and awareness.
Labels like Imposter Syndrome would usually egg ego on as it alienates (you vs. me instead of we) but in this case it shuts ego up with intentional purpose.
Ego is invisible but loud in thoughts, so if/when triggered, you may need to repeat similar ideas to shut ego up so it goes running back to its corner like a crying baby.
It will come out again from its time out, but for now it hides.
And the more practice you have, the less the crying baby ego comes back. It grows up with you growing more mature, and Imposter Syndrome dies as part of the process.
You’ve mellowed on your journey(that’s good) and have paused to look inward once or twice… and maybe lots more with journaling and talking things out to figure things out. Life gets better.
The Imposter you once had helps you later on so you can be able to see how much better the whole life and healthy person you become, is.
We learn from ourselves and teach ourselves what we want more of and what we no longer want and that no longer serves us.
Having an Imposter living in us doesn’t make us good teachers as we’re not in control and often react out of fear. So that’s one good reason for us to grow out of this phase sooner rather than later.
And then when we’re out of that, we gain more confidence knowing who we are that keeps our Imposter away.
We don’t get tossed to and from based on what the outside world feeds in our day.
And with spiritual alignment, that helps to also kill our Imposter alter ego like our immature child selves we successfully grew out of.
We’re transformed from our younger selves ways that were holding us back in our mindset.
So in short:
Imposter Syndrome is not anyone’s fault as we all have an ego.
For our optimal life, it’s our responsibility to manage our ego with a goal to keep ego healthy, and grow out of Imposter Syndrome that’s not a life sentence.
We can kick Imposter Syndrome to the curb and not use as a crutch longer than necessary (we have a say in the matter).
Looking spiritually higher and deeper helps us…
And Imposter syndrome is something that you can grow out of sooner if you spiritually align what’s going on in the daily mind and your higher self. You can start turning the tide today.
I learned this on my own journey where back in my 30s and certainly earlier years was 100% unaware of ego’s harm so I couldn’t work on ego removal.
I grew up and worked mostly in the competitive Washington DC metro area workplaces that egged ego on. High ego pride is part of the air.
And it was in the invisible air breathed in my surroundings. I grew up under the roof of a high ego dominant household. It was so close to home for me that it took moving away and decades later to process and remove the unhealthy mindset.
On top of that, the public schools in the county I grew up in and attended had the highest ranking test taking scores in the country 🇺🇸, so I adapted to competitive pressure and that kept my ego pride growing.
But deep inside, I carried fear and worry that were worsened by my unaware ego, and that showed up as anxiety in the body and mind.
I used to beat myself up for small things that kept me sad and away from taking action.
Gradually over time, I changed from being fearful to being bold and I know it was a transforming inside job that only God can do.
And I know if I knew sooner that it was ego-caused and about Imposter Syndrome (where the label didn’t exist back then), then I could’ve stopped the suffering sooner.
So I hope that encourages you or someone you know to help yourself out of what cripples you inside. It’s a matter of asking for higher help, tapping deeper inside you for answers, and knowing that you are here for a special reason and meant to live out your optimal life without an Imposter.
Your job should you accept, is to take one productive baby step forward.