How high performers overcome insecurity.
By Maureen Zappala, DTM
“Our thoughts affect our feelings, which influence our actions, which create habits that set the direction and tone of our lives.”
The phrase “impostor syndrome” was first coined in 1978 by Drs. Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, two clinical psychologists who identified a pattern among high-performing, successful women. Despite external evidence of great accomplishments, these women could not internally accept their own success. They dismissed it, attributing it to luck or people overestimating their intelligence. They felt like frauds. Initially, the experience was thought to be limited to only women, but research since then indicates otherwise. In 2012, Amy Cuddy, author of the best-seller Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges, gave a TED Talk during which she described her own experience of feeling like an impostor. She was inundated with letters from men saying they felt the same way.
Steps to guide positive thinking when encountering new challenges.
- Get the information
- Examine the accusation
- Capture the thought
- Cross-examine the thought
- Counter the thought
- Cultivate conversation
- Collect documentation
- Push the envelope
Read more about this article in the Toastmasters Magazine, November 2018 edition. https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2018/nov2018/22-personal-growth-impostor
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