How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome and Stop Feeling Like a Fraud
Updated: Sep 10
Have you ever achieved something you worked hard for, only to find yourself thinking that you didn't really deserve it?
Perhaps you've been promoted, started a new job, built a successful business or received praise for something you've done well — yet instead of feeling proud, a little voice in your head tells you that you've somehow fooled everyone.
You may worry that you're not as capable as people think you are, that you've simply been lucky, or that sooner or later somebody is going to discover that you don't really know what you're doing.
This is often described as imposter syndrome.
As a clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor and psychotherapist with more than 25 years' experience, I've worked with many people who struggle to recognise their own abilities. What is particularly interesting about imposter syndrome is that it doesn't necessarily affect people who are inexperienced or unsuccessful.
Very often, it affects people who are perfectly capable.
Understanding why that happens is an important first step towards changing it.
If imposter syndrome is making it difficult to recognise your abilities or enjoy your achievements, I've created an Overcome Impostor Syndrome Hypnosis MP3 to help you reduce self-doubt and build more genuine confidence.
What Is Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter syndrome describes a persistent feeling that your achievements aren't really deserved and that other people have somehow overestimated your ability.
You may have plenty of evidence that you're competent, but emotionally you don't quite believe it.
Common thoughts include:
"I was just lucky."
"Anyone could have done that."
"They think I'm better than I really am."
"I don't know enough to be here."
"Sooner or later they'll realise I've been bluffing."
You might also compare yourself constantly with other people, focus heavily on your mistakes and dismiss your successes.
The important thing to understand is that feeling like an imposter isn't evidence that you actually are one.
The feeling and the facts can be very different things.
Why Do Capable People Feel Like Frauds?
There isn't one single cause of imposter syndrome.
For some people, it develops from perfectionism. If your definition of being competent means knowing everything, never making mistakes and always performing brilliantly, almost any normal uncertainty can feel like evidence that you're inadequate.
For others, it comes from comparison.
You see somebody else's confidence, knowledge or achievements but don't see their doubts, mistakes or insecurities. You then compare their polished exterior with everything you know about yourself.
Past experiences can matter too.
Perhaps praise was rare when you were growing up, expectations were very high, or achievement became closely connected with approval. You may have learned to focus much more readily on what you haven't done than on what you have.
And sometimes imposter feelings appear simply because you're stretching yourself.
Starting a new job, accepting a promotion, becoming a manager, changing career or taking on greater responsibility naturally puts you into situations where you don't yet know everything.
That doesn't mean you're an imposter.
It means you're learning.
Why Success Doesn't Always Make Imposter Syndrome Disappear
You might imagine that another qualification, promotion or achievement would finally prove that you're good enough.
Unfortunately, imposter syndrome has a clever way of moving the goalposts.
You achieve something difficult and instead of allowing it to become evidence of your ability, you explain it away.
Perhaps you tell yourself:
"I got lucky."
"The interview must have gone particularly well."
"They didn't have many good candidates."
"My manager helped me."
Then the next challenge arrives and you once again feel you have something to prove.
Your successes never get added properly to your internal picture of yourself.
That is why simply achieving more doesn't necessarily solve the problem.
You have to start changing the way you interpret your achievements.
How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome
You don't need to eliminate every moment of self-doubt.
Almost everyone questions themselves occasionally, particularly when doing something new or important.
The aim is to stop automatically treating those doubts as facts.
Here are some useful ways to begin.
1. Separate What You Feel From What You Know
There is an enormous difference between:
"I feel as though I'm not good enough."
and:
"I'm not good enough."
One describes a feeling. The other turns that feeling into a fact.
When imposter thoughts appear, try asking yourself:
What evidence do I actually have?
If you've been appointed to a position, people presumably saw something in you.
If clients continue to use your services, there is a reason.
If you've passed qualifications, completed difficult projects or been trusted with responsibility, those things happened.
Your anxiety doesn't erase the evidence.
2. Stop Dismissing Your Achievements
Notice what happens when somebody compliments you.
Do you immediately minimise what you've done?
"It was nothing."
"I had loads of help."
"I just got lucky."
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging other people's contribution or recognising that luck sometimes plays a part in life.
But if you explain away every success, you never allow your brain to build an accurate picture of your capabilities.
Try simply accepting the compliment.
"Thank you."
It can feel surprisingly uncomfortable at first.
3. Keep Your Own Evidence
If your mind has become very efficient at remembering mistakes and forgetting successes, give it some competition.
Keep a simple record of things you've handled well.
They don't have to be extraordinary achievements.
Perhaps you solved a problem at work, dealt with a difficult conversation, received positive feedback, learned something new or completed something you had been avoiding.
Over time, you're creating evidence that challenges the automatic belief that you're somehow getting away with something.
4. Change the Way You Think About Not Knowing
One of the most damaging beliefs behind imposter syndrome is:
"If I were really good at this, I'd already know the answer."
But competent people don't know everything.
They ask questions. They research. They consult other people. They learn.
Think about somebody you genuinely respect professionally. Would you consider them a fraud because there was something they didn't know?
Probably not.
Give yourself the same reasonable standard.
5. Be Careful Who You Compare Yourself With
Comparison becomes particularly destructive when you compare yourself with somebody who has been doing something for far longer than you have.
A person two years into a career comparing themselves with someone who has 20 years' experience isn't making a fair comparison.
Neither is comparing your private doubts with somebody else's public confidence.
If you are going to compare, compare yourself with your earlier self.
What do you understand now that you didn't understand a year ago?
What can you do now that once felt difficult?
That is a much more useful measure of progress.
6. Allow Yourself to Be a Beginner
Sometimes imposter syndrome becomes particularly strong when you enter a new environment.
You may have been highly experienced in your previous role and suddenly find yourself surrounded by unfamiliar systems, terminology or expectations.
It can feel as though your competence has disappeared.
It hasn't.
You're simply inexperienced in this particular situation.
There is a huge difference.
Nobody should reasonably expect to know everything on their first day, first week or even first few months in a new role.
Give yourself permission to learn.
7. Question Perfectionism
Perfectionism and imposter syndrome often reinforce each other.
If anything less than exceptional performance feels like failure, you will repeatedly find evidence that you don't measure up.
Instead of asking:
"Was that perfect?"
try:
"Was that good enough for what was required?"
Those are very different standards.
Good work can contain imperfections.
Competent people make mistakes.
Experienced people occasionally get things wrong.
None of those things makes somebody a fraud.
What If Other People Really Are Better Than Me?
This is worth addressing because positive thinking can sometimes become unrealistic.
There probably are people who are better than you at certain things.
There are people better than me at certain things too.
That doesn't make either of us imposters.
You don't have to be the best person in the room to deserve to be in the room.
Competence isn't a competition in which only the most knowledgeable person is legitimate.
You can recognise somebody else's strengths without turning them into evidence of your inadequacy.
Imposter Syndrome at Work
The workplace is one of the most common places for these feelings to appear because performance is visible and comparison is easy.
You may worry about speaking in meetings because somebody might realise you don't know enough.
You might overprepare for relatively simple tasks, work unnecessarily long hours or find it difficult to delegate because everything has to be perfect.
Some people avoid applying for promotion because they assume they aren't ready, even when colleagues with similar or less experience are willing to put themselves forward.
Others achieve the promotion and then spend months worrying that accepting it was a terrible mistake.
If you recognise yourself here, pay attention to what your behaviour is costing you.
Imposter syndrome doesn't only make success uncomfortable.
Sometimes it can stop capable people from taking opportunities they are perfectly ready for.
Can Self-Hypnosis Help With Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter syndrome often involves well-established patterns of self-talk, expectation and self-belief.
You may intellectually know that you're capable while still having an automatic emotional response that says otherwise.
This is one reason I use self-hypnosis as a way of working with confidence and self-belief.
Hypnosis isn't about convincing yourself that you're brilliant at everything or replacing realistic thinking with exaggerated positive statements.
The aim is to help you develop a calmer, more balanced view of yourself — recognising your strengths, accepting normal imperfections and responding differently when old doubts appear.
I've created a Self-Hypnosis for Imposter Syndrome recording specifically to help people who struggle with these patterns.
You Don't Have to Feel Confident All the Time
One of the biggest misconceptions about confidence is that confident people don't doubt themselves.
They do.
The difference is that they don't necessarily allow every doubt to determine what they do next.
You can feel nervous and still speak.
You can feel uncertain and still apply for the job.
You can wonder whether you're ready and still take the opportunity.
And you can make a mistake without rewriting your entire opinion of yourself.
The goal isn't to reach a point where you never experience another imposter thought.
It's to reach a point where that thought no longer carries quite so much authority.
You can notice it, question it and continue anyway.
Because feeling like an imposter and being one are two very different things.
