It’s Imposter Syndrome that’s the Imposter, Not You

You feel like a phony, a fraud. You just know you’re not as good as other people seem to think you are. Your self-doubt means you believe your success is just luck, just circumstances outside of you that make you look good.

You worry all the time that you can’t live up to the expectations others have of you, so you over prepare, set goals that are far too high to achieve, and constantly berate yourself for not hitting perfect performance.

It doesn’t matter how well or how often you do something; you still don’t believe you’re good. Instead, you agonize over every minor mistake, living in constant fear of being found out for what you really are—a phony and an imposter.

I’m seeing all kinds of questions and posts on social media about imposter syndrome. This is a belief that you don’t have the ability and/or intelligence that others think you do. What actually happens is you cannot internalize your own success. Your mind is too full of your faults and failings and weaknesses.

And right there is the secret to eliminating imposter syndrome! Since you were tiny you’ve been immersed in a deficit-based world, a world that focuses on our weaknesses, our deficits, our faults and failings as barriers to success. You’ve learned that having weaknesses means you’re broken and need fixing.

So much of our world is rooted in this deficit concept—health care, education, psychology, social work, even religion. In the workplace it shows up on performance appraisals that focus mostly on what’s wrong, what didn’t work, on weaknesses, and it shows up in training where the emphasis is on fixing weaknesses.

Let me be clear. You absolutely have weaknesses and faults. you will fail to achieve goals sometimes. You certainly aren’t and never will be, perfect. You’re a normal human being.

So—what’s the solution? The solution is moving from deficit-based to strengths-based thinking. Or, as I prefer to call it, strengths-powered thinking. Change your self view from being a flawed, weak, and faulty being with a few strengths to one of being a strong, competent person with some flaws and weaknesses that add interest and depth. After all, all great literature is founded on human flaws—if we weren’t flawed there would be no great literature, just boring narrative.

Your strengths are not just the things you’re good at. Strengths PAVE the way to your success, making your journey easier and not having to struggle over broken, uneven ground.

Performance: When you use this strength or group of strengths, your performance is high.

Action: You use the strength often.

Value: Using the strengths creates value and aligns with your values.

Energizing: When you work from this strength, it energizes you.

How do you know what your true strengths are? Make a list of all your strengths and specific ways you have used them. Then use my PAVE model above to understand each one. If you can’t think of anything for one of the PAVE elements for a particular strength, it’s probably not a true strength but something that you’ve learned to do well even though it doesn’t energize you.

When you work from your weaknesses you feel drained, depleted, even demoralized. When you work from your strengths, you feel energized, enthusiastic, and emboldened

Then make a list of your weaknesses. Next, explore which strengths can help move you past each weakness (often a combination of strengths), support you when you must work from that weakness, or perhaps even make the weakness irrelevant. Then put those strengths into action!

When you fill your mind and self-concept with your strengths, you not only gain confidence and calmness, you also have the foundation for living live powered by strengths.

Take  a strengths profile and have a one-hour debrief with me for just $200USD! Find out more on my website at and scroll down to

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