No one chooses to experience impostor syndrome.
That nagging belief that, despite evidence of past accomplishments, you’ve somehow fooled others into thinking you’re more intelligent, talented, or capable as others know you to be.
But whether you know it or not, you have chosen ways to handle it.
In their work as therapists and facilitating personal growth groups, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, co-namers of the impostor phenomenon, identified four coping and protecting mechanisms
- Diligence and hard work
- Holding back
- Use of charm or perceptiveness to win approval
- Procrastination
In my work leading workshops with people who self-identified with impostor syndrome, I observed three more:
- Self-sabotage
- Maintaining a low or ever-changing profile
- Never finishing
In all cases, these behaviors are largely unconscious, and their purpose is twofold:
- To manage the anxiety of waiting to be found out
- To make sure that doesn’t happen
The behavior that practically everyone can relate to is procrastination.
Understanding Procrastination
To be clear: We all procrastinate.
We all avoid things that are difficult, overwhelming, or drudgery.
However, when you feel like an impostor, procrastination can be a way to put off whatever situation you fear will lead to your eventual undoing.
You tell yourself it’s because you “work best under pressure.”
And maybe you do.
But you also know that when you leave important things until the last minute, there’s a greater chance that quality will suffer.
On an unconscious level, Clance says, procrastination is a way to give yourself an out.
Take Kate, a bright political science major who desperately wanted to land a highly coveted and competitive internship in Washington.
Earning a spot required completing a lengthy application.
Kate had six months to work on it.
But instead, she waited until the very last minute, literally dashing it off the day of the deadline.
She didn’t get the internship.
Procrastination and Impostor Syndrome
Kate probably wasn’t deliberately trying to blow her chance to get the internship.
However, once she did fail, her procrastination provided a built-in excuse.
Now she could tell herself, “I’m disappointed, but hardly surprised. After all, I just whipped it off at the last minute.”
But here’s the kicker.
If Kate had managed to pull it off, she probably wouldn’t have felt deserving because she knew the application did not reflect her best efforts.
For the chronic procrastinator, the resulting success just reinforces your belief that you fooled them again.
Leaving important things to the last minute also lowers your chances of success.
Take the Procrastination Quiz
You only have 45 minutes, which would you be likely to do:
a) start on that big project you’ve been putting off for weeks, or
b) check your email
If you picked “b,” you’re not alone.
You may think it’s because checking email is faster and easier.
Besides, you argue, what could you possibly accomplish on a big project in 45 minutes?
It is true that checking email is quicker and easier.
And having 6-8 uninterrupted hours to work on that big project would certainly be preferable to only 45 minutes.
But the real reason is that we humans like to feel productive.
Handling email makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something.
It’s harder to get that instant rush of productivity with a big goal that involves hundreds of steps and requires days, weeks, months, or sometimes even years to fully achieve.
For those who thrive on instant gratification, this is not good news.
Good Morning America co-host and former ESPN correspondent Robin Roberts is often approached by young women eager to break into sports broadcasting.
“I’ll look at this fresh-faced kid, and my heart will sink as she explains that she wants her first job to be broadcasting for the NBA,” writes Roberts in From the Heart.
“Sometimes I’ll say, ‘Do you want to know what my first job was?’ – all ready to tell her how I climbed up from the bottom, making $5.50 an hour.
But her eyes are already glazed over.
She doesn’t want to hear it.
She wants to be a superstar now.”
That’s a big problem.
Because anything that matters takes time.
It’s why I often refer to myself as a 40-year overnight success.
The Problem and The Solution
Let’s try that quiz again.
But this time, instead of just 45 minutes, you have all day.
If this were your to-do list, which would you most likely skip:
- Call Fred
- Pick up flowers
- Email Maria
- Develop a 1-year strategic plan
If you’re like most people, you skipped the last one.
Not because you’re lazy or “bad.”
But because you’ve mixed big verbs and little verbs on the same list.
Big verbs include actions like design, develop, create, organize, plan, and write, with a capital W, as in write a novel, thesis, speech, or strategic marketing plan.
Small verbs include call, send, pick up, order, email, schedule…
What happens when you mix big verbs and little verbs on the same list?
When you get to a Big Verb, your brain will come to a screeching halt because it doesn’t know what to do.
You know what action it takes to call Fred, pick up flowers, or email Maria.
But what’s the next action to “develop a strategic marketing plan” or “get an MBA”?
Satisfying as it would be to simply cross off your to-do list “win a marathon,” “design a new coaching program,” or “become an ESPN sportscaster,” it doesn’t work that way.
The to-do lists of people who do extraordinary things consist of utterly non-complicated tasks like “call Fred” or “see if the conference room is available Tuesday at 2:00.”
The solution is to maintain a separate Current Goals and Project List and keep it visible.
Unlike most to-do lists, the items of this list consist entirely of big verbs. Things like:
- Plan off-site retreat
- Develop a customer incentive program
- Research vendors
- Create a retirement plan
- Complete the Impostor Syndrome Informed Coach™ training 🙂
(Okay, that last one is probably not on your list… yet. But if you’re interested, click here to learn more.)
From here, break your goal down into such small steps that you can’t help but do them.
Then, using the 80-20 rule, make sure you spend at least 20 percent of your day working on the steps directly related to your most important goals and projects.
If you assumed I’d tell you to spend 80 percent of your time on your most important activities, you probably never worked in a major corporation, ran your own business, or raised children.
If you did, you’d know that there will always be less-important but nonetheless necessary demands on your time.
If you work an 8-hour day, try to commit two hours to chip away at the small verbs related to your big goals and projects.
It doesn’t need to be two hours at once.
What I’ve learned is that big things can happen in short bursts.
And all those 15, 30, and 45-minute time investments do add up.
The key, of course, is to start.
