Tim Arrigo explains imposter syndrome as the belief you don't deserve what you've earned, affecting about 70% of people. He recommends writing down the milestones that got you here, naming the limiting belief holding you back, then checking if your actual evidence contradicts it. The earned effort itself proves you deserve it.
If you struggle with imposter syndrome, then this video is for you. Okay, what is imposter syndrome? This is a belief that you're not as deserving or as qualified as somebody else might be, and that the high esteem that you're held in is not warranted, and that eventually when people find out the truth about who you are, they will inevitably see that you're an imposter and you shouldn't have what you've worked so hard to obtain. So the imposter phenomenon is an experience of internal phoniness. And a fear of having your incompetence revealed in front of others. Really common. 70% of people experience this at some point in their lives, especially entrepreneurs. And early on in my career, I struggled with this. And if you're a beginner, if you're starting at something, you're new at something, this is super normal. But if you are not a beginner and you're still struggling with this, okay, then this video is for you. So I got one simple question for you as I start this out. Okay, one simple question. Okay, how'd you become successful? How? Process of elimination. Was it luck? Was it chance? Was it genetics? Was it the environment? Was it coincidence? How'd you become successful? Did it simply fall into your lap? Let's be clear from the start, okay? If you worked for it, if you sacrificed for it, if you spilled any amount of blood, sweat, and tears into it, then you fucking earned it. And if you earned it, then you deserve it. Okay, straight up. And I guarantee that you're probably the person who wants to constantly improve yourself. So you have a very high expectation and goal of where you want to be. And see, and sometimes these expectations cause us not to look at where we are and what's already been done. Instead, we have a majority of our focus on the future and our goals. So this causes us to live in a place where our minds are not only comparing ourselves to other people, but we're also focused so much on— and here it is— where we could be, where we want to be. And thinking about where we could be and what needs to be done causes us to focus on what we lack, right? And this type of mindset requires a small tweak by number one, developing unconditional self-acceptance. Okay? Unconditional self-acceptance is accepting that I'm a fallible human being and I display fallibility in an area involving my expertise from time to time. And it's most likely because I'm pushing my personal limits and trying to learn. Imposter syndrome is connected to competitive people in in competitive environments. Okay, people who are comfortable, they stand on strengths and they hide their fallibilities. Okay, but people who are never satisfied with their growth, they try new approaches, new paths, new ideas. And in risk-taking, there's always flaws. And most of them aren't that major because they're still in an area that you've already been highly accomplished in. So here's how to once and for all eradicate the imposter syndrome. Okay? Write down everything that got you to where you're at. Write down the story, everything that led you to where you're at and write down why next to that. Okay? Write down why next to that you're not qualified. Then see if it's true. Right? You might find that you wrote that you're not experienced enough. But your story shows that you have lots of experience, right? This exercise will allow you to challenge your limiting beliefs and see the truth about why you're qualified, why you deserve it. It also helps you see that you can simultaneously be a student and a teacher at the same time. See, mastery, self-mastery suggests continual evolution and evolution requires continual learning. So when we're reminded that there is no ceiling to our growth and then there is more to be learned, we can let the evidence of what we've done speak for itself, right? And we can accept, accept that we're in a stage of both teaching and learning, which helps us eliminate the feeling of incompetence that comes from you know, knowing where we want to be. Okay, bridge that gap from where you are to where you want to be by taking on the role of being both the student and the teacher, right? And when we remind ourselves that we are the student and we are the teacher, this grounds us and puts us back in the perspective that, yeah, okay, I earned it, right? I got here. I fucking earned this. But there's still more work to be done. There's still more to learn, right? And there is still a path set out in front of me where I can see where I want to be and what needs to take place for me to get there. So again, try this exercise. It's super helpful for all my clients. I help them practice this if they struggle with the imposter syndrome. Again, write down the story of what got you to where you're at. And then next to that, write down why you believe that you're not qualified and see if you can see that it's true in the story.
