[00:00:00] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breadth depth, and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention. Gratitude and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
[00:00:34] Aneta: Welcome back to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. And thank you so much for joining me on the solo episode. Today's episode is something that I feel so passionately about, and it's the idea of stopping ourselves from claiming the identity of imposter syndrome. I have heard this term used so often over the last several years with my clients, with my friends, with my colleagues, and with my community.
And. I wanted to understand where this term comes from and why are we so quick to claim this term for ourselves. So I did a little bit of research. So the term imposter syndrome was first coined in 1978 by two psychologists, Pauline R. Clance, Suzanne, and IMS in 1978. They introduced the concept in a paper titled The Imposter Phenomenon of High Achieving Women Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention.
And since then it's become widely used. It's studied in psychology. There are so many books written about it. And I think it's very common in our everyday vernacular, especially in the professional space. And primarily it identifies feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt despite evidence of competence.
According to the authors of the paper, the term imposter syndrome is used to describe an internal feeling of intellectual phoniness or fraud, and it appears to be prevalent and intense among high-achieving women. Now, they also found that there were certain family dynamics, early childhood family dynamics, and societal gender stereotypes that contribute significantly to this development of imposter syndrome.
But the interesting thing is that despite the outstanding academic and professional accomplishments, the women who experience imposter syndrome, continue to believe. That they're not bright and they fooled everyone who thinks otherwise. It's this idea of being a fraud and women who experience imposter syndrome, don't recognize their intellect or their own experience their worth, or the value that they bring, despite all of the external accomplishments and achievements and accolades.
Often it doesn't match what's happening internally, and that's using up a lot of time. and energy, energy that we could be using on so many other great things. So I felt this way in the past. I have. And when you go through it yourself, you think it's unique to you. You believe the lies, but when you start to see it in other people that you care about.
It just is really hard to stomach. So I looked up what other famous women talked about imposter syndrome. We found Maya Angelou she's the acclaimed author and poet of I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings. She admitted to feeling like she's fooled everyone about her writing capabilities.
Sheryl Sandberg, the CEO of Facebook and author of Lean In, talked about her early struggles, especially early on in her career and as she rose through the ranks of tech companies. Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in the United States, talked about feeling like she didn't belong in the elite circles of law and academia.
And Meryl Streep, who has been nominated for so many Academy Awards and won so many said that she struggled with real feelings of inadequacy throughout her entire career. And so I challenge us to say, instead of just claiming, I feel like an imposter. What if we asked ourselves better questions? What if instead, we said, why am I feeling this way in this moment?
Are the assumptions that I'm making true? Is it that I'm pretending? Is it that I'm over-inflating? Am I truly defrauding someone or is it a self-worth issue? And if there's a gap, do I need more certifications? Do I need more experience? Do I need more education that will help to close the gap and make me feel better?
Have I disclosed it if I need to with a new employer, for example, or if I move into a new role and if there is a gap? Do something about it. And if it's not, then allow yourself to know your worth and stop claiming this identity of an imposter or a fraud. So maybe it's time to retire the term imposter syndrome and instead recognize it for what it is, which is a challenge in knowing our worth and our value.
Let's shift the narrative in the conversation from feeling like frauds. or imposters and instead of claiming and owning our uniqueness, the things that we bring to the table and allow that to stand on its own. You are enough. You are more than enough. Thanks for listening.
[0:05:00] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.