DO YOU FEEL LIKE A FRAUD?
Photo Credits: Lena Drapella
Ok let’s start with a self-check:
How do you explain your sucesses?
Do you think you deserve the recognition, based on your performance and achievments?
If you're a professional climber or a climbing coach, do you feel unqualified for your job, even though objectively you are actually qualified and have achieved quite a bit?
Do you doubt your skills, competences and strengths – whether that's in climbing or your every day life?
Are you scared of making mistakes and being addressed by them?
Do you care about what others think of you? Are you scared of being exposed?
Do you think your climbing friends and colleagues are better than you?
In case you answered some or even many questions with "yes", remember: you are not alone with this (we are no exception!). Many people suffer with self doubts even though they would objectively perform well. This concept is called Imposter Syndrome.
"It feels as if every moment someone could find out that I'm a fraud and that I don't really deserve what I've achieved so far". – Emma Watson
Just like so many of us, Emma Watson has doubts concerning her own abilities, achievements and success. You might now say, wait, Emma Watson? She's one of the greatest actresses ever, why would she suffer from Impostor Syndrome? Having worked with many pro climbers, we could replace her name with their name. And maybe, yours too?
Impostor syndrome describes the inability to internalise success. This means that the person concerned is convinced that they have achieved success by fraud and have not earned it. Instead of making their own competences responsible for success, they justify an outstanding achievement with external factors such as luck or coincidence. The self-image is thus shaped by the conviction of being an impostor. The subjective feeling of not being suitable for the profession is deeply anchored in the thought patterns, even though these people are usually above-averagely qualified and correspondingly successful. These thoughts go hand in hand with a constant fear that others could expose them as impostors.
People with impostor syndrome struggle with accurately attributing their performance and successes to their actual competence. They tend to attribute successes to factors such as luck or coincidence (or route setting that suited them). The imposter phenomenon is therefore characterized by attribution of success towards external circumstances. When failing on the other hand, people with imposter syndrome reason it to be their personal fault. Attribution of causes plays a big role in human behaviour and experiences. We have a deep desire to causally explain events and incidences. Theories of attribution are therefore scientific theories about everyday causal attributions. How do you explain your failures?
🧗🏾♂️ Internal Factors (“I am unable to climb this project because I am too weak.”) or external factors (“I am unable to climb this project because the weather is too bad.”)
🧗🏾♂️ Stable (“I've always been bad on crimps.”) or variable (“I did not train crimps lately.”)
🧗🏾♂️ Controllable (“I will focus on improving my finger strength in the next few weeks.”) or uncontrollable (“I will never improve on my finger strength, it is pointless to train it.”)
How we evaluate our successes and failures has a big impact on our attitude towards future tasks and challenges.
Impostor syndrome was first described by the two psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in the 1970s. They had interviewed over 150 women and observed that many successful women felt that they were not particularly intelligent themselves and that their achievements were overestimated. Clance originally identified the syndrome among high-achieving professional women, but more recent research has documented these feelings of inadequacy among men and women, in many professional settings, and among multiple ethnic and racial groups.
In climbing and our psychological coachings, we often come across doubts like,
🧗 "If I can't climb this route, my friend – who's not a professional climber – I might be seen as a fraud."
🧗 "I think I was just lucky to reach the podium."
🧗 "All the others are so much more professional than me. Just wait until my sponsors realise..."
🧗 "Once they realise I'm not as good, I'll get kicked out of the team."
🧗 "Look at all the content, he/she is posting. He/she really knows what he/she is talking about and is way more experienced than me."
🧗”I’m not good enough to be the head coach. There are so many more qualified coaches out there.”
Impostor Syndrome (also known as "fraud syndrome") occurs when a person feels most vulnerable and has doubts about his or her confidence to perform at a given task. It decribes the feeling of unworthiness, that someone believes that they are not strong, intelligent, capable or creative even though there is evidence of their high achievements (Clance, 1986).
Many feel their success is due to luck or a fluke. From a clinical psychological level, the most common symptoms are e.g. generalized anxiety, depression, lack of self-confidence, and frustration. But it can also lead to impairing professional performance and contribute to burnout. With that said, Impostor Syndrome by itself is not a recognized psychological disorder.
There's science that Impostor Syndrome generally affects high-achievers and those who have been pressured to succeed. Many of these high-achievers don't feel any internal sense of success. As mentioned before, research suggests that while Impostor Syndrome is common in women, it also affects men. Age correlates significantly negatively with impostor feelings among working professionals but not undergraduates – this means, when you're a working professional, the older you get, the less likely you will suffer from Impostor Syndrome.
Even though it may take time and work, with support we can see ourselves again with the clarity that is necessary to break the circle of doubt. Remember, it is never wrong to start working on your mindset with a professional. 💙
If you want to level up your mental game, schedule yourself your first free appointment to get to know us.