Incompetent or Imposter

We’ve confused actual incompetence with impostor syndrome.

Incompetence is supported by empirical behavioral facts; impostor syndrome is a problem of belief and self‑worth. You don’t trust your own judgment, and your esteem is low despite clear evidence that you’re performing well.

The irony is that success often creates the problem. You’ve been so consistently successful that you start waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop—for some catastrophic failure to appear and prove you were a fraud all along. When I was in the Army Sergeants Major Academy, I initially felt anxious about every assignment—until it occurred to me: I had never not done very well. I had failed at times, but never catastrophically, and I always recovered and improved.

If your track record is strong and you still feel like a fraud, the problem isn’t your competence—it’s your memory.

Challenge:

This week, write down three concrete past successes and one past failure you recovered from, and read them before a high‑stakes task; train yourself to trust the evidence instead of the anxiety.

Categorized in: General