Overcome Imposter Syndrome & Become The Person You’ve Always Wanted To Be | EP 879

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes, and welcome to The Daily Motivation Show.

0:11If you feel like you're not living your most authentic life, not leaning into your purpose, and not living the life that your future self would be extremely proud of, I've written a new book called The Greatness Mindset, and I think you're gonna love this. Through powerful stories, science-backed strategies, and step-by-step guidance, The Greatness Mindset will help you overcome all the different challenges in your life to design the life of your dreams and then turn it into your reality. Make sure to click the link in the description to get your copy today. The way I interpret fake it till you make it is kind of like the slick salesperson who like really does not buy what they're selling, but they're going to sell hard.

0:53Making it might be, you know, being promoted or making a lot of money, but they're still faking it. Faking it till you make it means faking it, getting the promotion and continuing to fake it. Faking it till you become it. The way that I think of this is you're tricking yourself into believing in yourself, right? You're tricking yourself into be a little bit more courageous. And eventually you become the person that you are in your mind's eye as your best self. The syndrome implies that it's pathological and rare. Like it's unusual and it's actually so not unusual. It's common. Yeah. And there are different estimates, like 75 to 85 % of people feel imposter syndrome.

1:35Also, women do not experience it more than men. Men are just less likely to openly talk about it. So when it's anonymous, which is a burden, I think, because they think they're the only ones feeling it. And then women get the burden of being like, oh, you always feel like imposters. So it cuts both ways in bad ways. It just pops up. You see it on your desk. You're like, oh, there's the imposter, and he'll go away. You experience it every time you start something new. It just goes away faster. You don't get hung up on it. You don't become anxious about the imposter feeling. Like self-efficacy, I mean, the way it's defined in psychology is like it's your belief that you're able to do this certain thing.

2:15Agency is wider than that. And this feeling of being agentic. And I think that when you conquer imposter syndrome again and again, that feeling does become transferable. Yes. Right? And you're like, this is a totally new thing, but I've never been part of this rodeo, but I think I'm going to be okay. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. You just know, okay, I've done this before many times. I can do it again. And if not, I'll be okay. I'll be all right. I'll survive. Right, exactly. What we know that one of the things that happens is that people, they're not as good at taking other people's perspectives.

2:48So they're not as good at perspective taking. This is a lot about social power. So when people have both social power and personal power, they're not as good at taking other people's perspectives. I mean, their feedback or their information or their ideas. Just understanding what other people are feeling. Honestly, it's really more about social power. As people gain social power, they're less dependent on others. When you have not much social power, when you're at the bottom of the hierarchy, you really need to be able to read other people's minds. Like you really need to understand what they're thinking because you're dependent on them.

3:23And as you gain more power, you're less dependent. And so you're more likely to stereotype people. You're less likely to be able to take their perspective. You just kind of forget what it feels like to be where they are. And so I think that's a problem. You know, there's a lot of research on overconfidence versus confidence. And to me, I don't think it is overconfidence. I think it's a different thing altogether. It's like ego. Yes, or like arrogance. You know, arrogance is often coming from a place of feeling threatened and defensive. And it's a smokescreen for insecurity, right? So yeah, I say it's a smokescreen for insecurity.

4:02And it's a way of deflecting. It's a way of preventing people from challenging you because honestly, they don't find you pleasant. They don't challenge you because they don't like you, not because they believe you. Right. You know, I always say confidence, not arrogance. Confidence allows room to be wrong. So you can hear people when you're confident, self-affirmed. You know who you are. You're able to hear feedback. You know, you don't feel like you have to steal the microphone all the time. And if you're confident and you're excited about an idea, you should want that to be as good as it can be.

4:36And so, you know, if you're around people who are offering you good feedback, confidence allows you to hear the feedback, which I think is really interesting.

4:48Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation. and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description that will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

5:44Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the daily motivation show.