Why You Might Have Imposter Syndrome for Men and Women

I invite you to think about all the people in the world. And there’s a certain number of people who have anxiety. Then, out of those people, there’s a certain number of people who have anxiety because of shame or self-devaluing. And then within that group of people, there are those who believe their accomplishments didn’t happen because of their own knowledge and their own skill, but happened because of luck or fate, something that is out of their control.

And because of this, they feel like a fraud deep down. And a lot of times this isn’t completely conscious. Those people in that last group are struggling with imposter syndrome. And imposter syndrome is a term that was coined by two female researchers in the 1970s, and they conducted research on high-achieving women who lacked internal acknowledgment of their accomplishments.

Imposter syndrome starts when we’re young. It starts in adolescence. Typically, IS causes anxiety, depression, fear of failure, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. If you have imposter syndrome, you probably believe your successes are the result of chance, not because of your own knowledge, work or skills.

I started my career 20 years ago, teaching meditation to children. I trained teachers, therapists and parents how to teach meditation to children. Every single time this comes up, I always say, I just got lucky. I just happened to be the first person to publish a book on teaching meditation to children. I wrote a book called “Sensations Meditation for Children, which was quite successful.  It won a National Book Award, but I feel like I just got lucky.