Summary
Joe argues that imposter syndrome can’t be overcome by trying to convince yourself you’re not an imposter — because the evidence actually supports the fact that you are one. Nobody doing anything of consequence knows exactly what they’re doing. If you knew how to solve a problem, it wouldn’t be a problem — it would be a to-do list. An expert is simply someone who has failed more than everyone else.
The key insight that destroys imposter syndrome isn’t “I’m not an imposter” but “everyone is an imposter.” When you ask “who isn’t an imposter?” — Elon Musk didn’t know how to build a spaceship, your favorite writer needed countless edits — the ground falls out, but so does the problem. If everyone is a kindergartener, being a kindergartener doesn’t bother you.
Joe then provides a practical integration: imposter syndrome is really fear, and that fear is excitement without the breath. Saying “I’m excited” ten times can transform the felt experience from anxiety to energy.
Key Concepts
- We are all imposters and that’s fine
- Imposter fear is excitement without the breath
- Experts have simply failed more than anyone else
Key Quotes
“If you think you’re an imposter, it’s because you are. Nobody who’s doing anything important in the world knows how to do it.”
“The whole idea of an expert just means it’s somebody who has not known how to do something for a very long period of time and kept on trying.”
“When you realize we’re all imposters and that all that really matters is how we feel like we’ve lived our lives, imposter syndrome just can’t matter at all.”
“What that fear actually is, is excitement without the breath.”
Transcript
there’s a lot of people who want to get rid of their imposter syndrome and the problem is that the evidence that they’re looking at to see if they’re an impostor is actually true it shows that they are an impostor and so you can’t ever convince yourself out of it because the evidence supports the fact that you’re an impostor however there is this one piece of information that when you get it can completely destroy the whole idea of impostor syndrome so what we’re going to do in this video is describe what makes impostor syndrome right to what you can see to be able to see through imposter syndrome and three how to integrate that awareness so that you don’t even have to worry about impostor syndrome anymore and then finally I’ll give you an experiment that’ll help you see through impostor syndrome in your day-to-day life so let’s start off with what makes impostor syndrome right so here’s the deal you don’t know what you’re doing if you’re doing anything of consequence whatsoever you don’t know what you’re doing right nobody goes into a problem saying I know how to solve the problem if you go in saying I know how to solve the problem then it’s not an actual problem it’s just a to-do list then it’s like washing the dishes you’re not like oh my God I have a problem I don’t know how to wash the dishes you’re like oh my God I’m just going to go wash the dishes and so if you think you’re an imposter it’s cuz you are right none nobody who’s doing anything important in the world knows how to do it they’re figuring it out as they go they fail many times they make mistakes many times their companies almost go bankrupt one of their pieces of art sucks like no matter what there’s a way in which we don’t know what we’re doing or it’s not interesting to do and so that makes us all imposters because if we knew exactly what we were doing we would be bored and we wouldn’t be doing it and the whole idea of an expert just means it’s somebody who has not known how to do something for a very long period of time and kept on trying that’s what makes them an expert it means they failed more than everybody else it means they’ve been an impostor more than anybody else so that’s what makes it so if you are in your mind trying to convince yourself I I am an impostor I’m not an impostor all the evidence points to the fact that you are I am we all are imposters it’s like saying you’re at a kindergarten and you’re like oh my God I’m a kindergartener right like it doesn’t bother you because everybody’s a kindergarten and so there’s no way you’re going to convince yourself out of it and that’s what most people are trying to do they’re sitting there trying to convince themselves out of the fact that they are an impostor but you are so you can’t there’s information that you can see that totally will destroy the whole idea of imposter syndrome is this simple question who isn’t an imposter Elon Musk he didn’t know how to build a spaceship when he started clearly he’s still iterating on trying to build a better spaceship right or your favorite writer right how many edits did they have to do they didn’t do it right the first time so if you really let that in for a minute let it in that everybody is an impostor right it’s a very disconcerting feeling and it’s disconcerting because it means that there’s nobody who knows exactly what they’re doing and we want that we really want to feel like oh this person knows and so if I do it this way I’m safe or this person can tell me I’m right or this person can tell me I’m wrong and I I know I can be per that there’s some form of perfect that I can even get to we all want that cuz it makes us feel safe and secure and if you can really see there is nothing like that there is no perfect book there is no perfect company there is no right way to do it there’s just the way that we are called to do it and the things that we’re experimenting with that’s all there is then there’s this kind of oh my God because the ground falls out from everything but there’s also a complete understanding that everybody’s an impostor so what’s the problem I remember this story which I just really always appreciate it was a friend of mine who had uh got thrown out of a van and had like one of those experience where died and came back to life right and and so whatever whatever creates that but he had one of those experiences where he saw like the light at the end of the tunnel and he kind of walked through the tunnel and he saw these two people coming at him and he was thinking to himself oh I’m I’m going to be judged for my life now and he was like oh these two people are going to come and judge me and I’m going to see if I’m good enough and when they arrived these two people they arrived one of them looked at him and said did you do good enough and it was only his own judgment that mattered and when you realize that when you realize we’re all imposters and that all that really matters is how we feel like we’ve lived our lives in that moment impostor syndrome just can’t matter at all so let’s get into how to integrate this into your life so every time you’re feeling like you’re an imposter what’s happening is a little bit of fear is happening and your mind says oh I don’t know what I’m doing and somebody else might and so the most important thing is to just actually work with the fear now there’s two kinds of fears to think about the first one is like fear for my life and the other one is fear of stepping into a bigger room right so it’s the fear that you feel like if you’re speaking in public or if you’re doing something bigger or if you’re or you’re like expanding your world just a little bit like traveling there’s like this certain kind of fear and what that fear actually is is excitement without the breath so if you actually fully allow the breath and you feel that feeling all the way it’ll turn into excitement and there’s this really cool hack that you can try every time you’re thinking oh I’m an impostor just try this just say I’m excited 10 times I’m excited I’m excited I’m excited I’m excited I’m excited I’m excited just like that 10 times I know it sounds absolutely crazy but try it it it works so well and so what you’re really doing is just allowing that fear to be unrestricted and turn into the excitement that’s actually there and that’s a great way to integrate it because it’s not just a thought it’s an emotional integration so if you’re interested in doing an experiment on this a good one that you can do is just go home and write down all the people that you admire most make sure that there’s 10 or 12 of them and then under each name write down all the mistakes that you’ve known they made and all the ways they didn’t know what they were doing when they started and that’s it just just actually allow yourself to feel and sit in that experience so if you want more information on experiments go to the link below view. life/ experiments if you like this content like And 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