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“Imposter syndrome” is a psychological thought pattern that causes us to doubt our accomplishments while also being plagued by an internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. First described by psychologists Suzanne Imes, PhD, and Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, in the 1970s, impostor syndrome (also known as “imposter phenomenon”) occurs when feelings of inadequacies and incompetence come up despite having evidence that you really are competent.

Most articles about imposter syndrome focus on getting rid of it, but here’s the thing:

As you challenge yourself, you’ll start off feeling like an imposter. And it’s all part of the growing process.

The more I challenge myself, the fraudier I feel, initially. Plus, I’ve found through my own experience that feeling like an imposter is something you never rid yourself of. As you build your expertise, those fraudy feelings will come up. Here are my reasons why imposter syndrome may pop up and how to deal with it:

You don’t believe you’ve earned it

I love when a potential clients contact me about working with me. Regardless of how they were put into contact with me, it feels great when a client believes you’re the best person to work with them. However, I was speaking with a mentor a year ago about how it weirdly didn’t seem right to me. Why? Because I didn’t feel like I earned it. Logically, I’d rather have potential clients come to me or current clients renew a contract with me, but deep down it feels fraudy because most of us are used to going through some kind of process of selection. Or working hard for it. There’s a sense of achievement and satisfaction when you’ve been chosen out of a pool of candidates. Yet, you should feel special when someone contacts you directly because they feel you’re the right person for the job. So, what gives?

How to deal: Whether you’ve been handed an opportunity or you were chosen out of a pool of candidates, the reason why is still the same: You were the right person for the opportunity. How would you feel if someone were to say to you, “You know what? I appreciate you believing that I’m the best person for this, but I don’t feel that I’ve earned it because you didn’t choose me out of a pool of candidates”? It doesn’t sound logical. We’re used to the hustle and focus on making things happen that we don’t allow opportunities to come to us. If this still feels foreign to you, ask for the reasons for you being give the opportunity. You’ll see that the characteristics they see in you were the characteristics you saw in yourself all along.

You don’t have a frame of reference 

When my consulting business was a just side hustle, I felt like a fraud because I didn’t really own the title of “consultant”. I didn’t think I had the experience under my belt to call myself that. Now that I’ve been working for myself for a while, I’ve realized that imposter syndrome was a problem then because I had no frame of reference for what it’s like to be self employed, let alone work as a consultant. I was basically mirroring what I’d seen others do. If you’ve been hired as an executive director of a nonprofit, and this is your first time being in a professional role like this, of course you’d feed fraudy, because you’ve never been an executive director before.

How to deal: When those fraudy feelings come up, continue to remind yourself that you were hired because you were the best person for the job. Someone saw qualities in you that would be perfect for [insert role title]. There may be certain aspects of the job that will require additional training or mentorship, but trust in your ability to do it. Which leads the next reason why you may feel imposter syndrome:

You don’t have the skillset 

At the start of my consulting career, I was juggling multiple short-term contracts. All of which were pretty straightforward. Now, my contracts are multi-year and more complex, with various moving parts. That all-too familiar “I don’t know what I’m doing” feeling would come up (and still comes up), but again: my own frame of reference was dealing with short-term simple projects.

How to deal: Commit the build up whatever skillset is needed to get the job done. For me, it was increasing my knowledge around understanding the complexities of managing complex projects, in addition to doing better with time management. Each client I’ve had has been different and has taught me about my own process of managing client work. If there’s a particular skill needed, I worked on developing it.

You’re afraid of challenging yourself 

Sometimes, things come naturally to us, and sometimes things come to us when we put in the work. Sometimes, I’ve felt that I just got lucky in finding the solution to a problem when really I had the knowledge all along. When we downplay our abilities, it can actually lower our self-esteem and we develop the limiting belief that we’re not good enough.

How to deal: When something comes naturally for you, it only means you’ve developed the skillset or have had the experience necessary to complete the task. It’s easy to feel like like an expert when you’ve performed a task for a long time, because your brain becomes used to that level of difficulty. You only grow when you take on new challenges. You don’t become stronger if you’ve constantly lifting the same size weights (or not lifting weights at all). Do an assessment of where you are now, and identify goals that can take you to the next level in your career. Within those steps, identify the incremental steps you can take to achieve your goals.

You believe that imposter syndrome is a one-time thing 

As you challenge yourself, you’ll always feel like an imposter. And it’s all part of the learning process. Each client project I take on requires me to give a little more of myself that the last project. And each time, fraudy feelings will come up. But if I don’t commit to building my skillset and challenging myself, I’ll never grow beyond what I know I’m capable of.

How to deal: If you remain stagnant and avoid challenge yourself and your limiting beliefs, you never know what you’re capable of. When those fraudy feelings come up, ask yourself “Is this true?”. When we don’t know the outcome or are afraid of what can happen, we’re forever live in a state of unknown. But sometimes you have to face the worst case scenario.