Imposter Phenomenon

Hey, Cadre, family doctor Carey here. I wanted to share a story with you today about this guy I encountered last night. So I went to the hot tub of my apartment complex last night, just wanting to kind of relax, chill out, work out my sore muscles from the gym, and ended up spending quite a long time talking to this guy. And he is a 27 year veteran, was in the marines, and he shared about his career and basically his whole life story while I was trying to do my relaxation in the hot tub. But it was just fascinating to me because he shared about how in the military, especially, you often get called to do a job that you're not really qualified to do.

And having now met multiple people in the military out here in San Diego, I'm learning this is kind of a thing in the military. So he was called to become a weather forecaster and which is especially important for the pilots that fly. I mean, this is not just like a get on the tv, tell people, like, how many layers to wear that day. This is a really important profession because he is, you know, he's got people's lives at stake that are flying. So he tells us about how he had to, you know, learn all the science behind it.

But then once he finished, like, the program or the education that he had gone through, he needed to be basically the expert in this because they were relying on him. The pilots relied on him, the commanding officers relied on him. He had to know all of this information. And he said, I felt like such a fraud because I barely knew anything, and yet they were expecting me to be the expert in this area. And he talked about the concept of imposter phenomenon, also known as imposter syndrome. They don't usually use that word anymore because it's not a diagnosable sign syndrome.

So they prefer, I guess the pc term is imposter phenomenon. But it just made me kind of chuckle because I have experienced that, too, multiple times in my life. And I actually gave a presentation on it to a group of nursing students at the university a few months ago because especially within professions like this, like nursing, where you're, like, in a specialty role, you were expected to be the expert at something like, right. When you graduate from school. Right. Nursing school, whatever it may be, whatever your profession is like, if you, especially if you have to have a certification for this, immediately when you get that certification that says, like, I have this degree, I have this certification, you're expected to know everything.

So as a new nurse in the ER, I was expected to know the same as a nurse that had been doing this for 20 years. Like, I'm expected to know how to do CPR and do advanced cardiac life support and save this person's life and also know how to take care of the sprained ankle next door, and then do you know, like, take care of this person's breathing issue, the two year old that comes in that can't break? I'm expected to know how to do all of that. And all I have is a piece of paper that says, I passed an exam, and I've been through a few years of school, and so I could totally relate to this guy because he really struggled with, I am supposed to know everything.

They expect to know everything. And I feel like such a fraud. I feel like such an imposter. And that's where this concept comes from, imposter phenomenon, because you are expected to know a certain level of information and you don't feel like you do. But it's funny, because everybody experiences the same thing when you're in those situations. And if you were to poll a bunch of people and say, do you expect them to know as much as the person that's been doing this for 20 years? They'd probably say, well, no.

I mean, that doesn't make any sense. Obviously, they don't have any learned experience, but we still have this innate, like, lack of confidence in ourselves. That's what imposter phenomenon means. I lack significant confidence in myself and my ability to do this job, and it's all an internal battle. It's like a. It's a battle in your mind, really, of what imposter phenomenon is. And so I was coaching a new nurse the other day as well, and she was experiencing the same thing. Like, I'm doing this specialty role.

They expect me to know everything. And I'm like, all right, let's just unpack that right there. Do they really expect you to know everything? So I just want you to ask yourself that question. If you're struggling with this imposture phenomenon or you have in the past, where is that expectation coming from? It might actually be coming from your employer. It might be coming from your boss. It might be coming from. But I'm guessing it's not. I'm guessing it's an internal expectation you have on yourself, because you're supposed to be able to do the same job as everybody else.

So first, just ask yourself that question. Am I really supposed to know everything right now? Am I supposed to know as much as the person that's been doing this for 20 years? And then the next question to ask yourself is, why do I have this level of expectation on myself? Well, one, I think that I'm supposed to know everything, but two, I wouldn't expect that of somebody else. That just starts in the profession. So if you, let's say you've been in this profession for 20 years and somebody else starts, you don't have that expectation on them.

So at the root, where is that? Why? Where is that coming from? Do you have high expectations for yourself? This is something I've battled with my entire life. I hold myself to very high expectations, and everybody else around me but myself, even higher because I'm not allowed to make mistakes. I'm not allowed to be human. And so really, the best way to overcome imposter phenomenon is to give yourself grace and tell yourself, I am human and I'm learning, and it's okay. And maybe you need to, at the end of the work day, go write down all the stuff you don't know and go look it up, because I used to do that all the time.

I used to go to this conference on a weekly basis, and I would take notes, and I would write down all these medical terms that I had never heard of before, and I would go research them because it made me feel better of like, okay, I'm gonna still learn, right? Like, we are never done learning. And so maybe there's something that you can do to help yourself gain a little bit more confidence and knowledge in whatever area you're looking at. But at the core, it's really about just giving yourself a little bit more leeway and saying, you know, it is okay that I don't know everything and the things that I don't know.

I'm gonna go look up or I'm gonna ask somebody. And that's okay, because I understand that being new to something doesn't make me an expert. And even the person that's been doing this for 20 years, probably not an expert. There's probably somebody who knows more than they do as well at that point, because you can feel imposter syndrome, imposter phenomenon at any level. That's what's so funny about it, is because, like, you could be the person that's been doing this for 20 years, and then you could meet the person that's been doing it for 30 and think, oh, my gosh, I know nothing.

So there's no, like, set time frame of when somebody feels imposter phenomenon. It usually occurs when you start something new, but just in general, give yourself more grace and maybe unpack it. Talk to a coach, talk to a therapist. You know, say, these are the things I'm struggling with. A lot of times it brings up other insecurities inside of you. When you start to feel like you're not good enough at something, it starts to bring up other areas of your life where you feel like you're not good enough.

So maybe it would involve unpacking that with someone else. So I just want to encourage you today that if you've ever experienced imposter phenomenon or the symptoms of that, whatever it may be in your life, to one, just give yourself a little bit more grace, forgiveness, talk to someone about it, and also just learn that this is part of life because you're never going to be perfect or an expert at anything. That's just impossible to know everything about everything. So I hope this was encouraging for you today, guys.

If you want to hear more on this topic, I've got a whole bunch more I can talk about, too, with imposter phenomenon. I've done a lot of research into this. There's a really cool assessment tool out there, too, that I could talk about, so just let me know. But I hope it was encouraging to you, and I hope you have a great weekend. God bless.