Lie of the Imposter Complex #8: You'll Never be Able to Pull That off Again
You did something fabulous. Got noticed. Won an award. Wrote something people cared about. Brought in a MASSIVE contract. The Big Name client said yes to YOU!
But your capacity to do more fabulous somethings has apparently been reached — at least according to your Imposter Complex.
(By the way, here’s why I say Imposter Complex instead of Imposter Syndrome).
Suddenly, you believe that your talent, skill, knowledge, creativity, and ability to seal the deal is finite. You’re certain you'll become the one-hit-wonder.
So, why bother?
Even more insidious… many don't try in the first place for FEAR of this: if my book is a huge success, what next? How will I ever replicate that?
I honestly have a headache just thinking about this.
Lie #8 out of the 12 Lies of the Imposter Complex has us thinking that whatever success we’ve experienced, we’ll never be able to replicate it again.
It was a fluke.
We got lucky.
Someone else intervened….
I frequently see this manifest with coaches and entrepreneurs who don’t own the successes they help their clients get. They say, “Sure, that client made a ton of money / turned their life around / started a movement / wrote a bestselling book / won the award… But I can’t promise that for everybody because…”
(Fill in the blank. The reasons don’t actually matter.)
How this fear of success might manifest
Depending on which of the six behavioural traits of the Imposter Complex you most often experience, you might experience the self-doubt of Lie #8 a little differently:
If you’re a people-pleaser, you don’t want to make anybody feel bad, and you definitely don’t want to brag, so you might try to soften your success by immediately following it up with the disclaimer that you won’t be able to repeat it.
If you have leaky boundaries, anyone who questions or even suggests that you might not be able to pull it off again will sound like they’re preaching gospel truth.
If you tend to compare, you’ll immediately discount your success in comparison with somebody else’s entire body of work.
If you’re a perfectionist, well, you might not acknowledge your success in the first place — you’ll just see all the places it wasn’t perfect. And those perceived imperfections will convince you that you’ll never be able to pull it off again.
If you’re a procrastinator, you’re likely to fall into the camp that says, “If I am a success this time, I’ll never be able to follow it up, so why even try....”
If you tend to diminish, you might not even acknowledge your success at all — and if you do, it will only be grudgingly, with the quick caveat that it was a fluke, a lucky break, never to be repeated…
But here’s the truth, Love: Your success was the result of the skills and will you brought to the table (and, sure, MAYBE the stars were aligned as well). And so it shall be again. As long as you keep bringing your skills and will to the table.
The one-hit-wonder gave into the Imposter Complex.
Your skills, talent, insight, knowledge, background, creativity, and grit haven’t changed. Whatever brought you to that success (yes, even “luck”!) still exist.
And you can apply them to your next endeavor to help you see that success again…
And again…
And again.
This is not to say that you will succeed every time, but rather a reminder that if you succeeded once, you can absolutely do it again.
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Five ICONIC shifts leaders use to overcome Imposter Complex.