73: Imposter Syndrome and Your Money → 3 Tips to Deal With It
Imposter syndrome is a collection of thoughts doubting yourself and your abilities, leading to feeling bad, isolated, or alone. When someone experiences the thoughts and feelings associated with imposter syndrome, they usually try to "prove" to themselves that they aren't an imposter by working harder, taking on more tasks, or raising the bar on their standards. When imposter syndrome interweaves with money, it can lead people to think that they don't deserve their salary, downplaying their financial wins, or speaking unkindly to themselves about their money.
The Origins of Imposter Syndrome
The term "Imposter Phenomenon" was first seen in the late 1970s, when Dr. Pauline Clance wrote a paper examining the findings of herself and others in grad school who felt like imposters. She then went on to create the "Imposter Phenomenon Scale." The scale is a series of statements that the test-taker will answer on a Likert Scale, ranging from "not at all true" to "very true." They include statements like, "I often compare my ability to those around me and think they may be more intelligent than I am," and, "I rarely do a project or task as well as I'd like to do it."
Experiencing Imposter Syndrome
While imposter syndrome can happen at any time in our life, I find imposter syndrome comes up when we are learning something new or in a new environment like grad school or a new job. Experiencing imposter syndrome can feel like you'll be found out as a fraud, feeling undeserving of your position or the space you occupy at work, and worrying people will "figure out" that you don't know as much as you say you do. It's a lot of comparison to others and wondering if you are as good or as deserving as others.
Experiencing imposter syndrome has a lot to do with external perceptions or others' opinions of who you are. To cope with the uncomfortable feelings of imposter syndrome, you push harder, do more work, try to stay on top of things to "prove" that you are successful and skilled. This can look like people-pleasing, putting an additional emphasis on external achievements to validate or soothe your anxiety.
Imposter Syndrome and Money
Imposter syndrome and money might sound like, "I only got this well-paid job because of tokenization," or "I was only able to save money because I got a car insurance settlement." In other words, discounting your financial abilities. I see financial imposter syndrome hit especially hard when a person moves from a socioeconomic class into another, moves into a new workplace position, or is in a new community.
Dealing with imposter syndrome and your money can have similar outcomes. Many people try to cope with financial imposter syndrome by increasing their financial goals, telling themselves they'll be "good with money" when they have a certain about saved, their debt paid down, or their credit score hits a certain threshold.
Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
To deal with imposter syndrome, we have to work on improving our self-esteem. Here are three tips for coping by using imposter syndrome exercises:
Create a list of your assets that aren’t financial. Write out a list of strengths or gifts you have that have nothing to do with your money. "I'm a thoughtful friend," or "I'm kind to my body."
Acknowledge duality. Two seemingly opposite things can exist at the same time. When we experience imposter syndrome, we are often stuck in black-and-white thinking and lose sight of nuance. "I am deserving of a good job while I pay down debt," or "I can have moments of financial doubt, and praise myself for automating my retirement contributions."
Practice some financial imposter syndrome busting affirmations. "I am deserving of my income." "I'm working on trusting my financial judgment." "I trust my financial intuition."
Imposter syndrome happens. But imposter syndrome and how it shows up in relationship with our money doesn't have to define us or be something we permanently experience. List out non-financial assets, practice accepting duality, and repeat some financial imposter syndrome-busting affirmations, and you are well on your way to feeling good about money.
Money Mindset Work for Therapists
Therapists in private practice are more than mental health clinicians. They are small business owners. As such, in addition to keeping clinical skills sharp, you have to learn about setting and maintaining strong financial goals, policies, and boundaries. For many clinicians, financial considerations come with a lot of hand-wringing and rumination. I’ve heard questions from therapists like,
Is it possible to be a good therapist and have money?
Can therapists be a part of the conscious capitalist movement?
If you don’t accept insurance, are you doomed to only help financially privileged clients?
Because I’m passionate about helping therapists rewrite their relationship with money so they can have sustainable and profitable careers, I’ve teamed up with Simple Practice Learning to bring therapists a course that dives further into money mindset. This Money Mindset for Therapists course addresses the mindset barriers that get in the way of reaching your financial goals, and practical strategies to create a sustainable business. I’ll cover three factors that make it uncomfortable for therapists to talk about money, tips on setting financial goals, how to reframe fee setting and financial boundary-setting in a way that feels good, and ways to be accessible that don’t involve sliding your scale in private practice.
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