28.09.26

There’s an ironic phenomenon that happens to a lot of smart and talented people.

The more they learn about something, the more they realize what they still don’t know. Instead of knowledge and experience making them confident, they only focus on their blind spots, to the point that they doubt their abilities and feel unsure about themselves.

Everyone around them seems to recognize their capabilities, but they keep thinking these people are crazy. This is popularly known as impostor syndrome, and in this article, I want to share practical solutions to finally overcome it and feel confident in your abilities.

Make Your Frameworks Conscious

A couple of years ago, I started questioning the methods I was using and every result I was producing for my clients. I thought that maybe I had been getting lucky the whole time. Although I had been doing this for 7 years and had many successful cases, I couldn’t pinpoint precisely what was working.

I realized the problem was that all of my knowledge was implicit, and that’s why I didn’t have clarity about my methodology. When an ability is implicit, it means you know how to do something, but you’re incapable of explaining how you do it or describing the process. You just do it and have zero clue how you’d teach someone else.

This happens with a lot of things in our lives, such as learning how to ride a bike.

After trying so many times, we eventually start riding. But most people aren’t conscious of everything involved in this activity, such as body posture, how their feet are moving, the right way to steer, the force they’re producing, and how they’re coordinating all of their limbs. They just hop on the bike and ride without thinking about it.

There are plenty of amazing musicians, such as George Benson, who don’t even know the names of the chords and scales they’re using. The guy is a guitar legend, but all of his knowledge is implicit. He has tremendous difficulty teaching what he does.

I realized that having all of your knowledge implicit is detrimental when you’re experiencing impostor syndrome, so I set out on a quest to make all of my frameworks conscious. I started by evaluating the true responsibilities of the analyst and listing which interventions made the biggest impact on my clients. From there, I started piecing together my own methodology.

Once my frameworks became more conscious, I could solve one of the biggest problems of impostor syndrome: being unable to evaluate your own abilities. This process made everything objective and allowed me to see what I was doing right, as well as the gaps, more clearly.

The way I found to make my knowledge explicit is by writing about it.

I started by creating guides about specific problems, such as the one you’re reading right now, and about Jungian concepts. The overall idea that guides me is simple: if I can break down complex concepts into simple information that a layperson understands, I know I did a good job.

This forces me to wrestle with the problems and come up with creative solutions. The more I do this, the more confident I become, because it clearly shows that I know how to solve the problem.

During a 1-1 session, that’s exactly what I do with my clients. I ask them about what they do in great detail and help them make their own frameworks more conscious. When this happens, the impostor syndrome spell is broken, and they can finally have an objective view of themselves. Then, I ask them to write about it.

That’s one form of shadow integration in practice: turning something unconscious into something conscious and integrated into the conscious personality. Transforming confusion into confidence.

The Lifestyle Sacrifice

When you have a clear assessment of your abilities, another problem arises. On the one hand, you feel happy to realize you were never an impostor. But on the other hand, you also have to face the fact that you’re probably not at the legendary level you wish to reach.

That’s why the next step is to be fully honest with yourself about what you’re willing to sacrifice to get to the level you want. Every result we seek in our lives comes with a certain lifestyle, and trade-offs are inevitable.

It’s important to see objectively what it takes to accomplish what you want, because it’s easy to dismiss other people’s hard work or say they’re just lucky. But the people who earn more are usually working overtime every week, sacrificing time with their families, and taking many risks that you aren’t.

Pat Metheny, the famous jazz guitarist, said in an interview that he warms up for 4 hours before every single show, and a typical day involves 8+ hours of playing and studying. His warm-up is most people’s maximum effort.

You have to answer this uncomfortable question: is it truly worth it for you?

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.

Remember that with every objective, you’re also committing to a certain lifestyle. So make a conscious choice about the level you’re willing to reach, as well as the sacrifices, and make peace with it. Especially if you have multiple interests, something’s gotta give. You’ll have to prioritize one thing to pursue excellence in, and keep a few others to play with.

It’s tough, but being an adult means dealing with our own limitations and choosing carefully how to spend our focus and energy.

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Rafael Krüger – Live an Audacious Life

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