Trying to outwork your imposter syndrome?

I’ve been there too, friend. For a lot of years, if you looked up “you’re doin’ too much, bro” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure my face would be there. 😅

Here’s why trying to outwork (or out-do, out-prepare, out-prove… you get the idea) your imposter syndrome isn’t working.

I used to be a classic over-preparer, over-prover, over-worker—over everything-er. Not because I was lazy or disorganized or couldn’t keep up (truthfully, I was the opposite). Because I was dying to be enough.

I didn’t feel like I belonged at any table.

If I was around people who weren’t chasing big goals like I was, I felt disconnected—like I couldn’t really be myself. I couldn’t talk about my dreams, or what I was building, or the risks I was taking to level up. It either made people uncomfortable, or I’d get that awkward laugh, like “okay, calm down, overachiever.” I wanted to fit in—desperately so—but it felt like I had to shrink to do it.

If I was around people who were more successful than me, I felt like I was sneaking—like I was about to be found out and quietly (or loudly) uninvited. No matter what I accomplished (or how hard I worked), it never changed my habit of feeling like the least successful person in the room if the people around me were doing big things in the world.

I was always too much for one room, and not enough for the next. But you know what the crazy part is? No one could tell.

I came across confident. “Full of potential.” That’s what people always said—especially in work, career, and business settings. I remember these two sales training trips my companies sent me on (years apart). Both were traveling events, so they were several days long. The entire trip, I walked around like a shell of myself—hyper-vigilant, always trying to say the right thing, do the right thing, give the right answer, show the right image. Always trying to be enough...

Raging imposter syndrome.

Besides it being totally exhausting, it’s exactly zero fun when you feel like you're putting on an endless act—like the other shoe’s always about to drop, like somebody's about to figure out that you suck and you're not good enough and you need to leave.

It followed me everywhere. Every job. Every role. It impacted everything.

I made sure I only applied for jobs I was 110% qualified for (read: overqualified)—because anything less would expose me as the incapable fraud I believed I was. Of course, once I got the job (which I almost always did, because hello—I was 110% qualified), I was bored within 10 minutes.

I hated that cycle. I hated those boring jobs. And sometimes, I hated myself for applying for them, because I knew I was playing small. But deep down, I didn’t believe I could handle the kinds of roles I actually wanted. 

Eventually, I started my own business—and guess what?

That voice didn’t go away. It just started signing a slightly different tune.

What if I’m not as good as they think I am?
What if I charge too much and they realize I’m not worth it?
What if I suck and no one tells me?

My entire life, I used the only strategy I had to handle my combo of big ambition + raging imposter syndrome: I tried to outwork it.

If I could just do/accomplish/be/have enough…

Maybe you relate. Maybe you recognize yourself in this:

• You stay in safe, “stable” roles (because you don’t want to risk being seen trying and not succeeding)
• You over-prepare for everything (so no one can poke holes in your work)
• You constantly crave external validation (because you don’t trust your own voice or opinion)
• You say yes when you want to say no (because “earning your spot” feels like a forever job)
• You pretend you’re satisfied with the way things are (because you’re afraid of what would happen if you went for what you actually want—too big, too bold, too “who am I to…”)

Here’s what I want you to hear:

No amount of hard work, success, sacrifice, achieving, or striving is going to fix what’s happening inside. Nothing on the outside is going to make you feel like enough on the inside.

And yeah, friend, that sucks to see and truly accept—until it sets you free. Because it means...

You don’t have to keep proving, pushing, or performing anymore.

You get to rewire and reprogram your operating system.
You get to stop the loop at the root.
You get to stop medicating the symptoms and start curing the cause.

When I finally did the internal work—when I found transformational coaching and started going deeper than surface level, to the patterns and programs that actually kept me stuck—I realized I’d spent years trying to prove and earn something I already had.

I was trying to feed a hungry ghost.
I was trying to outrun the wind.
I was trying to buy something that wasn’t for sale.  

Imposter syndrome might be common, but it’s not permanent. It’s not just “how it is” for women like us. It’s not your lot in life—it’s a sign of what’s actually holding you back. And it’s not going away just because you land your next win.

Don’t ask me how I know.

You don’t need another strategy. You don’t need more qualifications. You need new internal programming.

Because the life you’re dreaming of—the income, the influence, the freedom, the feeling that you are the one in charge, that you are impacting lives, that you are living your dream?

That version of you isn’t flailing around trying to figure out how to be enough to get what she wants.
She knows she already is. So she just goes and takes it.

If any of this hit home—you have a choice: Keep trying to outwork it, or finally get to the root. You know which one doesn’t work. Are you ready to try something new?

If you are, subscribe below and stick around—I think you’ll like where we’re headed.