I recently had a day where everything felt wrong and everyone felt annoying. It was a day before my period so hardly surprising. I’ve suffered from PMS since I was a teenager and I’m aware these moods are a lens I look through at this time of the month rather than reality. These people are not as irritating any other time of the month. In fact just 2 weeks prior my wife told me she was finding me irritating (a day before her period). I realised it was probably not the right time to point out that I might not be anymore irritating today as any other day it was just the lens she was viewing me through! It’s the same reason we talk about optimists looking through rose tinted glasses or why skinny people see an overweight person in the mirror when they’re looking through the lens of an eating disorder. What we see of reality will be skewed by the lens we look through and what it’s clouded by.

When I talk about our brains negativity bias and Imposter Syndrome it’s a similar principle. Our feelings of not being good enough are simply the lens we look through. The reality is that we’re performing well and we’re the only ones worried about getting ‘found out’. If we clear this lens that’s clouded with a negative bias we see this reality rather than what our Imposter glaze on that lens will have us fear.

Our negativity bias means we’re wired to see the worst in ourselves and when we look through this lens of course what follows is self-doubt, lack of confidence, fear of being found out and a comparison to others that leaves us falling short. Sound familiar?

What would it be like to clear this lens, to lift the cloud of our inner critic from our vision and see the reality of who we really are? That’s exactly what we do in my Imposter Syndrome work and coaching programmes. With strategies and practical exercises to help you lift this lens and clear your inner critic out of the way of reality to allow you to realise your potential.

It’s a stressful place to be otherwise as it leads to stress, eroding confidence, not feeling enough and always trying to prove ourselves. It doesn’t have to be this way though.

Get your place on this years 4 week course and see how we can clear the lens we look through an alter our mindset.