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Recently, I have noticed a very critical voice in my head. I feel like I do not deserve or shouldn’t be in the role I have. I presume that everything I do in work is wrong and that I am not good enough. How can I prevent these thoughts from occurring?

As humans, we can often downplay our success, accrediting it to sheer good luck or being in the right place at the right time, instead of the likely truth – which is that our success is due to our skillset, knowledge and experience, which is why we were likely hired in the first instance.

Like any good lawyer would do, the first step is to look at the factual evidence we have to support our claim. I suggest that you look at the factual evidence that underlies the idea that you are undeserving of the role, or that everything you are doing is wrong. It is often a difficult task to find factual evidence to support these thoughts. The thoughts we have are quite normal and can sometimes spring from how we feel about ourselves and our self-esteem. It can also show up in the form of what is commonly referred to as ‘imposter syndrome’ (IS). IS generally refers to someone who believes they are undeserving of the role they are in, or feel incompetent, or not good enough for it. To put it plainly, you may feel like a phony in the role, or playing at the title you have been given.

Contrary to what you might think, this is quite a common experience among professionals at all levels and backgrounds, regardless of status, position or education. IS can hit each one of us at different times. When this happens, it can distort our confidence and self-esteem. One way of tackling it is to challenge the selflimiting beliefs you have about yourself and counteract them with empowering beliefs.

Empowering beliefs must be factual and realistic, whereby you discover that your selflimiting beliefs are usually a story that you have been telling yourself that you believe to be true. A starting point could be challenging the belief that ‘everything I do is wrong’. Ask yourself whether that’s a factual statement or whether it is your own thought about the situation. Remember: our thoughts are not always factual.

An empowering belief to counteract this could be: ‘I am learning a new task and have done things correctly in the past.’ Begin to challenge each one of these negative beliefs you have about yourself, and you will begin to see how many are factual, somewhat factual, or not at all – and reinstall some empowering beliefs.

This question and answer is hypothetical and was written by Ursula Cullen, solicitor and certified life and executive coach. Any response or advice provided is not intended to replace or substitute for any professional, psychological, financial, medical, legal, or other professional advice