Snippet 28: How To Finally Beat Imposter Syndrome - Dr Alex George
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The human mind is negatively biased. And the reason it's negatively biased is because it's a protective mechanism. When you look at human neurodevelopment, in fact, human development at all, we haven't really changed much in thousands of years. We really haven't changed. Think of how different the world was in 300 years ago, let alone thousands of years. Our brain, and the reason it's negatively biased, is because it's a protective mechanism. Like,

If, for example, we walk into the forest and it's full of wolves and those wolves could kill us, we get away from that situation and survive. The next time we walk into the forest, we're going to be very weary and think negatively. There's probably wolves in there because it protects us. That's

That is an important protective mechanism, as is anxiety, you know, adrenaline and all these things. You know, it's a fight or flight. It's a deal with a problem that's in front of us. And, you know, we retain memories because memories allow us to learn from the past and make decisions in the present that make our future more certain. You know, self-preservation is like the number one goal for humans as individuals and the race. We need to survive. And so...

We survive by learning, sticking together broadly, acting in the present but worrying about the future. The problem is that modern day society, not for everyone I'm talking broadly for a lot of people, we perhaps don't have that kind of fight or survive or life or death in every moment of our lives. Most moments that we're sat here now quite safely, you know, we're not under immediate threat sat here.

But our minds, as we said, have not changed in thousands of years. And so they will fixate on things. The negatively biased mindset will always fixate on worries. And it will spend time ruminating on the past where people talk about depression is because of a rumination in the past and anxiety being our obsession of the outcomes of the future. But we're living these experiences in the present moment. And the problem is with imposter syndrome and why everyone experiences it because that negatively biased mind is trying to protect us from outcomes, negative outcomes, and

The problem is that sometimes it is overbearing and to our detriment. So we might think, oh, I can't give this talk on alcohol's effect on the liver in front of all these people. I'm an imposter. Actually, that person, you might be a registrar in liver studies. You spent the last six months reading the papers. You've just published an article around alcohol.

You know, you are an expert is what my point is, but yet we still feel the inner child. Often in times of vulnerability, when negativity takes over, we actually go back to our inner child and we forget everything that we've experienced. We go back to that vulnerable state of like, oh my gosh, like what am I doing here? I mean, I remember...

My first day in King's on the wards and I went to prescribe paracetamol. I had a sudden moment of panic of genuinely like, what am I doing here? Get me out of here. I can't remember the dose of paracetamol. I literally turned to the nurse. I was like, oh my God, I'm feeling really bad. Like I feel just like... And she knew almost. She was like, it's fine. Just the first few days, you're just feeling, you know, you feel imposter a little bit like that. It happens. And it's the negative mindset. Now, I think...

People wonder, oh, wow, it'd be great to get rid of imposter syndrome. I don't think it would entirely because you become an egomaniac and think you're amazing at everything. It's great to have a perspective of like, I'm good, but not perfect. Or I'm valid or worthy of this, but maybe I'm not perfect and I can still learn. That's really important. But if you let it, imposter syndrome can take over your life. It can prevent you doing anything. And I always think it's worth remembering. I have a saying, and I always say to myself, what is the worst that can happen?

I know that sounds like I'm going to bring, you know, lightning to be struck on me. It's not what I mean. And it's not even a throwaway of like, oh, what's the worst can happen? I don't care. That's not what I mean.

I literally mean, what is the worst case here? So if I'm getting up to do a talk about mental health, you know, you talked about when you, you know, you've done many keynotes, but say you're doing keynotes on YouTube or productivity or business in front of a lot of people, you might think, oh gosh, I'm doing this. There might be like quite good entrepreneurs in the room. I'm speaking about this. What's the worst that can happen? Genuinely, you make an absolute fool of yourself.

That's the worst that can happen. And like really the worst case is you make an absolute fool of yourself. Partly you probably haven't, but you might feel that you have. You're still alive. You're still recoverable. You can still be a successful business person. You can still have a valid, enjoyable life. You can still laugh with your friends. You can eat dinner afterwards. We often think that the outcomes are so much worse than they are. In most scenarios, they're not truly the case. And so I think it's sometimes applying a bit of perspective to imposter syndrome gets you...

gets you past that mindset. You know, I had it. I mean, I sat down with Boris Johnson when he was prime minister.

I was in Margaret Thatcher's room in number 10 Downing Street, right? And the picture of Margaret Thatcher was above his head and he was sat there and I was presenting to him everything that I'd found out from all the experts I'd spoke to, from the charities, from the Royal College of Psychiatry. I'd kind of garnered all this kind of stuff that we'd put together and I was taking it to him. Imagine how much of an imposter I felt.

But I literally said to myself, because I felt it coming on before I went in the room, and I thought I was feeling almost panic. And I thought, what's the worst that's going to happen? I'm in this room for half an hour max. It'll be done. Worst case scenario, I never come anywhere near this place ever again. I just run away. It's fine. I'll survive it. Which is the same as what...

most people's position is already that. Yeah. That they're not going to be in a room with Boris Johnson. So worst case scenario is like you go back to, you know... You just got to... I think sometimes imposter syndrome, it's asking yourself, what's the worst that can happen? It's realising that everyone feels... I have never met anyone in my life, I'm sure there are a few people out there, but I'd argue that probably they're not in the spectrum of normal, that most people will feel at certain times that they...

are an imposter most people feel that and therefore feel a degree of comfort and also realize you would you know i remember i remember once i'm doing um as an sho doing knobs and gyne i was doing a night shift with a consultant new consultant she was like i feel like a complete imposter i was like what you're a consultant you've done all this training you're literally i just watched her do a surgery she's literally so scaled i mean she was so slick she was just like she bossed it i was like you feel like an imposter she's like yeah absolutely

And I had this real realisation. I was like, wow, everyone... I've just seen this person who's probably one of the most skilled people in life, and they're smashing this, and they feel like an imposter. You realise everyone feels like it. It's not that bad a thing. When those feelings come on board, look for evidence. Look for evidence for the fact that you're an imposter. Then write down all the evidence for the fact you're not. And I will... Nine times out of ten, you'll find out that you're not an imposter. And do you know what? If perhaps it does highlight somewhere...

that is an issue, then deal with it. Say you're doing an irritation in medicine and an irritation is in something really, well, say you're doing like HIV as a rotation. Okay, first of all, you're not going to be like taking over and having to know everything about HIV. So often remember, imposter syndrome, a lot of the time it's because you think suddenly like everything's on you or like the world will collapse. It's not going to collapse if you don't know anything about HIV. You'll go in there, the consultant will assess your kind of knowledge and capabilities. They'll always be there to guide you and so on.

But it might highlight the fact that you haven't looked up HIV for a long time and you need a bit of work and revision. So always look at things and think, what is this highlighting? Why do I feel this way? What's the evidence for and to the contrary? And actually, if there is a learning outcome, like maybe before I start HIV rotation in a few weeks' time, I'll spend four or five hours reading up on HIV and learning. And all of a sudden you feel bolstered and you feel better.