Think of imposter syndrome as the nagging voice in your head that tells you that you have no business writing a song, performing music, or performing on a stage. If you have experienced that, then you know about imposter syndrome.
It can also be characterized as a fear of evaluation, fear of not being able to maintain success and fear of not being as skilled as others in the same industry. It can also be a fear of being “found out”. Depression and anxiety often accompany these fears.
Feeling this way can crush your self-confidence, motivation, and ability to perform, often leading to poor mental health and missed opportunities for growth in your career. Imposter syndrome affects people across all industries—in fact, 70% of people experience it at some point in their lives - but musicians, artists, and other creatives are especially susceptible to its detrimental effects.
However, we can also align the fear of success with imposter syndrome. That statement unexamined may sound odd because aren’t you all here to get on the path to achieve success? Yes, but at the same time, if a product is put out and it becomes successful, we can wonder, was this a fluke, a one-time thing, what if I put this out again and no one likes it, it doesn’t track, how long can I keep this up until I am out of ideas, or someone finds me out. But if I am not successful, it doesn’t matter if I do good or not, because I don’t have to worry about failing or becoming irrelevant one day.
We can be in a room of 200 people and 199 of those people can offer us admiration and praise, but we focus on the 1 person who criticized us. Individuals who suffer from imposter syndrome are unable to hear all the outward praise and believe that it has anything to do with them.
So why do we concentrate more on our failures rather than our successes? A therapy client (not mine) stated: “I won’t be so hurt by failure if I expect it. And if I expect it maybe I can handle it.”
There are a few common symptoms of imposter syndrome you might experience as a musician:
You have low self-esteem and lack confidence in your skills and abilities.
You feel like you don’t belong among other musicians.
You’re scared that someone is going to find out that you don’t really know what you’re doing.
You think you accomplished something solely because of luck and you’ll never be able to replicate your success.
You feel like you’re not worthy of your success.
You think you must do everything on your own and don’t feel comfortable asking anyone for help.
You put a lot of pressure on yourself to be perfect.
You’re afraid of making mistakes or failing.
You seek external validation.
You’re sensitive to criticism.
Imposter syndrome is not a one size fits all label for people. There actually has been 5 distinct types of imposter syndrome identified. The best thing to do when you are stuck in the cycle of imposter syndrome is to reach out to a mental health professional or coach to assist you in walking through it.