Do you ever feel like a fraud, questioning whether you truly deserve your success? You’re not alone.
Many working moms struggle with self-doubt, often experiencing imposter syndrome. The constant pressure to balance career and family can lead to feelings of inadequacy. But here’s the truth: you do belong in the rooms you’ve worked hard to be in.
In this post, we’ll break down practical steps for overcoming self-doubt as a working mom so you can show up with confidence in your career and life.
What Is Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter syndrome is the belief that your success is due to luck or external factors rather than your own skills. It can make even the most accomplished women doubt their worth. Studies show that over 75% of women in leadership roles have experienced imposter syndrome at some point.
Common triggers include:
- Starting a new or high-pressure role
- Comparing yourself to others
- Setting unrealistic expectations for yourself
Recognizing these triggers is the first step to overcoming self-doubt as a working mom.
Overcoming Self-Doubt as a Working Mom: 5 Steps to Confidence
1. Name and Acknowledge the Feeling
The first step in overcoming self-doubt as a working mom is to call it out. Recognize when imposter syndrome is creeping in. Instead of believing negative thoughts, acknowledge them for what they are—mental roadblocks, not reality.
Action Step: Give your inner critic a name (like “Negative Nancy”) to separate the doubt from your true self.
2. Reframe Negative Thoughts
Your inner dialogue has power. Instead of thinking, I don’t belong here, replace it with I earned my place here through my hard work and skills.
Action Step: Write down your achievements. When self-doubt creeps in, remind yourself why you do deserve success.
3. Build Confidence Through Action
Confidence grows when you take small steps outside your comfort zone. If speaking up in meetings feels intimidating, start by making one comment per meeting. Small wins add up to big confidence.
Action Step: Identify one area where self-doubt holds you back and take a small action this week to challenge it.
4. Seek Support from Mentors and Peers
Imposter syndrome thrives in isolation. Talk to a mentor, coach, or trusted friend. Chances are, they’ve felt the same way and can offer valuable perspective.
Action Step: Reach out to a mentor or peer this week and share your experience.
5. Celebrate Your Wins—Big and Small
One of the biggest mistakes working moms make? Not celebrating their own achievements. Keeping a journal of wins (no matter how small) helps reinforce confidence and self-worth.
Action Step: Each day, write down one thing you did well. Over time, this habit builds a stronger belief in yourself.
Your Next Step to Overcoming Self-Doubt
Self-doubt doesn’t define you—it’s just a feeling. The key to overcoming self-doubt as a working mom is to take action, even when it feels uncomfortable.
Start today by choosing one action from the list above and putting it into practice this week.
Need more guidance? Take my free Overwhelm Culprit Quiz to find out if lack of confidence is holding you back. Take the quiz below.
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[00:00:00] As a working mom, have you ever found yourself doubting your abilities, thinking you’re not good enough, or feeling like a fraud if you’re actually succeeding?
If so, then you’re not alone.
Impostor syndrome affects so many of us high achieving women.
Making us question whether we deserve our accomplishments or belong in the rooms that we fought so hard to be in.
In today’s episode, we’re going to break down what imposter syndrome is, why it happens, and most importantly, what you need to do to be able to silence your inner critic.
So then that way you could show up with confidence.
You know, it’s kind of funny when I was first invited to speak at TEDx, of all places, my first thought was. Why me?
And then from [00:01:00] there, the thoughts of doubt started circling in my brain. What if they realize I’m not as good as they think? Like, what if they realize I’m just a giant fraud?
Despite all my experience, as well as the story I had to share, which they obviously resonated with, otherwise they wouldn’t have booked me to do the talk, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I just did not belong.
And that’s exactly what imposter syndrome is. Imposter syndrome is the internal belief that your success is due to external factors rather than your own skills and abilities.
It’s a mental trap and it’s not a reflection of your reality.
And here’s the problem. According to the Journal of Behavioral Science, over 75 percent of women in leadership roles have experienced imposter syndrome at some point in time in their careers.
Some common triggers for imposter syndrome include
being in a new or high pressure role.
Comparing yourself to other people’s successes.
And last but not least, setting [00:02:00] unrealistic expectations for yourself. I know I personally have been guilty of this.
Now, one way I personally view imposter syndrome when I am feeling it nowadays and this is a huge mindset reframe, is that it means that I’ve leveled up, right? So if I’m feeling like an imposter, where whatever situation that I’m in, it means that suddenly I feel like I’m not qualified to be in that room, but I wouldn’t be in that room if I was not qualified.
So it’s a signal to me now, personally, that I’ve leveled up and now I need to bring up my confidence game to match it.
So over the years, I’ve identified that there’s five steps that you could take to help overcome feelings of imposter syndrome. I’m going to walk you through them today.
First up is to acknowledge and name the feeling, right? Actually describe it for what it is.
When you recognize imposter syndrome for exactly what it is, a mental trap, then from there it takes all the power away from it.
The next time you hear a critical [00:03:00] voice in your head, call it out. Recognize like, hey, that’s my imposter syndrome talking, that’s not really me.
One thing that I love to recommend that my coaching clients do is give their imposter syndrome a name, like a really annoying, obnoxious name. So for example, you know, the, the cliche, it’s a Karen, right?
So find a name that would reflect for you, something that’s super annoying and obnoxious and give your imposter syndrome a name.
By the way, no shade to Karens. I love you, Karens.
All right, next up, you’re going to want to reframe your thoughts.
The way that you challenge negative self talk is by focusing on the facts.
So instead of thinking to yourself, I don’t belong here, instead, remember and recognize your achievements that actually brought you to the table to begin with.
Step three is to build your confidence through taking action.
Remember, your confidence is always going to grow every single tiny step that you take that’s on the outside edge of your comfort zone.
So as an example, let’s say that you feel like you’re an [00:04:00] imposter sitting in meetings that you haven’t sat in before.
So, set a goal to speak up one time in that meeting this week, that or take on a task that would stretch your abilities.
Step number four is to seek support as well as perspective.
Here’s the thing with imposter syndrome. It seems to thrive when you’re in isolation. So the more that you keep your thoughts to yourself, the more it’s just going to circle and circle and eat you alive from the inside out.
So instead, share about the way you feel with people you trust, a mentor, a coach, or even a friend that can add some sort of outside perspective.
And last but not least, celebrate your wins. So many women that I know, myself included, find it so difficult to celebrate when we actually achieve something great. And as a result of that, we don’t really recognize our achievements for what they are. And that helps feed that imposter syndrome cycle.
So it’s time to actually start celebrating. Every single time you acknowledge your achievements, whether they be big or small, it actually [00:05:00] reinforces your self worth.
So you can do what I do. I keep a journal and I track every single day the things that were awesome, that went great that day. But you could either keep a journal or find other ways to track your growth and really celebrate how far you’ve actually come.
So to sum it up today, we talked all about imposter syndrome, how it affects working women and mothers like myself, why, what it is, why it happens and different steps that you could take to overcome it.
So your next step is to take just one action mentioned today, I gave you five, right? Just take one of them today and put it into action this week.
And if the topic of imposter syndrome triggers you to begin with, there’s a very high probability that you’re feeling stuck and overwhelmed due to the lack of confidence overwhelm culprit. You can learn for sure by taking my free quiz at www. corrielo. com / overwhelm culprit.
And when you do, you’ll be added to the [00:06:00] next step newsletter where every single week I’m going to teach you exactly how to cure your confidence culprit.
Thank you so much for joining me today on the next step with Corrie Lo.
Remember, imposter syndrome is just a feeling. It’s not a reflection of your worth or your abilities. In fact, it’s a sign that you’ve leveled up. So it’s something to celebrate.
Next week we’re going to cover how to use storytelling as a leadership tool .
We’ll talk about why your story matters and how by sharing it, you can inspire and connect with others. I’ll see you there.