Curing Imposter Syndrome
March 14, 2022 | Words by Margaux Carle
To celebrate Women’s History Month, every Monday and Friday during the month of March, we’re highlighting just some of the many women that are a crucial part of NCFIT. Today, we highlight Margaux. Margaux holds her CF L1 and is a coach at NCFIT and Black Iron Nutrition.
My imposter syndrome isn’t “cured”.
I’m a coach. I coach at NCFIT and I coach nutrition for Black Iron Nutrition. All day long, I’m teaching, guiding, and educating people. I’m the expert. I’m supposed to have the answers or know how to find them. I’m a fitness and health professional and yet, every week I have a moment of doubt, I have a client or an athlete who stumps me, I have a moment of second-guessing my own expertise.
Starting two coaching jobs within weeks of each other (in 2020, of all years) has given me a lot of confidence. I achieved two major goals, but that hasn’t stopped imposter syndrome from sneaking in.
IMPOSTER SYNDROME, A FEELING OF DOUBT OR SENSE THAT YOU’RE A FRAUD, DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTS WOMEN. I’VE ALWAYS KNOWN THIS, BUT HADN’T EXPERIENCED IT MYSELF UNTIL I HAD TO WALK UP TO GROWN MEN LIFTING WELL OVER 300 POUNDS AND TELL THEM HOW TO FIX THEIR LIFTS.
The first time I did it, I’m not sure I was convincing at all. My advice sounded more like a question than a statement and I remember feeling a weird sense of self-consciousness. Even though I knew I was right and I knew I could help, there was a little voice in the back of my head trying to convince me I didn’t deserve to be giving the advice. Who was I? What did I know?
For the first few weeks of my coaching career, I let this get to me. I’d stick to my “script” for classes, I’d give surface-level advice that I knew couldn’t be shut down, and I kept my head down. One day, I finally brought this feeling up to my closest friend, who also happens to work as a personal trainer, and she gave me some of the best advice I could have asked for at that moment. She said, “NCFIT wouldn’t have hired you if you didn’t deserve to be there”. That was all it took to get me to see myself in a new light.
I still have doubts, but her words shifted something for me. I was reminded of the hours and hours I put into both my coaching and nutrition certifications, of the days I spent working with my mentors and practicing my skills, of all of the hurdles I jumped to make it through my internships in the craziest year of all time. She reminded me that I’m trying to make waves in a male-dominated field and that feelings of doubt are normal but are to be ignored.
I’M STILL LEARNING AND GROWING AS A COACH, BUT MOVING FORWARD I REFUSE TO KEEP MY HEAD DOWN. THAT’S NO WAY TO OVERCOME IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND IT’S NO WAY TO MAKE AN IMPACT ON THOSE AROUND ME.
