What If Imposter Syndrome Is Trying to Tell You Something?
- Jul 3
- 5 min read
Niaby is a Dream Weaver, Transcended Master, published author, and intuitive, transofrmational mentor whose work serves as a bridge between the spiritual and psychological worlds. Through her transformative teachings and healing work, Niaby stands as a powerful voice for those ready to walk the path of truth and transformation.
We do the work. We earn the credentials, build the experience, accumulate the track record. People respect what we do, and by any reasonable measure, we are good at it. Yet, quietly, persistently, there is a feeling that we do not quite belong. That at some point, someone will notice. That the version of us showing up in our professional lives is somehow not the real one.
We have probably read the advice. Reframe your thinking, recognise your achievements, build your evidence base. For some people, that approach genuinely helps. But what if we have tried all of that and the feeling is still there? What if it runs deeper than any reframe can reach?
Beyond the standard advice
The conventional framing of imposter syndrome treats it as a psychological glitch, a distortion in the way that high-achieving people perceive themselves. The solution, therefore, is corrective. Change the thought pattern. Remind yourself of what you have accomplished.
This works for some. But the advice tends to operate at the surface, addressing the symptom rather than what sits beneath it. For the many people for whom the feeling persists, no matter how much they reframe or how many achievements they catalogue, something else is happening entirely. What if the feeling is not a problem to be managed, but a compass pointing towards something far more fundamental?
Good at the wrong thing
Consider the possibility that the feeling of being an imposter is not always a distortion. Sometimes it may be accurate information. Not in the sense that we lack skill or deserve less than we have earned, but in a more specific sense, "What if what we are doing is not aligned with who we actually are?"
It is entirely possible to be genuinely competent, even exceptional, at something that does not belong to us in any deeper sense. A career built on capability rather than calling. A role shaped by opportunity, expectation or practicality rather than by what we were naturally drawn towards. For many high achievers, there is a persistent drive to do more, reach further, accomplish the next thing, as though the next achievement will finally make the feeling go away. But what if that restlessness is not ambition in the conventional sense? What if it is the consequence of a void that achievement alone can never fill? A gap that opens when we are living at a distance from the truth of who we are? We keep reaching for more, but more of the same will not close the gap. The void is not asking for greater achievement. It is asking for greater alignment.
Taught to be someone else
This disconnection does not happen by accident. The systems within which most of us have grown up, educational, social, economic, are built in ways that pull people away from the truth of who they are. From an early age, what came naturally, the interests that felt instinctive, the dreams that felt true, are steadily redirected towards what is measurable, practical and socially sanctioned. We are shaped, often from very early on, into versions of ourselves that serve external structures rather than the deeper truth of what we are here to contribute.
The cost of that process is significant. When we spend years building a version of ourselves that was constructed rather than nurtured, we can arrive at considerable external success whilst still carrying the sense that something is not quite right. The imposter feeling, in this context, is not a measure of our capability or our worth. It is the natural consequence of living at a distance from the truth of who we are.
Your natural gifts matter
Every one of us carries something that is genuinely and precisely ours, a way of seeing, contributing, or creating that is central to who we are. When we reconnect with that, something shifts. The gap between who we are and what we are doing begins to close.
The imposter feeling begins to dissolve, not through management or reframing, but because the self being presented to the world is finally closer to the self that actually is. The question worth sitting with is not 'how do I stop feeling like an imposter'? But, ‘Is what I am doing a true expression of who I am? Does it reflect what I am genuinely here to contribute’?
Find your true purpose
Each of us is born with something specific that is ours to bring into the world. Our natural gifts, talents and dreams are intrinsic to who we are and form part of a deeper design, a blueprint that is unique to each individual, reflecting precisely what that person is here to contribute. That contribution cannot come from anyone else. It can only come through the individual who carries it.
When we become disconnected from those gifts and spend our lives expressing someone else's version of who we should be, the world does not receive what was meant to come through us. But our dreams are more than what we have been taught to believe. They are the blueprint for the whole new world that is waiting to be brought into existence. Each of us carries a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. When we reconnect with the truth of who we are and allow what is genuinely ours to be expressed, we each contribute our piece. When those pieces come together, we have the opportunity to collectively create a whole new world, simply by being who we came here to be
In that context, the imposter feeling may be one of the most truthful signals that we ever receive. It holds the memory of who we are, even when we have long stopped looking for it, and it holds the memory of what we are here to contribute, at a time when the world is waiting for each of us to answer that call.
So if the standard advice has not worked, if the feeling persists despite everything that has been achieved, it may be a sign that something more aligned is waiting, something that has always been ours, and that has never stopped calling us back.
Read more from Niaby Codd
Niaby Codd, Author, Dream Weaver, Transformational Mentor
Niaby is a gifted healer, seer, empath, and evidential medium who has spent over a decade honing her natural abilities. As a Transcended Master, she blends together these profound spiritual gifts with her deep intuitive understanding of human behaviour and trauma to help people identify the root cause of their emotional blocks and limiting beliefs. Using her unique gift as a dream weaver, she helps her clients to release deep-rooted trauma by accessing the subconscious mind through the dream state. A seer of truth, she empowers others to move beyond societal conditioning and reconnect with their authentic selves. Her mission is simple yet profound, to inspire people to be who they came here to be.
