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I’m Good At My Job, So Why Don’t I feel Enough? (Enter the dreaded Imposter Syndrome.)
When years of professional experience meet a menopause-related confidence wobble.
THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL CONFIDENCE DISAPPEARING ACT 🎩
You’ve built a career. You’ve solved problems, managed difficult colleagues, delivered projects, navigated office politics and survived meetings that really should have been emails. You know your stuff. You’ve got the experience, the skills and possibly a drawer full of notebooks containing plans that could run a small country.
So why, suddenly, are you questioning whether you’re any good at your job?
Why does speaking up in a meeting feel harder? Why are you rewriting perfectly reasonable emails seventeen times? And why does that shiny new opportunity look less like an exciting challenge and more like an elaborate trap designed to expose you as a professional fraud?
Welcome to the peculiar world of imposter syndrome, where your achievements are conveniently forgotten and one minor mistake becomes Exhibit A in the prosecution of your entire career. 🙄
For women in their forties and fifties, this experience can become particularly confusing. Just when you have accumulated decades of knowledge, experience and professional wisdom, changing hormones, disrupted sleep, brain fog and competing life pressures can leave you feeling less confident, organised and capable. And that can be unsettling.
For World Menopause Day on Sunday 18 October 2026, I wrote an article about chronic pain at work, reflecting this year's campaign theme. But I've been hearing a lot about imposter syndrome from my clients recently, so I wanted to investigate it further and shine a light on an experience that deserves far more attention: questioning your professional abilities just when your experience should be your greatest asset.
WHEN YOUR INNER CRITIC GETS A PROMOTION
Imposter syndrome describes the experience of doubting your abilities or achievements and fearing that others will eventually discover you're not as capable as they believe. It isn't a formal medical diagnosis, and it can affect people at every career stage, including highly successful professionals.
You might recognise some of these tell-tale signs:
You dismiss achievements as luck, timing or someone else's help.
You overprepare because being merely competent doesn't feel safe enough.
You avoid applying for promotions until you meet every single criterion.
You replay conversations long after everyone else has forgotten them.
You struggle to accept compliments without adding a disclaimer.
Sound familiar? You're certainly not alone.
In MenoMinds' article, "10 signs impostor syndrome is holding you back during menopause (And what to do)", the discussion connects menopausal experiences with self-doubt and career confidence, highlighting practical ways to challenge the cycle.
The key point? Feeling like a fraud isn't proof that you are one. Your feelings deserve attention, but they don't automatically deserve the final say.
WHEN YOUR HORMONES JOIN THE OFFICE POLITICS 🧠
Perimenopause and menopause can bring changes in sleep, mood, concentration, memory and energy. When you're accustomed to being the person who remembers everything, thinks on your feet and can juggle twelve competing priorities before lunch, experiencing brain fog can feel like your professional superpowers have handed in their notice.
You might lose your train of thought in a meeting, struggle to find a familiar word or need longer to complete a task that once felt effortless. It's easy to leap from "I'm finding this harder today" to "I'm no longer good at my job". But those statements are not the same thing.
Hormonal changes may contribute to cognitive and emotional symptoms, while poor sleep, stress, workload and other life pressures can compound them. Menopause does not automatically cause imposter syndrome, and not every confidence wobble is hormonal. However, understanding the possible connections can help you stop treating every difficult day as a professional verdict.
Pause Live 2026 explores this connection in its guide to loss of confidence and self-esteem during menopause, discussing brain fog, negative self-talk, hormonal changes and practical support.
YOUR EXPERIENCE HASN'T DISAPPEARED
Here's a useful reminder: needing more effort to access a skill doesn't mean you've lost the skill.
If you've spent twenty years managing complex projects, one foggy afternoon doesn't erase your experience. If you've led difficult conversations, one moment of hesitation doesn't suddenly make you a terrible communicator.
Your professional knowledge is not a light switch that hormones can simply flick off.
However, if symptoms are affecting your daily life or work, don't simply grit your teeth and carry on. Speak to your GP or an appropriate healthcare professional about what you're experiencing and the support available. At work, consider whether practical adjustments, greater flexibility or a conversation with your manager could help.
You don't have to disclose personal medical information to everyone in the building, either. Decide what you're comfortable sharing and with whom.
THREE WAYS TO QUIETEN THE IMPOSTER
You don't need to wait for a magical confidence fairy to sprinkle glitter over your CV. Try these practical steps instead. ✨
1. Keep an evidence file. Record achievements, positive feedback, problems you've solved and skills you've used. Include the unglamorous wins: the conflict you resolved, the process you improved and the deadline you rescued. When self-doubt starts rewriting history, consult the evidence.
2. Challenge the thought, not yourself. Replace "I'm rubbish at this" with "I'm finding this difficult today". Ask what evidence supports your worry and what evidence contradicts it. Would you judge a colleague as harshly for the same mistake? If not, why are you applying a different rule to yourself?
3. Take action before you feel completely ready. Apply for the role. Share your idea. Volunteer to lead the project. You can acknowledge the learning curve without demanding that you become an expert before you've even started. Confidence often grows through experience, not endless preparation.
A useful additional tip: notice your patterns. Are you more self-critical after a poor night's sleep? Does a particular colleague trigger your doubts? Are you taking on too much? Understanding the circumstances can help you respond more effectively than simply telling yourself to "be more confident".
WHEN HIGH ACHIEVEMENT BECOMES A TRAP
There is another uncomfortable truth: being good at your job can sometimes make self-doubt worse.
If you've built your reputation on being reliable, helpful and endlessly capable, you may feel pressure to maintain that image at all costs. You say yes when you want to say no, polish work long after it is good enough and avoid asking for help because surely someone at your level should know everything already.
In The Addvocacy Project's article, "Why So Many High-Performing Women Start Doubting Themselves at Work", Caroline Beresford explores how self-doubt can show up as perfectionism, overworking, people-pleasing and reluctance to pursue opportunities. The article also considers how perimenopause and ADHD traits may complicate confidence for some women (both get messier when mixed together and LOTS of us are being diagnosed BECAUSE of the loss of hormones and the inability to mask).
The lesson isn't to lower your standards or stop caring about your work. It's to question whether your standards are helping you succeed or keeping you trapped on a treadmill of proving yourself.
Try asking yourself:
What would "good enough" look like for this task?
What could I delegate rather than automatically taking it on?
Am I doing this because it's important, or because I'm afraid of being judged?
What opportunity might I pursue if I stopped waiting to feel completely ready?
You can be ambitious without being relentlessly self-critical. They're not the same thing.
A FINAL THOUGHT: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO BE A WORK IN PROGRESS 💜
If you're questioning yourself at midlife, please don't automatically assume you've lost your professional mojo.
You may be navigating physical changes, unfamiliar pressures, a different set of priorities or a workplace that hasn't caught up with the reality of women's lives. You may also have developed habits of perfectionism and self-criticism that no longer serve you.
Whatever the cause, you deserve to approach yourself with curiosity rather than condemnation.
Your career isn't a courtroom, and you don't need to defend your entire professional existence every time you make a mistake.
At Pause And Empower, I support women navigating change to recognise their strengths, rebuild confidence and make career decisions that work for them. If you'd like a little space to explore what's holding you back, you're welcome to book a free 30-minute Discovery Call. Let's work out what your next chapter could look like.
Because being good enough was never about being perfect. It's about recognising your worth, trusting your experience and giving yourself permission to keep growing. 🌱
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