Why am I not enough?
Taming the critical internal voice of the high performer | High-Achievement, Mental Fitness and Wellbeing Series
A recent study from University College London caught my attention. It found that people with anxiety or depression tend to remember the times they felt uncertain more than the times they performed well. Over time, that bias reinforces mental habits: self-doubt becomes more accessible, more familiar, and more convincing - even in super high-achieving people who have every reason to feel confident (Katyal, Huys, Dolan, & et al., 2025).
This finding is especially relevant when you’re working in high-performance, high-accountability fields - law, consulting, medicine, academia and others - where being ‘on’ all the time isn’t just cultural, it’s often existential. If your internal world is quietly undermining you while you’re outwardly holding it all together, that’s not just exhausting -it’s unsustainable.
So where does this persistent self-doubt come from? And why is it so common among people who are smart, capable, and driven?
The brain’s Default Mode Network: why you ruminate (including about yourself!)
Self-doubt doesn’t mean you’re broken. In fact, it comes from one of the most fundamental systems in your brain: the default mode network. This network activates when we’re not focused on an external task - when our minds wander, when we reflect on ourselves, or when we imagine what others might think about us. It’s the part of us that’s trying to understand:
“Am I okay?”
“Do I belong here?”
“How do I compare?”
In many respects, self-doubt is pro-social, acting as a kind of social radar. In early human societies, our capacity to doubt ourselves helped us stay part of the tribe, tune in to social norms, and adjust our behaviour to maintain connection. It helps us course-correct, be a good member of our tribe, keep growing, and avoid arrogance.
When kept in check, moderate levels of self-doubt are rather helpful - they often travel with just enough anxiety to keep us alert, motivated, and striving for excellence. In moderate doses, it also drives us to double-check our work, prepare thoroughly, and stay humble. The operative word here is moderate. When self-doubt becomes chronic or exaggerated, it begins to undermine those very outcomes. Instead of sharpening focus, it can fragment it. Instead of fuelling motivation, it can lead to a kind of cognitive paralysis which can also fuel burnout risks.
Here’s the kicker: when the DMN is overactive - especially in contexts of chronic stress or isolation - it can get stuck in loops of self-criticism and catastrophising. Instead of prompting useful reflection, it becomes a spiral: “I’m not doing well enough. I’m not good enough. I’m going to be found out.” So, what starts as an asset - a sign that you care, that you want to do things well - can become a liability if it runs unchecked.
Why this matters so much in high-performance professions
In professions like law, management consulting, academia and medicine, you’re expected to make high-stakes decisions, and many of them concurrently and quickly. The decision-making context often involves many imperfections like incomplete information, competing priorities and conflicting opinions, all of which contributes to a “noise” that can be cognitively jarring. However, you need to press on, while maintaining composure and credibility.
High performance environments select for people who are capable and self-monitoring. It’s when that self-monitoring tips over into excessive self-doubt, often when you’re reflecting after the fact, that rumination and highly critical self-evaluation can take hold. This is when our mental wellbeing and capacity to perform often start to suffer. We then hesitate, overwork ourselves to compensate, avoid challenges, or get stuck in analysis paralysis. We can also lose our sense of joy and confidence. And this isn’t just a personal problem - it can have consequences for teams, clients, patients, and the quality of decisions being made.
We often talk about “imposter syndrome” in this context, and that term is helpful - but what’s underneath it is something more universal: the human brain doing what it evolved to do, in an environment that demands constant excellence.
So, what to do about this?
The goal isn’t to eliminate self-doubt—it’s to relate to it differently. Here are some practical strategies that can help, for both organisations and individuals.
For organisations: upskill your leaders to help shift the climate, not just the person
- Teach the science behind self-doubt and translate it to action
Help people understand that self-doubt is a normal cognitive pattern, not a personal failing. Use psychosocial education to explain the default mode network, self-comparison, and memory bias and crucially, how to translate this into practical actions that will make a big difference over time. When people understand what’s happening and have tools to down-regulate these things, it becomes less scary and far more manageable in the moment. When practised consistently over time, and preferably with some reward, new habits can be formed, lessening the depth and duration of mental suffering, distraction and productivity losses.
2. Make learning and mistakes public and safe
Create a culture where people share not just wins, but challenges, mistakes and course-corrections. When leaders openly model this, it gives permission for others to be real. Here’s a key pointer for leaders in technical professions: psychological safety isn’t soft – it is essential for enabling rigour, mental fitness and growth.
3. Establish reflective peer forums
High performers often feel isolated in their doubt. Build in structured, facilitated forums where peers can talk about the inner world of their work - not just technical tasks, but emotional labour and self-narratives.
4. Coach leaders to normalise uncertainty and self-doubt
Leaders who are able to admit “hey, I doubt myself sometimes too, and it can do my head in!” also help build safety and trust, which can go a long way towards reducing anxiety and lessen the depth and duration of self-doubt among team members. Leadership behaviours like these model psychological flexibility and enable growth-mindsets throughout teams.
For you: notice, accept, and reconnect to real data
It’s not about fixing or fighting self-doubt, but about changing your relationship with it and where pervasive, self-doubting thoughts come in, being prepared to diffuse from, rather than fuse with, these. Here are some guidance points to follow.
1. Use mindfulness to tap into what’s going on.
When practised regularly, mindfulness can help you to tap into the signals your body and mind offer up that you may be ruminating and engaging in excessive, self-doubting narratives. Racing, catastrophic thoughts about what might go wrong and cognitive distortions like:
“I messed that up completely”,
“I’m no good at this”,
“they’re going to hate my deck and think I’m an idiot”,
become easier to recognise more quickly and then, we are able to take the next step towards diffusing from or reframing these thoughts.
2. Notice and diffuse
This is about creating space between ourselves and our thoughts. You might hear that inner voice saying:
“I’m not enough” or
“I’m going to fail at this”.
Don’t argue with it or try to shut it down - just acknowledge it without fusing with it.
You could try:
“there’s that thought again, that’s just my brain trying to protect me”, or
“ah, there’s my self-doubt story.”
After all, remembering the role that the default mode network plays in helping us to be prosocial and of value to our community, that’s true!
3. Try reframing, tap into more realistic narratives
If some thoughts keep returning regularly, like “I’m no good at this”, it can be helpful to turn your mind to the evidence. For instance, do a quick review of all of the things you have achieved and succeeded at, and what others say to you that is positive about the impacts you are having. Focus on these as a core part of your reality. This can help to temper or settle some of the unhelpful, anxiety inducing, cognitive distortions that come with self-doubt. Instead of, “I am going to fail at this”, try, “the evidence shows that I generally get there in the end, and I’ve survived at this so far!”. Try saying, “I’m having the thought that I don’t belong,” rather than “I don’t belong.” This subtle shift gives you more perspective and choice.
4. Use what’s important and set your intentions to align with that.
You could ask: What kind of consultant, lawyer, colleague, leader, clinician, or advisor do I want to be right now? And, are my current thoughts in service of that outcome? Let your actions be guided by your values, not by the noise of your internal narrative.
5. Treat yourself with compassion, minimise the inner critique
You’re not the only one who feels this way. Being kind to yourself provides crucial fuel for sustainable performance. Practise kindness to yourself through:
· Mindfulness and meditation
· Getting some exercise
· Spending time with positive, supportive people as often as you can
· Eating healthy food and drinking adequate amounts of water regularly, and
· Getting out into nature.
Setting your intentions each morning to do a range of these things and finding practical ways to work them into your day. A management consultant gave me a great example recently. She goes for a walk with a different colleague nearly every day, bottle of water in hand, while brainstorming.
These things can help you maintain good mental health and cognitive focus, bring you back to more helpful, realistic thinking, and refuel your brain and mind for optimum happiness and performance. Yes, these outcomes are available to you and can help enormously with calming your self-doubting mind and the anxiety that often comes with it.
Final thought
Self-doubt is deeply human. In fact, it’s part of the very system that made us pro-social, thoughtful, and capable of self-awareness. But when it’s magnified by pressure and left unexamined, it can become a drag on our performance, mental health and ultimately everything we care about.
The antidote isn’t false confidence. It’s awareness, normalisation, and small, steady shifts in how we relate to ourselves, the challenges we are facing or choosing to take on and overall, to our capacity to be happy and achieve our full potential. After all, for many of us these are indeed, two sides to the same coin.
Get in touch
Mark Dean is a brain and mind scientist, mental health and high-performance facilitator and coach to high-performance organisations and individuals. He leads a global team of expert workplace behaviour change consultants at Enmasse. Mark is also a co-founder of BASIL Research Initiative, a definitive global hub that bridges the gap between behavioural science and legal practice.
To find out how we can help you, please feel free to drop Mark a line or click hereto contact Enmasse.
References
Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Smallwood, J., & Spreng, R. N. (2014). The default network and self-generated thought: Component processes, dynamic control, and clinical relevance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1316(1), 29–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12360
Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., & Daily, G. C. (2023). The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1249(1), 118–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06400.x
Caponnetto, P., Casu, M., Amato, M., Cocuzza, D., Galofaro, V., La Morella, A., ... & Vella, M. C. (2021). The effects of physical exercise on mental health: From cognitive improvements to risk of addiction. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(24), 13384. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413384
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2016). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Katyal, S., Huys, Q.J., Dolan, R.J. et al. Distorted learning from local metacognition supports transdiagnostic underconfidence. Nat Commun 16, 1854 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57040-0
