Imposter Syndrome can leave you feeling like a fraud. If you have ever been in a room and felt like you didn’t deserve to be there, you’re not alone. Imposter Syndrome can happen to anybody, from students, recent graduates, to young professionals and high-ranking company executives.
It’s also been discovered that imposter syndrome affects women, especially those in competitive careers.
People now try to counter this self-limiting belief by overworking and putting pressure on themselves. This unnecessary pressure can affect your work performance and overall well-being. It can reduce your self-esteem and make you question your self-worth.
Now, how would you know you’re suffering from Imposter Syndrome?
How to Know You’re Suffering from Imposter Syndrome
Simply put, Imposter Syndrome is the internal conflict people feel between how others see them and how they see themselves.
You don’t appreciate comments. When people praise you for a good job, you brush it off and claim it’s good luck or timing. You don’t believe that you deserve anything good coming your way, especially in your workplace.
In your career, you don’t feel you have worked hard for anything. All promotions and good things happening are merely by chance and luck.
You pressurize yourself to work harder to distract people from your flaws and weaknesses. This pressure tries to compensate for your “lack of intelligence”.
One thing you don’t realize is that it’s a never-ending cycle. The harder you work, the more your future accomplishments don’t fulfill you. Instead, you feel more and more like an imposter. Your success feels like an illusion instead of a product of your efforts.
You don’t feel deserving of your recognition. To you, they stem from a place of sympathy, pity, or connections. The bad thing about imposter syndrome is that you disregard your accomplishments but take the blame for all mistakes.
This boils down to even the least ones. You blame it on your lack of skill or intelligence.
Imposter Syndrome can plunge you into depression, guilt, and anxiety over time. This makes you always strive for perfection at the expense of your mental health. You feel bad when you don’t attain a certain feat. Plus you’d feel burned out and stressed.
Now, what causes imposter syndrome? How does it come into the picture?
Causes of Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome results from a couple of factors. There is no major cause. Here are a couple of factors that can make you feel like an imposter
- Childhood
Our childhood shapes the way we see life and respond to certain situations. You might develop imposter syndrome if your parents always pressurized you to do well in school. Most parents don’t live out their dreams, so they try to impose those dreams on their children.
They can do this by always comparing you with your mates, without recognizing your unique talents or even paying attention to behavioral deficiencies.
You could also develop Imposter Syndrome if your parents are over possessive. They didn’t allow you to mingle with other people, especially your mates for fear of getting hurt or corrupted.
If they sharply criticize your wrongdoings and mildly appreciate your good works, you could also develop this syndrome.
Now, your parents may not even be involved at all. Maybe you were doing so well in elementary school and got praises from teachers. But now, you find yourself struggling in college. Then, you tell yourself that your classmates are smarter. That maybe you don’t deserve to be there after all.
- Mental health conditions
If you have this constant fear of failure, you may be suffering from Imposter Syndrome. Fear of failure can lead to emotional distress. This is why people suffering from this syndrome often experience depression and anxiety.
The underlying causes of anxiety or depression are often self-doubt, lowered self-confidence, and worries about how others will look at you.
When you feel less than you’re worth, you’d always believe that you don’t deserve to be in that professional or academic space. You wouldn’t even take your achievements seriously.
Imposter Syndrome is addictive. It can worsen already existing mental health challenges and places you in a race that is difficult to escape from.
- New opportunities
It’s okay to feel undeserving of the positions or opportunities you just earned. It may be your dream all along. You have desired and worked for it with everything you have. But now that you have it, you don’t feel like you’re worthy of it.
You feel like you’re not going to measure up to the standards your colleagues or predecessors have set. In your mind, your abilities and skills don’t match up to others. You feel like the least person in the room.
However, this is the least threatening reason. This is because these feelings will fade as you settle into your new role. Things can get worse also, especially if you don’t get validation, support, and encouragement.
- Unhealthy bias
This is one of the biggest factors that enhance imposter syndrome.
Imposter Syndrome can happen to anybody, regardless of your age, academic qualification, or years of experience in the industry. However, it tends to occur more in women, especially disabled women or women of color. Generally, women who are least represented in the workplace suffer from this syndrome.
Once you’re aware of the unhealthy bias in your gender or race, you might want to work harder to prove your worth. You’d put in more effort for people to consider you, and you’d often disregard your small wins.
Being aware of these little negative stereotypes can adversely affect you. You focus so much on your mistakes and doubt your skills. These negative emotions can slowly reinforce the self-limiting belief that you don’t belong there.
Once these beliefs are fully reinforced, you’d feel like an imposter in a place that has totally accepted you. It could also limit your ability to network like a pro, especially if you’re introverted.
- Personality traits
Do you have perfectionistic attributes? Does everything have to be perfect and detailed to be approved by you?
Your personality may involve low confidence in your abilities and low measures of conscientiousness. This usually happens to Enneagram-type fives.
How can you overcome Imposter Syndrome?
Tips on How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome
Stop those self-limiting beliefs from destroying you with the following tips:
- Talk about it:
“What? So that everyone will know how I’m feeling? Never!”
The only way to break free from a thing is to speak about it and get help. There is nothing to be ashamed about. Imposter syndrome is not as uncommon as you think. It’s just not talked about enough, thereby making people feel like they are facing one enormous problem.
Learn to break the silence. Eliminate the shame that comes with talking about these things. Speak to people who have encountered this same problem, especially in your industry. Ask questions. Find out how they were able to break through that fear.
- Respond positively to failure
This is super important. As mentioned earlier, people with imposter syndrome tend to look down on themselves and only acknowledge their flaws.
Understand that everyone is not perfect. Even those who you admire at the top have a truckload of issues they’re struggling with. When you walk into a room, don’t feel like you don’t deserve to be there.
Once you settle into that position, you’d realize that they aren’t as smart as you thought they were sooner or later.
Respond positively to your flaws and mistakes. Strategize how to improve next time, instead of beating yourself down over it.
- Visualize yourself winning
Success visualization is very important. This is what most winners do. They have a target, so they visualize themselves attaining that target as they work towards it.
When you can visualize yourself doing a thing, it becomes natural to you. You familiarize yourself with the space. Picture yourself getting the recognition you deserve AS A RESULT OF YOUR HARD WORK AND PERSEVERANCE. Nothing else!
Spent time before any presentation or important activity and imagine yourself doing amazingly well. Tell yourself that you deserve every good thing that will come your way after that activity.
That way, you’d be in the right state of mind.
- Differentiate facts from feelings
“You’re not deserving of this position”
“People like you don’t deserve to be here”
“What can you possibly offer at this table? No one here is on your level”
“You’re stupid. Can’t do anything right”
You need to silence those voices in your head. Differentiate facts from feelings. Yes, you made a mistake. But you shouldn’t let that mistake define you. Times will come when you’ll feel stupid for doing something. Recognize that people feel stupid at several points in their lives. It doesn’t mean that you’re a stupid person.
Imposter syndrome tends to fill our minds with lies that we start questioning our self-worth. Don’t let it happen to you.
- Don’t compare yourself to others
Comparing yourself to other people is one of the worst things you can ever do to yourself. When you do this, you disregard the unique gifts and talents that you were naturally born with.
People are not better than you. They may just have certain advantages over you in terms of physical beauty, wealth, and other things, but they aren’t better than you.
Everyone in this world was born equal, but life just chooses to serve us with different plates. People aren’t better. They’re just good at concealing their flaws.
Once you understand this, you’d stop looking down on yourself and placing others on a pedestal.
- Know when Imposter Syndrome starts creeping in
Imposter Syndrome has its triggers. You need to identify it as quickly as possible before it starts bearing fruits in your mind. Know its signs and triggers.
For instance, imposter syndrome may kick in when you’re the youngest in a room filled with seemingly more qualified people than you are. You may feel like you don’t fit in or your opinions don’t matter.
Also, if you’re the first woman or first person from a particular tribe or race to attain a feat, you may feel out of place. This also happens to people living with disabilities.
Recognize the triggers on time and reassure yourself of your competence
