Let’s Explore Imposter Syndrome

Have you heard of imposter syndrome? Do you know what it is? Do you know how it affects you? Let’s explore imposter syndrome!

What Is Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is a belief that you’re not as competent as others perceive you to be. Instead of seeing yourself as competent, you see yourself as a fraud and you doubt your abilities.

Imposter syndrome will happen at least once in your life. It’s more likely to affect you if you’re a high achiever that finds it hard to accept your achievements.

Having imposter syndrome causes you to question whether you deserve to be successful. Also, you might question whether you should be recognized for your achievements as well as your abilities.

Signs Of Imposter Syndrome Include:

Always comparing yourself to others
Anxiety
Lacking self-confidence
Not trusting your own abilities
Limiting beliefs
Dwelling on past mistakes
Self-sabotaging your own success

Here’s a related post: “How To Overcome Limiting Beliefs”

What Causes It?

Let’s explore what causes imposter syndrome!

Imposter syndrome can be caused by your upbringing. If you grew up in a family that stressed achievement and success, you might have either received too much praise or criticism. As a result, you might doubt yourself and feel like a fraud later in life.

If you’ve been stuck in a dead end job for a long time, it can cause imposter syndrome. It makes you feel anxious, depressed and causes you to doubt yourself. When you get a better job that raises your social status, imposter syndrome can still linger.

If you’re a high achiever who can’t accept your own achievements, it might be due to imposter syndrome. Especially if you’re a perfectionist or if you’re an anxious person in general.

Either being or feeling like an outcast causes imposter syndrome. The feeling of being a fraud can be a normal response to being an outsider. Even when you’re no longer an outcast, you might still feel like an imposter.

Even when your life gets better, imposter syndrome can still linger on. Whether you’re starting a new job or you rising up the social ladder, the anxiety as well as the self-doubt that comes with imposter syndrome is really hard to overcome.

Problems Caused By Imposter Syndrome

Let’s explore the problems caused by imposter syndrome. It leads to self-doubt which leads to different problems.

Having feelings of self-doubt can stir up a lot of fear, anxiety as well as stress. As a result, it leads to problems such as a drop in job performance as well as less job satisfaction.

Imposter syndrome becomes a vicious cycle of worsening self-doubt, which can lead to fear of failure. As a result, you might end up self-sabotaging your career.

Here’s a related post: “How To Overcome Self-Sabotage?!”

How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome?!

Let’s explore how to overcome imposter syndrome!

There’s no specific treatment for imposter syndrome, but there are different ways to overcomer it.

Here are some tips for overcoming imposter syndrome:

1. Know Your Triggers:

Overcoming imposter syndrome includes getting to know your triggers.

It’s important to be aware of triggers such as self-doubt or any feeling that fuels a sense of fraud. By doing that, it helps you break out of a perpetuating cycle of anxiety that can paralyze you.

By recognizing your triggers, it will empower you to stop and think about your situation rationally. As a result, you’ll overcome the anxiety that can creep in before it makes you feel like an imposter.

2. Overcoming Limiting Beliefs:

Limiting beliefs are negative thoughts that come to the surface because of anxiety and self-doubt. These are beliefs that are often false accusations you make about yourself, partly due to imposter syndrome.

It helps to identify limiting beliefs and what triggers them. Then recognize that it’s just a belief and it has no real face value. Start challenging the belief and recognize how it damages you. Drop the belief and replace it with a new one.

3. Celebrate Your Achievements

It’s more important to celebrate your achievements than you think. Especially when you’re facing imposter syndrome.

Celebrating your achievements not only makes you feel good physically, but it reinforces the behavior you want to show up when you face a new challenge or opportunity.

If you fail to celebrate your accomplishments, you’re training your brain that what you’re doing is not all that exciting or important. As a result, you’re more likely feel like a fraud.

4. Accept That You Will Make Mistakes:

Imposter syndrome is rooted in perfection. When you’re in a new situation such as a new job, you might have a fear that you’re not good enough. Also, you’re afraid of making mistakes because it might expose you as a fraud.

It helps to take a step back and accept that you’re not perfect and that you will make mistakes.

Here’s an interesting fact, making mistakes and learning from them helps you become more competent at what you do. As a result, your self-confidence gets a boost.

5. Stop Being Hard On Yourself:

Remember to stop being hard on yourself. Imposter syndrome will cause you to beat yourself up over your imperfections.

Also, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of low achievers with an inflated sense of accomplishment. They either have no idea what they’re doing or they do the bare minimum. At the end of the day, they’re not beating themselves up because of imposter syndrome.

6. Self-Acceptance:

When you accept yourself, you embrace every part of yourself. It’s not just the good things, but it’s also the bad things too.

Imposter syndrome is rooted in imperfections such as your past mistakes as well as your flaws.

By accepting these imperfections, you’re seeing yourself as a human being rather than an imposter. As a result, you accept that you’ll always make mistakes when facing a new challenge and that you can’t change your past or any flaw that’s out of your control.

Have You Ever Faced Imposter Syndrome?

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