Imposter syndrome is a phenomenon that many people experience at some point in their lives. Signs of imposter syndrome could include when you feel like you’re not good enough, or that someone else is better than you. Imposter syndrome can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, and a lack of confidence – which are all detrimental to success in your career and life.
There is also some research, that suggests that imposter syndrome may be more prevalent in women. Indeed, Imposter Syndrome was first identified in some therapeutic sessions with high achieving women by Dr Pauline Clance. Despite objective evidence of success, these women had a pervasive psychological experience believing that they were intellectual frauds and feared being recognised as impostors. They suffered from anxiety, fear of failure and dissatisfaction with life.
However, there are ways of combatting imposter syndrome so that you can move past these negative thoughts and achieve your goals.
Accept that no one is perfect.
The first step to overcoming imposter syndrome is accepting that you are not perfect. No one is, and it’s important to remember this. You may have made a mistake on a project or in an interview, but that doesn’t mean you’re an incompetent person who should avoid trying anything new. It means you made a mistake! It happens to everyone—even people with decades of experience under their belts.
Not only does comparing yourself to others hurt your self-esteem and make you believe that there’s something wrong with yourself (when in reality there isn’t), but it also holds back your career development because instead of focusing on what makes YOU special, other people will focus on how they’re better than you or how much more experience they have than YOU—and no one wants their boss or colleagues thinking about them in those terms when it comes down to promoting them for a new job opening or getting them another assignment at work!
It also hurts other people when we compare ourselves with others because then we think less of THEM—and if everyone thinks less of everyone else then no one will ever feel good enough around us anymore! This creates an environment where nobody feels comfortable sharing their true selves without fear of being seen as “lesser” than someone else.”
Work on a project you feel passionate about.
The most important step toward overcoming imposter syndrome is to work on a project that you feel passionate about.
When we’re not engaged in work that means something to us, it can be difficult to find motivation. In fact, studies show that when we’re not engaged in our work, we tend to feel disconnected, emotionally exhausted and unproductive.
That’s why finding work that is meaningful is so important. When you enjoy what you do every day—and when you know it’s making a difference for yourself and others—you’ll feel motivated to do better at your job each day. It also helps if this type of passion has personal significance for the person who wants to pursue it as a career (i.e., if they want money), because this inspires them even more than any other factor would!
There are many ways people can find their passions: from searching inside themselves until they come up with ideas or solutions on their own;
- asking friends or family members who might have some advice on where one could look next;
- searching online through lists such as “The Most Popular Jobs Of 2020”;
- talking with professors/teachers/mentors at school about areas they think might interest us most.
There is also something about interest span. If like me, you find that interest wanes after a period of time, perhaps it is time to re-energise the thinking and do something else. This could be a long term initiative or could be a short term change of direction or sabbatical.
Create a team of people who support you.
The first step is to create a dream team of people who support you. The most important thing about this team is to make sure it’s composed of people with similar values and beliefs as yours, so that they can help keep you accountable and motivated.
Those who are closest in proximity will be the easiest ones to reach out to when you need advice or encouragement; however, it’s also important for your network of supporters not just consist of friends from college or high school, who may not be understanding of what you’re going through now that they have had little exposure to imposter syndrome themselves.
You should look for mentors at work or online (or both), so that even if there was an emergency situation where your boss needed someone extra on hand during an audit at the last minute, they’d know immediately where they could find someone with the skills necessary for completing such a task quickly but accurately—without having any doubts about their own ability beforehand!
Create achievable goals for yourself, and celebrate when you achieve them.
One of the best ways to overcome your fear of failure and keep moving forward is to define your goals in advance. When you know exactly what you want, it’s easier to get there!
Before you start making any sort of plan, think about what your ultimate goal is: What do you want? How much weight do you want to lose? How many pounds are on that scale again? How many pull-ups can I do? What kind of fit body will look best in my favorite clothes? For these types of questions, it’s important that we set realistic expectations—you shouldn’t just shoot for anything because then it won’t feel like an accomplishment when we reach it (or worse yet, we’ll blow past our goals without noticing).
Another way that setting achievable goals will help is by giving us something tangible to work towards; if we don’t have something measurable or specific enough in mind, then there’s no sense of progress towards our ultimate goal and no motivation for continuing down this path towards health and fitness in general.
Try to take feedback as a way to improve yourself, rather than an attack on your success or capabilities.
- Reframe the feedback you receive as a gift, instead of an attack. Instead of thinking of it as someone trying to make you feel bad, think of it as a way to improve yourself and achieve success. Feedback can help you become better at what you do, which means that your hard work will pay off in the long run.
- Ask for specific examples when someone gives you negative feedback or advice. If someone tells you that something needs improvement (which is just feedback), ask them about what specifically needs improvement and how they would recommend fixing it (which is advice). This will help them point out specific problems so that they’re easier for you to address and solve
Be compassionate toward yourself – it’s ok to make mistakes.
Be compassionate toward yourself. When you make mistakes, even big ones, it’s okay. It happens to everyone!
Every mistake is an opportunity to learn something new and improve your skills and knowledge. The more mistakes you make, the more opportunities you have to grow as a person and improve your work product.
You can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t make them in the first place! Don’t be afraid of making mistakes or failing—you’ll never know what could have happened if you didn’t try at all.
Seek out mentors who will help you recognize your strengths.
Mentors can help you see your strengths and how to use them. They can also help you see your weaknesses, which is an opportunity to learn how to work around or correct those weaknesses.
Mentors can also point out opportunities that might not be obvious to you, as well as challenges that need to be addressed before they become too big of a problem.
Finally, mentors will show their confidence in you by pointing out the potential within yourself—the potential that exists even if it doesn’t feel like it does right now! A mentor’s encouragement will motivate you toward reaching these goals and achieving your potential as an individual and employee/student/parent/friend etc…
If a project goes wrong, recognize that it was just one project that didn’t go well; it doesn’t mean you’re incapable of succeeding at work.
If you’ve ever felt like an impostor, know that it’s not just you. In fact, according to a study by Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes (1975), approximately 70 percent of high-achieving professionals have felt the same way at some point in their careers. The only thing they have in common is that they’re successful—which means that feeling like an impostor isn’t something that makes you less capable than others; it means you’re human.
When things don’t go according to plan or someone points out a mistake we made, sometimes those are the moments when our confidence gets knocked down a few notches. And while the things that happen to us aren’t always under our control (like being put on a project with people who don’t want us there), there are steps we can take toward improving our self-esteem and regaining control over our lives:
If a project went wrong or someone else did something wrong but blamed it on you, recognize that this was just one project/person/situation where things didn’t go well (perhaps); it doesn’t mean you’re incapable of succeeding at work or life in general!
We all make mistakes sometimes—and those mistakes aren’t always easy to acknowledge ourselves because we feel like we should be perfect all the time (which is impossible).
Everyone makes mistakes—even superheroes! So if something happens at work where someone else blames their mistake on YOU even though it wasn’t YOUR fault at all… let go of feeling bad about yourself because if anything goes wrong with your boss or coworkers again then just remember: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!
Focus on how far you’ve come, not how far you still have to go to succeed.
There’s a reason that the last two steps on this list are to take stock of your accomplishments and focus on how far you’ve come, not how far you still have to go. You want to make sure that you’re feeling good about yourself and are focused on celebrating all the progress you’ve made.
Your success should be measured by how much progress you’ve made, not how much more there is left for you to do or achieve. You’ll never get anywhere if all your energy is spent dwelling on what’s still left for you to accomplish. Instead, think about all the ways in which things have changed since when they started out—how many different experiences have shaped who you are as an individual today?
You can overcome imposter syndrome with the right mindset and the right people in your life
If you’re feeling like you don’t belong, remember that there are other people who have gone through similar experiences. Even if it’s just one person, talk to them about their experience and how they overcame their imposter syndrome. Find a mentor or someone in your life who has been through the same thing as you and ask them what advice they would give.
- Celebrate your successes! When you accomplish something big, take time to reward yourself with something small or do something kind for someone else; this is an important step in overcoming imposter syndrome because it gives us a positive boost of self-confidence when we know that our hard work is paying off.* Do set realistic goals; setting unrealistic goals will only make you feel worse about yourself.* Be kind to yourself and focus on what YOU can control rather than worrying about things beyond your control.* Take care of yourself physically (eat well, exercise) so that this doesn’t add stress onto already existing stressors in your life
Imposter syndrome is a real problem, but it’s also one that can be overcome. It doesn’t matter if you have an advanced degree or if you’ve been doing this job for years—everyone experiences imposter syndrome sometimes. The key is to keep moving forward and not let your fears hold you back from achieving your goals.
