By Maria Lebron, August 2022
What Is Imposter Syndrome?
Impostor Syndrome is a chronic, persistent feeling of inadequacy, self-doubt, incompetence, and fraudulence despite evidence to the contrary. Impostor Syndrome makes it hard to internalize success and hold the belief that you’re competent and capable. Imposter syndrome makes you feel that you got where you are through luck and you’ll eventually be revealed as a fraud.
Some of the signs of Imposter Syndrome are:
- An inability to realistically evaluate your competence and skills. You may feel a need to learn more but are never satisfied with your knowledge.
- Attributing your success solely to external factors or luck.
- Downplaying your expertise or accomplishments. Any recognition you get will be attributed to pity, luck, or tricking the person.
- Fearing that you will not be able to live up to expectations and in order to compensate for the feelings of inadequacy, pushing yourself to work harder than necessary or harder than anyone else.
- A constant fear of being found to be a fraud will make you set unrealistic expectations for yourself and make you feel you need to achieve perfection.
- You fixate on any perceived flaws or mistakes, which serves to reinforce your beliefs that you lack intelligence or ability.
- You procrastinate or avoid certain tasks for fear that you won’t be able to achieve unrealistically high standards.
- There is an unrealistic belief that competent people can handle anything with little effort. If something doesn’t come easily to you or if you fail on your first try, you feel ashamed and embarrassed.
- You give authority figures the power to determine whether you are successful, intelligent, or competent without first evaluating whether they are worthy of that much power over your self-worth.
- Sensitivity to constructive criticism.
What Causes Imposter Syndrome?
There are many factors that may have played a part in developing Imposter Syndrome, including family upbringing, personality traits, new roles or experiences, and social anxiety. People who experience Imposter Syndrome may have come from a family which valued achievements and perfection or who alternated between the extremes of over-praise and criticism. People who received constant criticism will often doubt themselves and feel nothing they do is good enough. If one comes from a background where they are praised in a way that doesn’t line up with reality it can create pressure and unrealistic expectations to live up to.
People starting a new role or a new experience can experience Impostor Syndrome due the internalized pressure to succeed while also feeling unprepared or lacking experience.
Gender bias and institutionalized racism can also play a part in Imposter Syndrome. Awareness of the bias against your gender or race may cause you to work harder in order to disprove stereotypes and in order to be taken seriously and earn recognition for your efforts. Any microaggressions and discrimination you experience along the way can reinforce a feeling you don’t belong or aren’t good enough.
How Imposter Syndrome Impacts You
Impostor Syndrome can cause constant anxiety, and fear of being found out as a fraud can cause you to over-prepare or work much harder than necessary. This sets up a vicious cycle in which you think that the only reason you performed well is because of the over-preparation. If you feel your career success is only due to luck, you will feel a need to work harder than others. You may not feel worthy of promotions, raises, or commendations and you may experience guilt over having ‘tricked’ people
Performing well or receiving positive affirmations will not change your beliefs, and actually the more you accomplish, the more anxious you may become of being found out to be a fraud. Your false beliefs about yourself are so strong that even when there is evidence contrary to these beliefs they may not be internalized.
People with Impostor Syndrome will not usually talk about their doubts and how they’re feeling because they fear they will reveal their “true” selves.
How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome
In order to work through the feelings of Impostor Syndrome, you will need to examine what core beliefs you hold about yourself and whether you must achieve perfection in order to feel worthy and for people to love and accept you.
Here are some steps to overcoming Imposter Syndrome:
— Share your feelings with people you trust and can confide in. They may be able to give you perspective and to point out distortions in your thinking.
— Realistically try to access your accomplishments and abilities without the expectation that everything needs to be perfect or easy.
— The fact that you feel like an imposter means that you have had successes in life. Try to appreciate your accomplishments and acknowledge what you have achieved to date.
— Challenge whether your thinking is valid and whether there are actual facts to support your beliefs that you are a fraud or incompetent.
— Take a genuine interest in learning new things or acquiring new skills without feeling that you’re admitting you’re not qualified or competent.
— Try not to feel you need to do everything yourself. Seek help when you need it or when you feel overwhelmed.
— Learn to tolerate discomfort and accept imperfections. Do this slowly by beginning to cut back on the over-preparedness you feel is necessary. For example, you may be able to cut back on the time you spend on a task if you give yourself a time limit. You can also learn to accept that 95% accuracy may be just as acceptable as 100%.
— Have a realistic assessment of your abilities. All of us have areas where we excel and other areas where we struggle or have to work harder.
— Try not to let fear hold you back from trying new things or setting goals for yourself.
— Celebrate your achievements and develop a way to reward yourself for them.
If you continue to struggle with Imposter Syndrome, seek the help of a therapist who can help you. Again, many people with Imposter Syndrome struggle silently because they don’t believe they can share their beliefs or don’t believe they can live any other way.
