Have you ever felt like you do not deserve to be at a certain position in your job, career after accomplishing that certain goal? You have an inner gut feeling of feeling less and just not okay with the position. You consider it a blessing or just a game of luck. If you have the same feelings then you are not alone in this journey. According to research, 70% of employees in life have faced imposter syndrome in their job, lives, or career. In this article, we will dig deeper into the signs of I’m[roster syndrome and guide to dealing with it?
What exactly is imposter syndrome?
According to Harvard business review, imposter syndrome is a collection of feeling inadequacy that persists despite being successful.
Instead of recognizing their strength and feeling happy about it, they are unable to recognize it and fall prey to self-doubt. Sometimes people can’t help feeling this way, it’s completely fine and you should not feel guilty about it.
Signs of imposter syndrome:
Not recognizing your success:
To clearly understand this sign of imposter syndrome let me share a story with you.
I remember one of my friends, Sarah, who topped in the college beating 300 students in class. I went to her and asked her: ” How do you achieve all this? ” Her answer left me surprised and she told me that: “ I don’t believe that I have achieved this. It was all about the blessing of God and luck. My exams went well and luckily I performed well. She was not even able to recognize that it was her hard work and dedication towards the study that had paid her back and she was able to beat 300 students in the class.
After having a conversation with her, I have now realized that she has imposter syndrome.
High achievers, hardworking people often encounter this kind of feeling. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, and teachers do not consider themselves worthy because they think that they are not that great.
Comparison:
Another sign of imposter syndrome is a comparison with others. Comparison is the thief of happiness. I personally feel like I fall in this type of category. I do compare myself with people around me. Deep inside it feels like depression, low self-esteem, and feeling insecure. By comparing our lives to others, we make our lives miserable. Instead of focusing on our own achievements and getting inspiration from others, we fall prey to comparison. By comparing our lives to others, we constantly spend our time and energy scrolling social media profiles of successful people and measure ourselves to know who we are and what we are good at.
‘We compare our innermost criticized version of ourselves with everyone else’s outwardly portrayed version of themselves.’” –Dave
Using comparison as a standard to measure themselves and saying got your self that “she is doing better than me”, “Why I am not doing better in my life”, ‘Why I don’t have a perfect life, beautiful house, fit body, and a paycheck”. It is not a great feeling when you constantly compare your life to every other person and it’s a sign of imposter syndrome.
I am not good enough:
Additionally, phrases like ‘I am not good enough“, “I am not that great.” are signs of imposter syndrome.
Let’s say you are good at any skills like writing, painting, sketching, writing, etc. You painted, drew a sketch, and wrote a piece of article. You come across a sketch, or a painting or an article that’s better than you and you feel like giving up and to stop drawing and you think you cannot pursue this activity again because you are not a that good painter, artist, writer. Just because you are not making a certain amount of money, your body is not perfect, you are unable to love, you don’t have a large circle of friends. You feel like a fraud when someone praises you and passes a good comment about you and feels like you are faking it. You are not able to recognize it because you are clueless.
One of the employees working in Asana gave his opinion about imposter syndrome as this:
“It took me many years to realize that every person feels insecurity and self-doubt, even the most senior and experienced leaders. It’s okay to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing—most of us feel the same way! Be open and honest with your manager about your feelings so they can help put you in situations where you can prove to yourself that you do belong here!” –Jessica
How to deal with imposter syndrome:
If you are struggling with imposter syndrome, you can turn imposter syndrome into your strength by working on it. Recognize your inner self and fight with your inner beast who is holding you back.
Share your feelings:
No one can help you if you are alone fighting this battle, you need to tell someone in your circle that you are not okay with this feeling. Talk to your friend, your family member, therapist and open up about what’s in your mind. It’s better to talk to someone instead of suffering alone
Recognize your accomplishments:
You don’t have to feel less when you achieve something in your life. Remember that you have earned it all and that is why you deserve it. Recognizing your accomplishments will give you confidence in yourself.
Don’t be hard on yourself:
You aim to reach somewhere in your life concerning your career, education, job, business, and whatever. If you are not able to reach that limit in a specific period do not consider yourself a failure. Have a positive and growth mindset and say to yourself how you can achieve that. Moreover, be kind to yourself, it’s important, believe me.
Learn from your mentor:
Try working on yourself and figure out how you can achieve the goal. If you are feeling inadequate and belittled, find the people who are doing a good job at what you want to do in your life. Seek assistance and interact with them, tell them how you are feeling, they will be more than happy to help you. Your mentor will share his experience and struggle to help you figure out where you are wrong and how you can improve that.
Don’t compare yourself with others:
Comparison can be evil and it can destroy you completely. If you are not good at something and you feel tempted, jealous and inferior. Remind yourself that no one is born with the skills, we all have learned them later in our life. You will always find people doing better than you, you cannot ruin yourself all the time, feeling less and incompatible inside. Compare yourself with what you used to be and what you have achieved in your life. Think about how much you have achieved in your life and how you have improved yourself. Have patience, talk to the people who inspire you, they will share their struggles, secrets, and experiences with you.
Final Thoughts:
Imposter syndrome is quite normal and 7 out of 10 people feel inadequate and fraud once in their life. Remind yourself that you can overcome and that sums up the discussion of today. Now I hand over the mike to you to add some more important tips and tricks that help you combat this illness (not illness).
