Written by: Dee Burrowes, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Who do you think you are? There’s no way you were cut out for this. Could you have gotten through because your manager must not have been paying attention? Are you feeling a wave of self-doubt coming on? If someone threw you these phrases at you might not like to be associated with them anymore, and rightfully so. Imposter emotions portray a conflict between your self-perception and the way others do perceive you. Deep within, there is somehow a feeling of being a total fraud of their achievement, contemplating that it is serendipitous luck.
Imposter syndrome, time after time, creeps in with the attainment of success or a personal milestone. Despite being competent in performing the profession, many are riddled with chronic self-doubt, and the state of copycat permeates with a persistent internationalization of being exposed as a fake.
Imposter syndrome proclaims itself as an extreme lack of confidence experiencing triumph results in negative self-talk of ‘I am not enough, I am not worthy, or I don't deserve this victory.
The majority of people undergo a lack of self-confidence at particular moments in their lives. However, with impostorism, the feeling is round the clock and bitter.
Negative emotions exist despite the obvious markers of success, and the internal bars we placed within have us penned into these unsustainable and unrealistic notions of what competency is. This psychological phenomenon exhibits a belief in inadequacy and incompetency regardless of indication that you’re proficient and relatively flourishing.
Imposter syndrome can be termed as a reservoir of feelings of insufficiency that goes on, although there is evidence of success. As imposters’ are dealing with deep-rooted self-doubt and awareness of intellectual falsehood, which override any external proof of their competence. In its true sense, most people have experienced these emotions similarly of being underqualified and undeserved.
As people commend your expertise and brilliance, you disregard your wins to the right timing, synchronization, and the stroke of luck. It is hard to fathom that you have earned all these accomplishments on your own merits and somehow felt an uneasiness that others will, in the end, realize a similar situation.
Thinking back on your greatest achievements; do you feel proud of what you've accomplished? How far have you come through toiling and persistent dedication? Or are you feeling like a fraud that has been perceived by those who deem it as detrimental to their actual victories and successes? To be of the opinion that you are unworthy of what you have attained professionally and or otherwise that people will see through your pretense will naturally exude an unwarranted layer of pressure to your daily schedule.
Such instance could be unnerving, and on reflection, a definitive, inferior type of imposter syndrome could be experienced. Many tend to voice their emotions as if they were playing in a musical and improvising while everyone else knew the words and they don’t. The imposter phenomenon amongst movers and shakers who are unable to internalize and accept their success often attributes their achievements to fate rather than their ability and fear that others will eventually expose them as being a fraud.
It is necessary to move past pointing the fingers merely on the person that tends to use the imposter syndrome debacle as a scapegoat as opposed to addressing what in actual fact is the root cause of the imposter experience. Imposter syndrome is not necessarily a disease of the mind but more of a challenge with societal conformity and expectations.
If there are feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, you may be surprised to learn that you are in great company, as impostor Syndrome is commonly associated with high achievers. Feeling like a fraud, the chances are likely that you're very much capable than you actually can fathom. Impostor Syndrome frequently propels at moments of progress, be it personal or professional. The start of a new job, receiving a promotion or award, taking on extra responsibility such as teaching others, starting your own business, or even becoming a first-time parent.
Never be too caught up in being afraid to admit you are battling with the symptoms of feeling unworthy. It often shows up as you're not the only one grappling with self-doubt. As a means in the quest of validating your emotions as it constantly manifests as uncertainty whether you’re up to the challenges that you’re confronted with. Self-skepticism often shows up to induce stress, lowered self-confidence, and panic; however, being aware and taking a radical course of action to step away from the negative emotions to harness a new potential giving you the edge you might be looking for.
You are not alone, as researchers have found that approximately 70 percent of us feel like an imposter at some point in our life. Let’s face it the remaining 30 percent are probably not telling the truth about the syndrome. The 7 ways below can soften the blow as we learn to skip around being an imposter for it not to hinder our life too drastically.
Create a brag sheet
Designing a brag sheet will assist in overcoming feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. The brag sheet consists of a list of your accomplishments and accolades thus far in your profession and even outside of your work environment. A brag sheet is comparable to a CV but on steroids and a bit fancy, if you will. The brag sheet will quantify your success, including triumphs in many areas of your life-giving rise to celebrating your achievements, in addition to getting into the habit of writing down your wins that will support you in recognizing them and can stave off any ill feelings being an imposter.
Rewrite your emotional roadmap
Despite telling yourself they are going to find out you are a fake or not deserving of any form of success – be reminded that no one ever has all the answers. Everyone is learning, growing, no matter how successful you are – being better every day than the previous is their aim.
Reframe screw-ups as a learning curve
Most are going to fail in the course of their life and career. It might be a giant disaster, or it might be a collection of small mishaps – nonetheless, failure will be a part of the journey. Recognize the lessons in these storylines and use these advantageously moving forward.
Overcome Perfectionism
Develop habits by taking regular intervals of breaks, incorporating relaxation techniques, mindfulness, and getting more physical exertion in. Learn how to set challenging and achievable goals but also remember that if you don't achieve particular goals, it's not the end of the world.
Understanding your strengths and weakness
Enhancing your confidence is becoming aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Conduct a personal SWOT analysis in discovering how you perform best and to think about how you can minimize the impact of your weaknesses.
Be Open to Getting support
Surround yourself with a support network of others who can motivate you and who you can trust to help you counter your negative inner critic. Dealing with imposter syndrome is to resist the temptation to power through it alone to overcome these feelings that we often deny focusing on. Experiencing self-doubt, getting support and encouragement will be valuable, helpful insights and renewed enthusiasm in facing the daunting and overwhelming challenges that do arise.
Be Willing to Learn and to Grow
Negativity resulting from imposter syndrome can provide some benefit as challenges do promote self-improvement and give insights with high standards and a stronger work ethic. This drives growth and change and, more importantly, maintaining excellent mental health and improving self-esteem and self-worth. It can be proven that imposter syndrome can lead to profound personal growth.
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Dee Burrowes, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dee Burrowes, Certified Professional Coach, NLP Practitioner, Speaker, Trained Teacher, International Awards Judge, and Mental Health Coach with Behavioural Disorder, help you to gain more confidence in being more effective at bringing happiness into your life. By identifying your core values and what drives you, you will gain clarity on what your life and career vision should be. By learning how to eradicate self-doubt, boost self-confidence, and form good habits, all of us are able to overcome our challenges and live more mindfully, consciously, and authentically. Life passes us by, and the fear of not being authentic kicks in, and it is the right time now to identify your inspiration by designing a lifestyle that would capture the very essence of you. Dee is a visiting professor in Events and Hospitality management in both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. She continues to participate in the hospitality industry. Dee is very much passionate about Mental Health, and as a Mental Health Advocate, she supports corporate companies on Mental Well-being.
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