How to Fight Imposter Syndrome

It’s your first day of work. You’re eager to begin your next step. You’ve worked diligently, dedicating weeks, month and years to reach this point. As you enthusiastically make the progressive step in the right direction, you go through your mental checklist, introduce yourself to your team, get your environment set up, make sure you smile. In the back of your mind looms an all too familiar friend — the lingering sense of doubt that creeps in every chance it gets, especially when you begin to struggle. The idea that you are not supposed to be there. You are a fraud, and you will soon be discovered. This is Imposter syndrome. Imposter Syndrome is defined as:

“high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.”

Have no fear. There is hope. Just as you have accomplished success by hard work and dedication, you can also apply that same effort to subverting your sense of being a fraud by taking these few steps:

The first step is recognizing there is a problem

One of the most important things we can do is bring to light that Imposter Syndrome exists. Avoiding the idea and trying to pretend that nothing is going on not only perpetuates the issue but also eliminates any hope to resolve it. It’s important to look Imposter Syndrome straight in the eye so that we can recognize and realize when its cunning and subtle traits are leaking into our thought. This is an ongoing battle faced by more people than you believe and the only way to begin to overcome this sentiment is to know what you are experiencing.

Embrace compliments and praise

One very common occurrence amongst those of us struggling with Imposter Syndrome is our inability to receive compliments. Sure, we say thank you, we smile and appreciate the thought, but we do not internalize it. We do not recognize that the compliment was given for a reason. Our skills or our efforts warrant that praise and we should embrace it. We should recognize it as a result of our hard work and use it as motivation to continue in the right direction. So the next time you are fortunate to be on the receiving end of the praise, take the time to bask in it a bit, you’ve earned it.

There is no such thing as luck, you’ve earned it

I think James Altucher said it best when he state, “luck is nothing more than perseverance plus diversification.” The rewards that we receive can be accredited to nothing more than our ability to stick with our goals matched with willingness to try what works.

Your are not a Con Man/Woman

Those who suffer from Imposter Syndrome also tend to have the potent mixture of humility and talent that gets us both in the door and makes us great team members. This can sometimes be referred to as charm. The downside is it also causes us to think that our likability is more responsible for our success than our work or effort. This issue is two fold. One, being likable is not as easy as it seems. One must be empathic, perceptive, and adaptive. Likability is a highly valuable, if not the most important, trait that employers and employees alike look for in candidates and teammates. Secondly, the fact that we are likable doesn’t negate our skills; it compounds them. I’ve yet to be in an experience where I’ve witnessed someone who is great at their job and thought to myself, “they could be much better if they weren’t so likable.” The truth is having humility is a crucial element of this mixture but don’t confuse humility with submissiveness. One should embrace their humility and be proud of it. There is a difference, however, between being modest and being self deprecating.

Don’t diminish your own efforts

Just as we have earned our praise, we should be proud of our work. Our efforts and work are valuable. We are so quick to say things like “I’ve only” or “I’ve barely” when referring to our projects and the roles that we’ve taken on. One example could be: “I’ve only led a development team of four, we worked with a larger group, It was very challenging and we barely finished our first release before production time.” This is one of the key parts of our outward behavior that can aid in how we control how other people perceive us. It may be true that we can be our own biggest critics, but that doesn’t mean we have to share that outlook with the rest of the world. Take pride in your accomplishments and boast a little. If something was challenging, focus on the amazing effort you applied to overcome that challenge. Take the blinders off. Try to look at your work objectively, extract yourself from the situation and note what was accomplished. It may even be easier for you as a person to point out the efforts of others. If that’s the case, then describe yourself as if you were your own colleague. Whichever method you feel works, do that. The most important thing is to never downplay yourself.

There are no “real” (fill in the blank)

Part of our delusion of being a fraud is based in our belief that there are true experts, that there are people who know in totality the subject at hand. Some of you believe that only those people should be allowed or expected to be in the position that you now hold. The truth behind this is that, for the most part, there are no experts. At least not in the context that we want to believe there are. In many fields there are those who have dedicated their lives to a single subject or interest, and these people can be considered experts in the way that us as individuals dealing with Imposter Syndrome want to believe everyone around us is. However, that is not the case for every single person at your company besides you. When surrounded by highly intelligent and driven people, we survey what we don’t know and accredit those attributes to everyone around us. In other words, we believe that others possess the difference between what we know and what we feel we should know. This is a construct of our syndrome. It is much more likely that we share in our knowledge at some points but vary in our scope. Our unique traits and skills bring added benefit to the team as a whole and contribute to why we have been selected to be a part of it.

Knowing what we now know, as you navigate through your new experiences, whether it be a new job or a new class, keep these points in mind as a mental checklist. When the cunning beast of uncertainty rears its ugly head, iterate through the checklist affirming and validating whichever particular point might be bothering you. If you keep this up as a practice, you’ll be making significant progress in no time.