The Imposter Syndrome
From a New York Times article from 2015:
Two American psychologists, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, gave it a name in 1978: the impostor syndrome. They described it as a feeling of “phoniness in people who believe that they are not intelligent, capable or creative despite evidence of high achievement.” While these people “are highly motivated to achieve,” they also “live in fear of being ‘found out’ or exposed as frauds.”
“If you don’t feel it, your doing it wrong.”
This is a quote by Jason Snell that I heard on a podcast I listen to frequently called “Free Agents”. This podcast is an awesome collection of interviews and introspection on what it takes to be an independent worker in the 21st century.
From episode #42, Jason Snell and David Sparks were discussing trying things that they haven’t done before. In the context of the show, after working for so long under “the man” and then breaking free of that life, it can be an incredible experience to work for yourself to strive for success. But that freedom comes with it’s own stressors, one of which is feeling like you aren’t good enough to find true success like the big players do.
Sometimes if we do find success, or we have a quick breakthrough, there can be tendency to feel guilty like it wasn’t really our talent or skill that got us there. It’s a feeling of thinking that we were just lucky, or that the timing was right.
More from Jason Snell from the same podcast episode:
“If you think that you’re great and you don’t have moments of self doubt, there might be something wrong with you.”
“Only the true incompetent do not understand their incompetence. Everybody who has any amount of knowledge about how hard it is to do something will always question their ability to do it. It’s the people who have no idea, who don’t [question it]. And that’s not a position that you want to ever be in.”
From themuse.com regarding “embracing what you deserve”:
Imposter syndrome occurs when we feel like a fraud — when we feel that our successes are undeserved. We convince ourselves they’re based on luck, timing, or other factors outside of our control, instead of embracing the fact that we’re actually responsible for having made those successes happen.
I’m full of self-doubt, but I work daily to overcome it
While I don’t believe that I suffer from full-on Imposter Syndrome, I find the science behind it truly fascinating. I have moments of self-doubt, and I would agree with the podcasters: thinking that I’m great at something and never having any self-doubt is dangerous.
Being great at something but feeling the paranoia of never getting any better, which might lead to people doubting my ability in the future, I think is a real fear. But its a fear that gets me up every morning. It’s a positive driver of my daily actions. I want success for many reasons, and I want to inspire those that pay attention to my world, so the goal everyday is to take advantage of every minute to be as productive as possible in order to conquer my goals.
I definitely have days where I fail. But if I can just hold on to that mentality in my head every morning as I wake up and get the day started, usually, I break free of the noise, I find the “creative flow” needed to get me started, and then I’m off to the races to try and make something of each and every day.
Fake It ’Til You Make It
I’m not an imposter, but I definitely had to throw myself into things that I had no idea how to do. When you first get started at anything, sometimes you know just enough to be dangerous, but what you don’t realize is that 70% of your actual knowledge will come from just thrusting yourself into the right environment, and learning “on the job”.
I used to work in an Apple retail store, a job that I will forever cherish that taught me so much about life and myself. After the sixth month mark, I “earned” the title “Expert”. I didn’t really feel like an Expert at anything. However, Apple felt like I was confident enough in front of customers, and regardless of my actual knowledge of all products and services, Apple believed that I would be able to handle almost any question a customer could throw at me. I quickly learned that being an Expert was not about knowing everything about every product, it was more about being knowledgeable enough to locate the correct resources that would assist in finding the best solutions.
People would congratulate me and honor me as a store Expert. I was looked at as one of the smartest people on the team. Time would be carved out of our daily meetings to let the Expert have a moment with the team to share new knowledge and insights.
I can’t tell you how many times I felt so fraudulent in front of that team. Why did they think this way about me? Did I look and act over-confident? Was I fooling people into believing that I hadn’t just studied the website earlier that morning before the meeting to collect my thoughts? Anyone could have that same knowledge. Why was I the one being honored for it in title and position?
The Truth
You do deserve it.
If you work hard to be knowledgeable, self-aware, respectful, and inspiring.. every bit of success that you find is honorable, and well-deserved.
The smartest among us understand that the quest for knowledge and understanding NEVER ends. But that’s the wonderful thing about life.
That IS what life is about.
By putting yourself out there, you’re going to discover the knowledge that you desire. You create the conditions in which it becomes possible for you to find the success that you crave.
How many posts have you read on Medium TODAY that give you Step-By-Step guidance on how to set up each morning for success, or how to find your “peak state” as Benjamin P. Hardy describes, or how to train your thoughts every evening before you go to bed to maximize the quality of your sleep? If you are the person searching for these solutions, then be prepared to accept success in your life. You didn’t cheat the system, you created the system for success, and that’s as noble as it gets.
Find the success that you crave.. Share that success with others.. Be proud of your accomplishments.. and don’t EVER let the feelings of Imposter Syndrome slow you down!
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