thehealseekers.com

Have you ever felt that your success was solely based on luck and that it had nothing to do with your abilities?

Do you often have fraudulent feelings about your achievements in life and are wary that maybe you don’t deserve them?

If so, you might be experiencing imposter syndrome.

This syndrome hooks you in the idea that you are not good enough, it’s an intellectual form of self-doubt.

In his book: Think Again, Adam Grant wrote that some surveys suggest that more than half the people you know have felt like imposters at some point in their careers.

It’s thought to be especially common among women and marginalized groups.

Strangely, it also seems to be particularly pronounced among high achievers.

I’ve struggled with this syndrome to varying degrees throughout my life -which led me to seek out information on it in an attempt to find out how I can control it.

Most of the information I found was to do with how to overcome it and its disadvantages.

Luckily, I landed on Adam Grant’s book: Think Again which painted a different picture of the benefits of imposter syndrome that I’ll be discussing in this blog.

But, before I get into it, you might be wondering, “how do I know if I have this syndrome?”

So, I think that’s a great place to start.

Here are some of the tell-tell signs I learned that could indicate that you might be experiencing imposter syndrome.

You are a perfectionist or a procrastinator.

You often put more time and effort than is necessary into your work or project to ensure that it is perfect, or you usually wait until the last minute to finish your work.

You might be doing this as a coping mechanism for your feelings of inadequacy.

You are afraid of being exposed as a fake.

You find that you’re often afraid and anxious when among your peers thinking that soon or later, they will find out that you’re a fake -even though there isn’t evidence to prove otherwise.

You fear failure.

You feel shame or humiliation when you face a failure and find yourself continually replaying the mistakes you made in your mind.

You don’t think you deserve your success.

You usually attribute your success to external forces instead of acknowledging your abilities.

You might find that you even refuse to believe when people validate your success.

Before I continue, it’s imperative to let you know that this blog is written for educational purposes only and does not substitute a professional diagnosis.

If you suspect you could be experiencing imposter syndrome, I recommend you seek the advice of a licensed mental health professional or counselor.

Now that you know some of the tell-tell signs of imposter syndrome, let’s get into its surprising upside.

It can motivate you to work harder.

Did you know that overconfidence can make you complacent?

However, when you feel like an imposter, you might feel like you have something to prove.

These feelings will propel you to go the extra mile and invest more time and effort in your work as I’ve mentioned previously.

Interestingly, Imposters might be the last to jump in, but they may also be the last to bail out.

Believe it or not, your imposter syndrome can lead to your success in the long run.

Imposter thoughts can motivate you to work smarter.

When you don’t believe you’re going to win, you have nothing to lose by rethinking your strategy, right?

Feeling like an imposter puts you in a beginner’s mindset, which will lead you to question assumptions that others have taken for granted.

Feeling like an imposter can make you a better learner.

Having some doubts about your knowledge and skills isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

On the contrary, it takes you off the pedestal and encourages you to seek out insights from others.

You will find that instead of having overconfidence in your limited knowledge and falling victim to the Dunning-Kruger Effect -where a person’s lack of knowledge and skills in a certain area causes them to overestimate their own competence- you will always question what you know and be open to other perspectives.

This in turn makes you a better learner.

There is a benefit to being a novice.

Being a newbie in any field can promote imposter feelings, especially when you’re placed among professionals that have been at it for a long time.

However, there is a distinct advantage of being new in any field.

As a novice, you’ll have fresh eyes and a fresh perspective.

You may think of things in a different way than a person who has been in that field for a long time.

Remember that your fresh take on things might be an asset in your field.

Even if imposter syndrome has some upsides to it as discussed, some people still struggle with it immensely, and this affects the quality of their lives.

If that is you, here are some of the ways that you can overcome it.

Get some perspective.

You might feel like an imposter not because you are uniquely flawed, but because you fail to imagine how deeply flawed everyone else is beneath the more or less polished surface.

There is an interesting phenomenon I came across: Pluralistic Ignorance.

This is when we each doubt ourselves privately but believe we’re alone in thinking that way because no one else voices their doubts.

It’s important to keep in mind that we know ourselves from the inside, but we know others only from the outside.

While you’re constantly aware of your insecurities, the only things you know about others are what they tell you and what they do -which is a far narrower and more edited source of information.

Understanding that so many people struggle with the same thing really helps to keep everything in perspective and helps you not to feel alone in this.

Watch out for comparison.

There is a reason why the saying “Comparison is the thief of joy” exists.

If you are comparing yourself with someone who has accomplished more than you, whether chronologically or maybe just situationally, this might make the gulf in status appear to you as absolute and unbreachable.

When you are a beginner in any field, sometimes it might be incomprehensible that the professionals you admire, or the people you compare yourself with were once like you.

Here’s an interesting story.

In the past, I used to work for a private bank.

I particularly remember being enamored by the Managing Director.

I used to admire how he talked, how he presented himself, and his intellect.

I would often dream about reaching his status, but the climb seemed insurmountable to me.

One day, during a speech at one of the town hall meetings, he narrated a story of how he began his journey.

There was a certain part of his story that caught my attention.

He said that he once worked as a bank teller during a time when his country was facing a rather unusual load-shedding challenge.

And when the electricity was cut off, they would use those antiquated lampshades for illumination -the ones with the two hand holders.

The thought of this very dapper, well-put-together, intellectual man going through such a time in his life, fascinated me.

This made me realize that the need to always show up airbrushed as society makes us feel, is unnecessary.

Even the people we admire, at some point in time, were not as glamorous as we see them now.

Focus more on what you’re learning.

Most times when you are crippled by this imposter syndrome, you tend to focus on your performance rather than learning.

You tend to see the mistakes you make as evidence of your underlying limitations.

Instead, if you cultivate a learning mindset, you will begin to see your mistakes as an opportunity to learn and get better.

So, when that inner toxic critic starts creeping up in your mind, remember that mistakes are an inevitable part of learning.

This will keep you from hyper-focusing on your perceived weaknesses which promotes imposter syndrome feelings.

Seek out communities and mentors.

It’s through talking and engaging with the people that you admire that you learn that everything is a learning curve.

The more you interact with these people, you will begin to acknowledge the duality of their narratives; the two sides of their stories.

Remember the story I mentioned about the bank’s Managing Director?

However, if you are like me and you don’t usually engage with people of this caliber, I found that through reading books you can still have as many mentors as you like.

Through reading, you get to learn about different people’s stories; how they navigated life, and the lessons they learned along the way which you can learn from.

This is an introvert’s dream, wouldn’t you agree?

Conclusion

I think calling imposter syndrome a syndrome is to downplay how universal it is.

We’ve all encountered it at various stages in our lives. Whether we like to admit it or not.

And we’re all still susceptible to it as we continue to go through life.

I hope that when you discover those feelings cropping up again, you’ll come back to this blog and remind yourself that you are not alone and that there’s a surprising upside to this syndrome.