Have you ever felt that all your achievements were just a lucky coincidence? That your success is undeserved and accidental? If so, you may be dealing with imposter syndrome, the secret enemy of many successful people. This phenomenon haunts those who seek development and self-improvement. I am sure that almost everyone who is on the path of growth has felt its shadow at least once.
Are you sure that your achievements are worth nothing, because you are just lucky? When you are praised, do you believe that you do not deserve the compliments? Do you painfully react to criticism and are afraid to show others your shortcomings?
Are we familiar?
If your answer is yes, then you are not alone - Gail Mathews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, believes that more than 70% of successful people feel the same way. This phenomenon is called "imposter syndrome". But imposters are usually talented people with great opportunities, and the impostor in your head can be put in place!
I honestly admit that my inner impostor is still standing next to me and saying, "Calm down, let me out." At all stages of the project, I work through acceptance without letting it stop me. I use his energy and tips to improve my performance.
This reminds me of a situation when I was still a student and worked as an administrator in a computer club. A guy came there to play a video game. And there were permanent pro-fans who seemed to live in this club all the time. So he starts playing, something goes wrong, and these pros say, "Come on, I'll show you how to do it." And now they are already playing instead of this guy.
If we are afraid of devaluation, then we will only have the experience of the viewer, although we seem to have paid for the time.
Here are the signs by which you can recognize impostor syndrome in yourself: you are driven by the fear of failure, so before each new task or project you feel anxious and exert yourself to complete it, or on the contrary - you procrastinate, and after completing the task, you begin to think that everything it turned out only thanks to supernatural forces, and if it was done easily and quickly, then you think that you are just lucky, and you are convinced that for many years you have been deceiving people who consider you a professional, and you feel the fear of being exposed, you are afraid that you are about to be exposed and will be branded as untalented, stupid or a person with low qualifications, and secretly you want to be better than others, but when you meet other professionals, you realize that you are far from unique and many people are not inferior to you, and at such moments you tend to think that everyone others are much better than you, and attribute success to external factors, chance, luck, ignore praise and recognition of your achievements, level off compliments, and paradoxically, if you are criticized, you are more likely to rebel because, secretly, you understand , which is not bad at all and is actually worth something.
Imposter syndrome was first defined in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clancy and Susan Ames. This is a state when a person doubts his achievements, feels like a fraud and fears that his successes will soon be revealed as a coincidence. A person feels insecure about his abilities, regardless of how much he has achieved.
There are five main types of imposter syndrome: perfectionists who strive for the ideal and are always dissatisfied with their work, geniuses who believe that they must have a natural talent in everything they do, experts who constantly strive to acquire new knowledge and skills, feeling that who are not yet competent enough, loners who believe they must succeed on their own and do not ask for help, and supermen, people who strive to exceed expectations in all areas of life.
The roots of imposter syndrome often come from childhood when the child received criticism or excessive praise, and the syndrome can develop due to new challenges in life, such as a new job, promotion or career change, and overcoming this syndrome takes time and effort, so that for this you need to find a goal, determine what motivates you and what you strive for, raise self-esteem, work on a positive perception of yourself and your achievements, work with your competencies, develop your skills and knowledge to feel more confident, and allow yourself to make mistakes, because mistakes are a natural part of the learning and development process, and your professional achievements and personal development are important to your joy and satisfaction, and it is important to remember that you are not an impostor, you are a true professional who deserves your success.