Imposter Syndrome — It’s Like Something’s Missing Always
By: Vatsal Jain
Tags: Imposter Syndrome, Self Deprecation, Covid 19, Insecurity, Future

Have you ever felt that you are a fraud? Even after making it through admission procedures and never-ending interviews, have you ever felt someone screwed up by approving or hiring you? Are you afraid to be found out that you are a fake and you will be later replaced?

Welcome to “imposter syndrome” — the feeling that a person does not deserve the success or fame he/she is receiving. In fact, the person feels that he/she has only succeeded because of luck and good timing and not because of his/her efforts and skills.

This overwhelming experience has grown new wings during the COVID-19 recession. While many of us have had an episode of imposter syndrome at some point in our careers, it is projected that about 7 out of 10 people will feel the symptoms at least once in their lives. And if you are experiencing this psychological pattern for the first time, it is probably due to the chaos we find ourselves right now.

Lately, impostorism has been observed in high-school and university students as well as in young professionals, who — doubting their own success stories — become nervous about the further decisions they have to make. This self-depreciation and lack of self-esteem are apparent in decisions they make — choosing a career or a university, and while focusing on activities including, setting up start-ups or starting with a new job.

There is Always a Ray of Hope

That said, the good news is that there are various ways to overcome this suffocating feeling. Because you deserve all of the praises and successes you have gotten in your lives. And, in this tough phase, you all need to cut yourselves some slack. Here are some tips to help yourselves and your colleagues build that inner reserve.

Surround Yourselves with Trustworthy People — Advisors, Mentors, and Sponsors

Talk to yourselves; it is a productive approach. Crowd out your own negative thoughts by having regular conversations with others. Think about it as a funnel. Begin by creating and maintaining a broad professional ecosystem. Ask about others’ experiences, their work, and their interests.

These interactions with a larger group will pave way for a smaller group of advisors, or your “kitchen cabinet” of people whose advice and judgement you trust. Make a concerted effort to expand this group of mentors and have healthy conversations with them.

Select advisors who are at different phases in their careers and ideally belong to several disciplines, gender, and ethnicities in a bid to offer you a plethora of opinions, a broader network, and more opportunities.

A part of your mentoring group will become beneficial sponsors who will recommend you for opportunities to help shape your career. Your success linearly resonates with theirs as an advisor, so putting you forward for opportunities and promotions is a natural growth of the mentoring relationship.

Those sponsors are a particularly powerful elixir to impostorism as they are not going to put their reputation at stake and recommend your name for a role unless they believe you will make significant strides.

Compile a “Smile File” of Your Success

When you are drowned in the dregs of impostor syndrome, it becomes quite easy to highlight all the things you have done wrong, every reason you “should not” be where you are right now, or all the things that people who are not you are doing at present. It becomes really hard to drag yourselves out of this state without any greater reference framework.

That said, whether you figure it out or not, the evidence of your success story is concrete. A “smile file” could be anything you want it to be — a collection of feedbacks from your colleagues or acquaintances, a simple note in your smartphones with positive reminders about yourself, or a list of your professional achievements.

In fact, you can create a physical folder with printouts of your achievements and pics from important events you have attended, and go through it every time your mind is crowded with second thoughts. It can inflict you with the much-needed self-esteem at the moment. An additional benefit is that it complements resume building and justifies your request for a new opportunity as you have it all in one go and are not struggling to look for examples of your successes.

Weigh the Impact of Future Possibilities

Heightening the concerns associated with imposter syndrome are the actual threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of unemployment and other financial burdens. Enterprises have conventionally been using “scenario planning” — anticipating a broad spectrum of possible futures, both positive and negative — as a means to curb the impact of such shocks. By doing so, they could recognize those key competencies and tactics that ideally position them to weather the storm.

We can follow the same. If we take a few moments to anticipate our personal future along the positive, negative, and stagnant curves, we can curtail the impact that our impostorism will have as we seek our next opportunity. Forcing ourselves to identify our strengths and to recognize opportunities to upgrade our skills will boost our confidence that we will be prepared whatever be the situation. Meanwhile, this approach equally applies during times of opportunity.

Take some time during this public health crisis to answer these questions at regular intervals:

What things I should do to stay well prepared for a change?

How can I make myself most adjustable?

Recognize your objectives towards a more agile and robust strategy to the upcoming uncertainties and think of the tiny milestones you can achieve on your way to meeting your objective. Not only the goals met, but also count the milestones. Your progress report is based on your progress, not anyone else’s.

So, the next time you are thinking, “I do not deserve this applause” or “Why me?,” stop yourself, think about the list, and live it up all that makes you “you”.

Image Credits:

https://willowtreeapps.com/ideas/imposter-syndrome-in-design-what-it-is-and-how-to-overcome-it

https://www.thechelseapsychologyclinic.com/blog/imposter-syndrome-successful-people-feel-like-frauds/

https://www.wes.org/advisor-blog/definition-of-mentorship/

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287870

https://www.inc.com/paul-schoemaker/7-keys-to-scenario-planning.html