<ul><li>Imposter syndrome was first described by two clinical psychologists in 1978. </li><li>They coined the term ‘imposter phenomenon’, a condition in which people believe they are not worthy of success and have a persistent belief in their lack of intelligence, skills, or competence.</li><li>Imposter syndrome involves much more than just feeling fraudulent and it presents itself in a long list of different ways. It may appear as insecurity, self-doubt, fear of failure, and perfectionism. Or as self-criticism, low self-esteem, an inability to accept compliments.</li></ul>

The Imposter Phenomenon

<ul><li>Imposter syndrome can be triggered by any achievement or approval-related task or as a result of feeling insecure about your knowledge or skills, particularly when you work in a competitive atmosphere and when responsibilities increase.</li><li>It tends to be more intense during times of transition or change, or when you are faced with new challenges (a new job, project, or being accepted into higher education). This pushes you out of your comfort zone into new routines and puts you under increased scrutiny.</li><li>The syndrome can also occur when you feel different from the core group you are part of.</li></ul>

What Triggers The Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome normally occurs when there is a tension between two views: the standards you set yourself and how you assess yourself as doing.
The high standards you set yourself are a large part of the problem, as is the negative internal voice you use to motivate yourself. You expect that you need to be the best and do everything flawlessly in your career, relationships, and personal life.

Setting Unrealistic High Standards

These are the internal rules that people with imposter syndrome generally follow:<ol><li>Perfectionists set excessively high standards for themselves and believe they should deliver always a perfect performance.</li><li>Natural Geniuses strive to master any new skill quickly and with little effort.</li><li>The Soloist defines competence as being able to do something on their own and believes that achievement only counts if it is unassisted. </li><li>The Expert needs to know it all and believe true competence means knowing absolutely everything.</li><li>The Superwoman/man ‘measures competence based on “how many” roles they can excel in.</li></ol>

The Competence Types

Imposters fear being found out or not being good enough so strongly that they do not question their fear. If what you believe is true, then you’re right to be scared: being found out, failing, the humiliation that comes with what you imagine – these are terrifying. Fear puts an anxious filter on everything we do. But there’s a fine line between feelings and facts. Our feelings can trick us into believing that things are worse than they are.

Imposter Syndrome Is All About Fear

Confident people do feel this discomfort and do experience some of the same fears. But they come to a different conclusion and this allows them to override their feelings.Instead of interpreting their discomfort as meaning that they are imposters, they see it as a fear associated with doing something new and stepping out of their comfort zone. The discomfort is caused by anxiety and non-imposters recognize it as just that, seeing it as a sign that they’re unsure or they worry that they won’t do well – again, all very human and all very normal.

How Confident People Approach Discomfort

Family environment, family dynamics, and the way our parents raised us combine with our personality and our experience of the world to shape our belief system and give us a sense of who we are as a person. This means that what you learned as a child influences how you see and experience things now, and these childhood experiences shape your approach to life.
Nature and nurture are not separate – each has an impact on the other. Your personality type interacts with your experiences and has an effect on the world’s response to you.

The Psychology of Feeling Like a Fraud

You decided a long time ago that you were a fraud and for years you’ve been building an argument in support of this in your head, ignoring any information that doesn’t fit and operating a strong bias against yourself. This unwavering belief is one of the biggest reasons you’re unable to move forward.Constructive criticism, negative feedback, and mistakes are all proof that you’re not good enough. You go over them in your head and replay them in micro detail.

Imposter Syndrome Is An Example Of Confirmation Bias

A few examples:
<ul>
<li>"I got lucky or it was a fluke"</li>
<li>"I’m a good actor, I fooled them"</li>
<li>"It’s because they like me, they’re being polite, or it’s a social courtesy"</li>
<li>"It sounds more impressive than it is"</li>
<li>"I had a lot of help"</li>
<li>"If I can do it anyone can I was in the right place at the right time"</li>
<li>"They have low standards"</li>
<li>"They felt sorry for me"</li>
<li>"No one else wanted to do it"</li>
<li>"It’s only a matter of time before I’m found out"</li>
<li>"I had connections."</li>
</ul>

How We Downplay Our Success

<ul>
<li>Overworking. The feeling that you are a fraud inspires greater effort and conscientiousness because you imagine that everyone else is more capable and intelligent than you.</li>
<li>Avoidance. When you aspire to such high standards and have an overwhelming fear of failure, it’s no wonder that sometimes you avoid doing what you need to do, procrastinating when you just can’t face the effort that starting involves or stopping halfway through when finishing seems too difficult.</li>
</ul>

Overworking and Avoidance

You need to see that this is not your voice, but the voice of your fears.
The better you get at spotting the imposter voice in action, the more successfully the strategies will work

Externalize the Imposter Voice

You may feel like an imposter, but that doesn’t mean you are one. Your thoughts and feelings are useful, but they only form part of the picture, especially when it comes to anything imposter syndrome-related.When you hear the voice, remind yourself that the imposter's voice is a thought, not a fact. There’s always more than one perspective. When you feel discomfort remind yourself that this is just how you feel, not how things are.

Thoughts Aren’t Facts

To really believe that how you feel is no different from the way other people feel you have to start talking more openly about what’s going on.
This is the only way for you to be sure that when others look confident and capable they may not feel that way all the time.

Talk to Other People

When you see yourself as completely responsible for making everything go well, you take responsibility for anything that goes wrong.Don't forget about the other people involved and their shared responsibility. And no matter how hard you try, there’s no route through life that is pain-free and in trying to prevent anything ever going wrong you’re causing yourself much greater stress. Things do sometimes go wrong, but you will get over it and see that often the outcome is even better.

You Can’t Control Everything

Having compassion for yourself is really no different from having it for others. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes and it’s OK to feel stressed or sad. Pain and suffering are part of our shared human experience; they are just a reaction to what’s going on in our life.
Self-compassion has three main components:
<ul>
<li>Recognizing when we’re stressed or struggling without being judgemental or overreacting</li>
<li>Being supportive, gentle and understanding to ourselves when we’re having a hard time</li>
<li>Remembering that everyone makes mistakes and experiences difficulties at times.</li>
</ul>

Compassion: The Antidote to Self-Criticism

A solution-based self-help book that explores the psychological impact of imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a phenomenon in which people believe they are not worthy of success. They convince themselves that they have done well due to luck and are terrified their shortcomings will eventually be exposed, making it impossible to enjoy their accomplishments. You've Got This explores the psychological impact of imposter syndrome and exposes the secrets fears and insecurities felt by millions of men and women. Dr Jessamy Hibberd provides sound expert advice to help the reader better understand theproblem and overcome it, so they think differently, gain self belief and learn to see themselves as others do. Filled with case studies to bring the concepts alive and packed with strategies to increase confidence, this book is a must-read for anyone who has struggled with their achievements.

The Imposter Cure

Impostor syndrome doesn't go away just because you achieve certain goals or you have a certain resume or you went to a certain school or you worked at a prestigious place.Even when you're experiencing all these places, imposter syndrome makes you quite anxious about whether or not you are doing enough. And you can imagine when you're surrounded by people who do a lot of great work, it only feeds your impostor syndrome in a way 'cause you're like, do I belong here?

The Impostor Phenomenon

There are people who tend to overestimate their abilities and some people who tend to underestimate their abilities.People who feel like impostors tend to underestimate their abilities. Because the impostor phenomenon makes high-achieving feel like they're not as intelligent, as bright, as creative, as able as other people think they are. And they live in a constant fear that somebody's going to find that out.

How We Perceive Our Abilities

Awareness is a key factor in helping yourself with the impostor phenomenon.Before you can work through any of this, you have to be able to identify it and understand it. Naming reality helps you find your way through it. Naming it also means recognizing other people feel like this, too. It's a shared experience.

Stop Feeling Like a Fraud: Bring Awareness To The Situation

Be self-soothing. Try affirmations like: "I'm going to do OK, because I did OK last time. I know enough about this. I don't have to be perfect." It's essential to have grace for yourself. No one is perfect. We're all trying the best we can.

Being Self-Compassionate

We must acknowledge the societal impact that influences this feeling.Different racial and even gender groups are messaged with various things about their place in society. What we see, hear, and read can intensify this phenomenon.

Social Causes of The Impostor Syndrome

<ul><li>Look to people who you are hoping to learn from and accept that you don't have to be an expert. It won't make you look weak.</li><li>Create community and build up your support system.</li><li>Ask your friends not to say, "you're going to do great; don't worry about it". Tell them about the kind of support that you need is related to understanding your anxiety, your fear, your feelings and say, I'll be here for you.</li></ul>

Ask For Help

Take a break when the pressure is high and be curious about how you're feeling.Don't judge yourself. Take some deep breaths. Get a good night's sleep when you can, or take a nap if that helps. If exercise is your thing, you can do that, too - whatever healthy choice you think may help reset your mind.

Less Judgment, More Curiosity

Impostor syndrome: it's the voice in the back of your mind telling you that you're a fraud, and that your peers are all smarter and more creative than you. In this episode, host Diana Opong speaks with experts about how to squash that voice.

Shake The Feeling That You're A Fraud

Imposter Syndrome is that inner voice telling you that your work is not good enough or, even worse, that you’re useless as a person.
<ul>
<li>Self-criticism can really put (and keep) us down.</li>
<li>Suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ is common among most of us.</li>
<li>Even with those people where you least expect it, they often suffer from some form of self-criticism. </li>
<li>Creativity comes from relaxing self-evaluation and self-judgment – and the self-criticism and self-doubt that result from them.</li>
<li>Feeling like an imposter can impact one’s ability to be creative or try things.</li>
</ul>

Imposter Syndrome And Creative People

Instead of applying self-criticism, we need to actively practice the opposite: self-compassion. Self-compassion is realising that self-criticism is the enemy and then acting to reverse its negative effects. Self-compassion also helps to unlock creativity. The two components of self-compassion:<ol><li>Making a conscious effort to stop self-judgment.</li><li>Actively comforting ourselves, the same as we would do with a friend in need.</li></ol>

Replace Self-Criticism With Self-Compassion

Awareness of your inner critical voice is crucial. This then enables you to see your critical thoughts for what they are: thoughts.
Being more aware of what your brain and mind do when sensing a potential threat in the form of being judged and receiving criticism will encourage the development of a calmer part of the mind.

Recognizing The Inner Critical Voice

There are a number of so-called cognitive distortions that are relevant to the Inner Critic: <ul><li>Mental filters, or selective abstraction.</li><li>Tunnel vision.</li><li>Magnification and Minimisation or binocular trick.</li><li>Overgeneralizations</li><li>Jumping to conclusions</li><li>Mind reading or hunches.</li><li>Pessimism and catastrophizing a given situation by imagining the worst.</li><li>Emotional reasoning.</li><li>Thinking in All or Nothing terms(Black or White)</li><li>Ignoring positive aspects of a situation</li><li>Thinking everything is our own fault</li><li>Mislabeling of characterizations</li></ul>

Cognitive Distortions

The good thing about negative confirmation bias is that it can be flipped to create a positive full-filling prophecy too. 
Rather than walking around in a perpetual state of feeling that no one believes in you, you can be on the hunt for support. Take confirmation and use it as a force for good to seek out positivity rather than negativity.

Seeking Positive Confirmation

Something happens and we imagine the absolute worst. Our mind plays tricks and we start ‘awfulizing’.
To stop this:
<ul>
<li>First, on a piece of paper or in a journal, write down and answer the question: What I am afraid will happen? </li>
<li>Next, write down a response to this question: What could happen?</li>
</ul>
If we actively apply realistic optimism, looking at the facts of the situation at hand without embellishing or minimising them, we can avoid a ‘spiralling’ effect.

Awfulizing

There are a number of valuable tips to help you learn to take criticism well and use it to get better at whatever you are doing:
<ul>
<li>Breathe.</li>
<li>Detach from the situation or event mentally.</li>
<li>Listen actively.</li>
<li>Get specific demands and relevant, constructive criticism.</li>
<li>Discover new perspectives.</li>
<li>Be curious.</li>
<li>Grow.</li>
<li>Learn in real time.</li>
</ul>

Living With Criticism

Letting go of our preoccupation with the trajectory of other people’s lives, we can transform our envy from a stagnant, blocking force into a powerful motivator for growth. The tools and ideas above help us reframe our self-criticism; seeing critical thoughts for what they are and combating them with compassionate thoughts.

From Stagnation To Action

Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticise others.

Moving from self-criticism to self-compassion

Silence the Voice of Self Doubt “Banish Your Inner Critic provides knowledge, insight, tools and practice for getting unstuck and expressing full creative potential." ?Rebecca Stockley, Co-Founder of BATS Improv in San Francisco CA Are you ready to boost your personal productivity—minus the fear and loathing? Are you ready to Banish Your Inner Critic and unleash the creative ideas and personal productivity within you? Help is on the way! Blocked creative ideas. Everybody has one, an inner critic that tells you that others have more talent, you’re just faking it, and that you’ll never have those great creative ideas that seem just out of reach. This inner critic is a subconscious deterrent that stands between the seeds of great creative ideas and the fruits of achievement. It afflicts us with a mental block as deadlines approach, makes us so afraid of being judged that we hold ourselves back and don’t share our expertise, forces us to question our ability to learn ideas and technologies quickly; and makes us doubt, discount, and kill our ideas before they see the light of day. Find a world of creative ideas. Denise Jacobs is a speaker, author and creativity evangelist who speaks at web conferences and consults with tech companies worldwide. As the Founder and Chief Creativity Evangelist of "The Creative Dose", she teaches techniques to make the creative process more fluid, how to make work environments more conducive to personal productivity, and practices for sparking innovation. Now, in Banish Your Inner Critic, Denise Jacobs shows you how to defeat barriers that are holding you back and achieve success through a positive mental attitude. Banish Your Inner Critic and: Identify and quiet the voice of self-doubt Master three powerful practices to transform how you relate to yourself and your creativity Generate more creative ideas than ever before If you’re a fan of books such as The Artist’s Way or The War of Art, you should read Banish Your Inner Critic.

Banish Your Inner Critic

Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which you feel like you don’t deserve your accomplishments. You might feel like you don’t belong, don’t deserve your success, or are “out of place.” You might even be constantly worried others will expose you as a fraud.People with impostor syndrome are unable to internalize success.It can affect anyone—from professionals to students to highly accomplished and successful people.

Impostor Syndrome

It is a type of imposter syndrome that focuses on how something should be done—they want 110% from any project or assignment, each and every time. When these standards aren’t met, however, impostor syndrome kicks into gear.
Impostor Fix: To overcome your perfectionism, try the “Good Enough Quality” Method. It’s better to hand in something that’s good rather than strive for the best. Perfectionists want to spend more time preparing, so you’ve got to break that cycle with action.

The Perfectionist

This is the equivalent of a fixed mindset. Natural geniuses think they should always be smart, be fast learners, or excel at everything they’re taught.
They have a tendency to look at the pros in their field and wonder: _Why am I not there yet? _They often don’t realize there’s a mid-stage process called learning that takes beginners to the pro level, so when faced with setbacks, they usually question their own competency.
Impostor Fix: To overcome your genius complex, try cultivating a growth mindset - the belief that with effort, you can improve your abilities, skills, and talents.

The Natural Genius

Experts strive for more—more knowledge, more experience, and more awards. Experts strive to be perfect because they want to please others. They feel like an impostor because there’s always someone better out there.
Impostor Fix: Experts should recognize there’s never an end to knowledge! So instead of always accumulating more knowledge/skills, try to accumulate them only when needed. This means focusing 100% on accumulating one skill instead of dividing your attention to learn everything.

The Expert

The Rugged Individualist believes they can do everything themselves and prefers to do things without asking for help. They believe asking others is a sign of weakness.
Impostor Fix: The problem of not asking others may be because you haven’t found the right people. Ask yourself: “Who are the top 5 people I spend the most time with?” If they are dream builders and not dream crushers, then you’d naturally want to learn from them.

The Rugged Individualist

The Superwoman or Superman loves to take on more responsibility. They have a hard time saying no and often work harder than their peers. A superwoman or superman often juggles many tasks at once, even to the point of over-exhaustion.
Impostor Fix: If you’re running in super mode, you’re almost always also a people pleaser. You want to impress, and taking on extra responsibility is your idea to get there. You have to understand why this happens and interrupt this cycle.

The Superwoman/Man

This is a way to change your self-talk to guide your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors:
<ul>
<li>Choose an anti–impostor syndrome phrase - a positive affirmation or your own personalized phrase that helps you break out of impostor syndrome. I.e: "I got this!"</li>
<li>Choose your safe space where you’re free from distraction.</li>
<li>Choose a mental image. Every time you think of this image, you’ll be reminded of your own unique expression. Repeat your phrase while visualizing your image. Try this for just a couple of minutes twice a day. </li>
</ul>
In time, your brain will become more hardwired to believe your own thoughts.

Deal With Impostor Syndrome: The Coué Method

Get a piece of paper and a pen and write down everything about you that you are trying to hide: your most ridiculous beliefs, the worst parts of your character, and all the things about you that make you feel like a fraud.
While this exercise won’t help get rid of these bad things, externalizing them can help you put them into perspective and feel better about them. It will feel like a weight off your chest.

Deal With Impostor Syndrome: “Go Mad” for 30 Minutes

Writing therapy has proven to be a great remedy for impostor syndrome.
<ul>
<li>When you are feeling those self-doubts, you can pull out a journal and write about 5 things you are grateful for. Or take a screenshot and save the picture in a folder labeled “Success File.”</li>
<li>You can also capture your proudest moment of the day or any small wins you’ve accumulated. This gets those positive juices flowing.</li>
<li>When you’re trying to make progress with your impostor syndrome, you could also have a file for uplifting things. Write about what other people have said about you and records of your accomplishments.</li>
</ul>

Keep a Success File

If you’re constantly checking social media, you may be unfairly comparing yourself to others.
A digital detox is when you unplug and get off social media and email for some time—say, 10 days. You can do it from home or even on vacation if you’re a remote worker.
After coming back from a digital detox, you might notice you compare yourself to others less and feel happier.

Digital Detox

The Dunning-Kruger effect is when you think you already “know” everything or brush off other people’s advice. People who experience the Dunning-Kruger effect are super confident and even arrogant—but the fact is we’ve all probably experienced this effect at times.
For example, an engineering student may decide to skip studying for a test because they think they already know the answers—only to fail miserably since they were underprepared.

The Opposite of Impostor Syndrome: The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Do you feel like an imposter? I’m here to help! In this article, I explain what is imposter syndrome and how to overcome it.

The 5 Types of Imposter Syndrome (And How to Overcome It!)

The imposter syndrome is the feeling that you are unworthy of your accomplishments at work and that you will be exposed as a fake. People who experience imposter syndrome perceive it as harmful to their success.
But the behaviours that the 'imposters' show to compensate for their self-doubt can make them better at their jobs and motivate them to outperform their non-imposter peers in interpersonal skills.

Using the Imposter syndrome as motivation

Over 70% of people are affected by imposter thoughts at some point in their careers. 
'Imposters' have perfectionistic tendencies. They often feel overwhelmed and disappointed if they are unable to fulfil their perfectionist goals. A cycle starts where imposters can't accept positive feedback on their work. A gap develops in how individuals perceive their own competence compared to how competent they really are.

The behaviours of 'imposters'

In a study, workers experiencing imposter thoughts were rated more interpersonally effective and better collaborators. There's no significant difference in competence between those who have imposter thoughts and those who are not.
Self-doubt leads 'imposters' to put extra effort into their interpersonal connections and may lead to outperforming their non-imposter colleagues.

The upside of 'imposters'

Imposter syndrome is widely assumed as debilitating, but imposter thoughts can be a source of fuel. It can motivate us to work harder to prove ourselves and work smarter to fill the gaps in our knowledge and skills.
The best way to harness this new potential is to move past the negative emotion and lean further into the imposter feelings. Focusing on the perceived competence gap between you and your peers and putting your energy towards closing it might give you the edge.

Embracing self-doubt

Imposter syndrome can shake your confidence, but being underqualified for your job may actually give you an advantage over your more confident peers.

Leaning into the feelings of inadequacy

Steps to overcome the feeling that you don't belong where you are, and you only got there through dumb luck.

The Imposter Cure

The Imposter Cure

Shake The Feeling That You're A Fraud

Banish Your Inner Critic

The 5 Types of Imposter Syndrome (And How to Overcome It!)

Leaning into the feelings of inadequacy

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