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Have you ever started a new job and felt like you lack experience? Many people apply for jobs and when they get accepted they wonder why as they don’t see themselves have the required potential. Therefore, they start doubting their skills, their achievement, and they also think they’re tricking their managers to believe they’re talented.
If you’re going through the same thing, you don’t lack talent or experience, you have imposter syndrome.
What Is Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter Syndrome in a simple explanation is the feeling of constant self-doubt and that you’re never good enough.
You will always see yourself as unequal to your colleague, you will always underestimate yourself and work. Having imposter syndrome will also make you feel that you’re tricking your colleagues and managers that you’re doing a good job. You will also feel that you can’t do this job and you will probably fail. You could be having years of experience, yet you still think you’re not good enough or you don’t have enough experience.
If you’re not sure whether you have imposter syndrome or not, here are the common signs.
Signs Of Imposter Syndrome
Imposter Syndrome has many signs but the most common ones are
1- Self-doubt
2- Not crediting yourself for your success
3- Perfectionism
4- Low self-esteem
5- Constant burnout and stress
6- Beating yourself up for the smallest mistake
7- Feeling unworthy of praise or compliment
8- Thinking your colleagues are better than you
How To Overcome The Imposter Syndrome
1- Learn To Appreciate Your Achievements
Look at what you have achieved and how far you have become and celebrate that.
Every achievement you have is proof you got the talent; look at your portfolio and projects and think of the hard work you put into them. You have to celebrate your achievements and milestones and always put in mind that getting accepted in a job means you have enough experience and you have the potentials and skills to nail every task.
2- Stop Comparing Yourself With Others
If you will always compare yourself with others, you will never succeed. You have to focus on your life and on your work.
Many people do that, they always compare their achievements to what others have done even if they’re not in the same field. Nothing good comes out of comparing yourself with others; in fact, it will bring you down, and increase yourself-doubt, which will reflect on your productivity, performance, mental health, and self-confidence.
Everyone has their own success story, create your own. Let these people inspire you instead of bringing you down, use them as a source of inspiration and motivation to do better.
3- Control Your Thoughts
Your thoughts will always bring you down, don’t allow this.
It is all in your head, nothing of what you’re thinking about yourself is true, therefore, you need to reframe your thoughts. Always remind yourself that you’re just overthinking and none of what’s in your head is real! Gather evidence and examples of your projects to look at when you’re in doubt. Whenever you find yourself thinking negatively, distract yourself and remember what you have done at work so far.
4- Know The Difference Between Being Humble And Self-doubt
You have to know that being humble is something and doubting yourself is another thing. It’s okay to be humble but you can never doubt yourself as it can have huge consequences.
Some people stay humble as they don’t want to be a show-off but they acknowledge their hard work and achievements and they are proud of them.
Self-doubt is different, you will be blaming everything on luck and not your skills and effort, you will also doubt you can do the same thing again, and you will think you don’t deserve the recognition.
If you found yourself more of the second one, then you have to stop, control your thoughts and focus on the achievement itself.
5- Seek Help If Needed
Whether to talk to friends or even a therapist, it is okay to ask for help.
You can talk to your close friends or family member about how you feel and they can help you by guiding you and pointing out your achievements and hard work; sometimes we need people to tell us how proud of us they are.
If you’re not getting better and the syndrome is affecting your mental health and performance, then seek a therapist to help you. There are some situations where no one can help but a therapist.
6- There’s Always Room For Development
You will never stop learning, if you think you need to learn more skills to do better then you can always improve and develop yourself.
You can always take courses and learn new skills to develop yourself at your job. Taking courses or earning certifications should be a huge sign that you’re doing a great job and not tricking anyone with skills you don’t have.
You should be proud of yourself for always doing better.
Self-confidence is the key, always remind yourself that you’re on the right track and your achievements are why you’re in this job.
