How to Tackle Your Imposter Syndrome
How to Tackle Your Imposter Syndrome
People with imposter syndrome often feel like a fraud despite all their experience, talent, preparation and hard work. Studies show that nearly 70% of the general population will suffer from Imposter Syndrome sometime in their lifetime. If there’s a little voice in your head that tells you “You’ll never be good enough! or:“You don’t deserve this!” then you could be one of the growing experts who doubt themselves and let Imposter Syndrome damage their mental well-being as well as their professional and business growth.
Imposter Syndrome symptoms can look different for different people. In most cases, it involves feelings of self-doubt and personal incompetence where negative thoughts (often referred to as “cognitive distortions”) are based on anxiety, rather than objective facts.
Symptoms may consist of:
- Lack of self-confidence and self-belief
- Feelings of inadequacy.
- Constantly comparing yourself to other people.
- Anxiety
- Negative self-talk.
- Distrust in one’s own capabilities.
The cause of such symptoms can be found by recognising your own behaviour
Perfectionism
Imposter syndrome can take perfectionism to an extreme where whatever you do you never feel it’s enough. Do you pull all-nighters to ensure your projects are free of error? Do you constantly take projects “back to the drawing board” to fix because you’re not satisfied? Do you worry and overthink even after you’ve hit your goal or deadline? And when you work in a position of leadership do you try and micromanage your team?
Undervaluing your worth
Imposter syndrome will have you doubting your capabilities. You don’t feel comfortable charging for your services and avoid increasing your rates even though you need to. You might believe that somehow the quality of your work is tied to your value and often underestimate your services, possibly charging by the hour rather than your experience.
Avoiding opportunities
Do you pass on promotions or opportunities because you fear failure? Maybe you don’t believe you have what it takes to succeed. Do you think others are more qualified than you and that you don’t deserve any form of success? Do you hide your potential because you fear professional growth and personal development require pushing past your comfort zone?
Often times those with Imposter Syndrome want to change — but also fear making those changes. There’s no quick fix to Imposter Syndrome, but taking a few steps to recognise and challenge your mindset can help.
Accept you for you
It’s not about trying to impress everyone, your business journey is about finding the right people who like you for you. You don’t have to be the best to be you. In business being better is overrated — being different is a worthier strategy.
Stop trying to be Perfect
Accept that mistakes happen even to the most successful of people. When you can acknowledge that
You’re allowed to fail
You’re allowed to ask questions
You’re allowed to embrace your imperfections.
You’re allowed to ask for help
Then you can start seeing the value of what you are doing and learn from those mistakes.
Your Business Love Language
Stop using negative language and start using objective language
Do you dismiss compliments?
Do you find yourself saying “sorry”, more than you say “thank you”?
Do you often tell yourself that “I’m terrible at this”, or “I’ll never be successful”? When you constantly use Negative language such as telling yourself that you are not good enough, or “I’m too young/too old/too unskilled etc…” the more you will believe it.
- Don’t Overgeneralize:
When you draw a conclusion from a single, isolated event, for example, if you lost a sale, you might think “I’m terrible at selling.”This is most likely not the case, there are a whole load of reasons as to why the client didn’t buy.
- Don’t make it Personal
Sometimes there are things we cannot control. Maybe the buyer’s budget was low, or their timeline didn’t match. When we take everything personally we tend to ascribe blame to ourselves in any given situation. Understand what you can control and what you can’t.
Replace any cognitive distortions with objective thoughts that are based on real evidence. For instance, if you constantly tell yourself, “I’m not good at speaking in public”, ask yourself: “Have you actually tried speaking in public? “What evidence do I have that supports this belief? “ “Is this a reality I’ve created based on my own fears and insecurities?”
Stop Comparing
We can often feel like imposters not because we are flawed but because we fail to realise that others are flawed. We compare our bad days to someones good. We want to be at the top right now and forget that everyone had to start from zero. We measure the success of our Day 1 to someone’s Year 1.
Recognise when you need to ask for help
Being seen as the expert in your business is a constant struggle. Asking for help from other experts who have taken a similar business journey is ok. You don’t have to be alone and you don’t have to do everything.
Don’t let Imposter syndrome rule your life. Take the first step to recognise it and then challenge yourself to change your mindset. Be objective in your language and push yourself out of your comfort zone.
