4 Best Ways to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Grow confidence, journal, accept imperfection, and talk about feelings.

Image via Unsplash

“Confidence is key.”

Have you ever heard someone say that? It’s true.

Confidence is fundamental to a successful life and we’re having less and less of it in our daily lives. It’s affecting us in many ways and we need to grow more of it.

Imposter syndrome is the feeling that you’re doing something that you’re not supposed to do or not able to do, you feel like a fraud.

But that’s not the only thing that can be defined as imposter syndrome, it works out differently for all types of people. It might feel like I’m not supposed to be successful in any way, but on the other hand, it might feel like being overwhelmed by expectations for you.

That’s very typical for mental health ‘disorders’: you can’t point it out, because our brains work differently.

But here’s the thing.

You can’t beat imposter syndrome, you need to overrule it with confidence because it’s not something that goes away.

Here are four little tricks to help you live with imposter syndrome.

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Grow Your Confidence, Gradually

Our confidence is disappearing, bit by bit.

This often manifests itself in insecurity about appearance and attraction. But what many don’t know is that this kind of insecurity often gets translated to performance.

Like career or school.

Lack of confidence in these manners is often caused by traumas in your childhood or negative experiences in school or work. It’s not easy to step over this and “grow yourself some confidence.”

You need to understand how great you are and could be.

If you realize what you’re capable of and prove those things with results, it gets a lot easier to be confident about what you do. This is a process, don’t rush it.

Also, do the things that you already know you’re good at. There’s no point in doing new things and failing. This will only damage your confidence, do this once you believe you can beat the world.

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Start Journaling About Your Achievements

If you’re the kind of person who’s doubting yourself about the things you do for a living or your school achievements, then this trick is the one for you.

I’m sure you’ve achieved some great things.

List them, write them down and describe in a journal how you felt about them. Do it using a format.

Write down the achievement with its date and write about the feelings you had before, while, and after you did it. You can now reflect on your expectations and compare them to what happened.

You’ll probably conclude that you’ve done a great job.

After a couple of years, you’ve got a big journal, full of achievements that only can boost your confidence.

You can do it.

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Accept The Fact That You’re Not Perfect

You don’t have to be perfect and nobody asks you to be that. If they do, get rid of these people, you don’t want them in your life. It’s a waste of time and energy.

Surround yourself with inspiring people that help you to improve yourself.

Don’t overdo it though.

It’s not possible to only have inspiring friends or family, that’s unhealthy. Sometimes you need superficial talk and communication to give your brain a break.

But in your professional network, you should.

Those are the people that you have built a connection with because they’re valuable to you. If they don’t contribute to your professional life, get rid of them.

Get yourself a supportive network.

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Talk About Your Progression And Failures

“Talk about your feelings” is most often given advice to anybody in the world, I reckon.

You should do that too, especially when things are going wrong and right.

What I used to think was that I shouldn’t bother people with my issues and problems, but it turns out, that most people would love to help.

But it’s only possible when you start asking for help.

If you talk about your life achievements and failures, it’s getting way more insightful for you to cope with.

Do it. Don’t be ashamed of anything.

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Wrapping Things Up

Imposter syndrome is a nasty thing because it never really goes away and you’ll always have to deal with it.

Be resilient and do it, the key things to achieve this are:

• Grow yourself more confidence

• Write down your experiences and achievements

• Accept the fact that you’re not perfect

• Talk about your feelings

• Don’t overdo it

Take care.