Learning to Own Your Accomplishments
Have you always felt the need to brush off your achievements? Like you’re not as good as people think you are and it’s only a matter of time before everyone around you finds out that you’re a complete fraud and banish you from the office (and possibly society)?
Okay, perhaps I was being a little dramatic towards the end of that sentence, but impostor syndrome will have you deluding yourself into a new dimension about your capabilities.
In case you haven’t heard of the term before, it describes people who struggle to internalize their accomplishments and have a persistent fear of being ‘exposed’ for not actually being as great as they are perceived to be. Sound familiar?
When we begin to doubt our capabilities, it hinders our chances at setting ourselves up for success.
Here are some ways we can overcome falling into the trap of impostor syndrome:
1. Speak to a co-worker or peer, that knows you well, about your concerns or fears. Usually those who have seen your work before can provide some clarity and reassurance based on what they observe. You may even be surprised to find that you are not alone and the support from others can help you silence those negative voices.
2. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Everyone thrives at their own pace. Life is not a race so stop holding yourself to someone else’s standards, rather strive to be better than you were yesterday.
3. Remember that being wrong or making a mistake does not make you ‘fake’ or undeserving in any way. Mistakes and failure is critical to achieving success. You may not see it now but failures teach us where to improve and pin-pointing our weaknesses helps us mitigate them or turn them into strengths.
4. Make a list of all your strengths, accomplishments and testimonials that have positive feedback. Listing them with a mentor or trusted peer can help make it more objective. Ultimately, you want to go back to this list when you feel like you don’t deserve certain opportunities or feel down.
I hope that you find these pointers helpful and if you have any suggestions of your own on how you handle impostor syndrome, then please feel free to share these in the comments below.
