成人头条

Written by: Victoria Hartman

We鈥檝e all been there: you achieve success or earn an amazing opportunity and immediately experience an overwhelming feeling of doubt in yourself. You鈥檙e filled with fear that it鈥檚 only a matter of time before you鈥檙e exposed as a fraud, and everyone realizes you鈥檝e been pulling a fast one over them the whole time.

This feeling isn鈥檛 all in your head. It鈥檚 a real thing, and when I learned about its existence, my life changed. Perhaps yours will too.

I don鈥檛 remember which psychology class I was in when I first heard the words 鈥淚mpostor Syndrome,鈥� but I do remember the immediate sense of validation I felt when I discovered that I wasn鈥檛 crazy or alone in feeling this way. Since that moment, I have become an expert on noticing when my own Impostor Syndrome rears its ugly head.

What is Impostor Syndrome?

Impostor Syndrome is a psychological pattern that causes people to doubt their successes, perceive themselves as terrible at things they鈥檙e great at, and experience unsettling fears of being exposed as, you guessed it, an impostor.

It makes you feel like you鈥檝e built a delicate facade, that all of your fake success is masking someone who actually has no idea what they鈥檙e doing. It can make you feel like your achievements are a house made of straw, and the slightest wind of adversity will knock it all down. It makes you feel like you鈥檙e lying to the people who are proud of you. It makes you feel underqualified.

Here鈥檚 what I鈥檝e learned about Impostor Syndrome: all of the beliefs that it manifests are completely false.

The college experience is filled with both failure and success, big and small. The successes that students experience can easily be overshadowed by Impostor Syndrome.

This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to allow yourself to feel a sense of personal achievement. It can also cause your confidence and self-esteem to plummet. A lack of confidence can be debilitating to a student, particularly when it鈥檚 regarding something they鈥檝e spent so much time and effort trying to perfect.

10 Steps to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Thankfully, there are ways to overcome Impostor Syndrome. Dr. Valerie Young, an expert on Impostor Syndrome, has created a list of 10 steps* you can use to combat feelings of inadequacy and fraudulence. The full explanation of these steps can be .

1. Break the silence. Share how you鈥檙e feeling.
   
   
2. Separate feelings from fact. Just because you feel a certain way doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 true.
   
   
3. Recognize when you should feel fraudulent. It鈥檚 normal to self-doubt in situations where you鈥檙e the outsider or the new employee.
   
   
4. Accentuate the positive. Perfectionism can indicate a healthy drive to excel, but don鈥檛 take it to an extreme. Forgive yourself when mistakes happen.
   
   
5. Develop a new response to failure and mistake making. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
   
   
6. Right the rules. You have just as much right as everyone else to make a mistake or ask questions.
   
   
7. Develop a new script. Your script is that automatic mental tape that starts playing in situations that trigger your impostor feelings. When you start a new job or project, think something positive like, 鈥淚 may not know all of the answers, but I am smart enough to figure them out.鈥�
   
   
8. Visualize success. Picture yourself successfully making a presentation or asking a question. It鈥檚 much better than the alternative of picturing disaster.
   
   
9. Reward yourself. Learn to celebrate your achievements.
   
   
10. Fake it till you make it. Now and then, we all have to fly by the seat of our pants, and courage comes from taking risks. Don鈥檛 wait until you feel confident to put yourself out there, or you may never do so.

Everyone wants to feel validated when they succeed in something they worked hard on. Impostor Syndrome can make this feel impossible. Realize that if you鈥檙e struggling with low confidence and feelings of inadequacy regarding something you have achieved, you鈥檙e not alone.

If you experience success and feel a twinge of fear that you鈥檙e about to be exposed as a fraud, know that there鈥檚 a name for this, and it鈥檚 not just you being crazy or overthinking. You aren鈥檛 alone in those painful and frustrating emotions. Those negative beliefs are the result of Impostor Syndrome, and knowing what that means is the first step to overcoming it.

*Citation: Dr. Valerie Young is an internationally recognized expert on Impostor Syndrome. She has delivered her often humorous and highly practical approach to overcoming impostor feelings at such diverse organizations as Boeing, Facebook, BP, Intel, Chrysler, Apple, Bristol Meyers-Squibb, McDonald鈥檚, Emerson, IBM, Merck, Ernst & Young, Procter & Gamble, Motley Fool, Raymond James, Space Telescope Science Institute, American Women in Radio and Television, Society of Women Engineers, Women in Trucking, Lung Cancer Partnership, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and many more.

Her career-related advice has been cited in popular and business outlets around the world including BBC radio, Yahoo Financial News, CNN Money, Wall Street Journal, USA Weekend, O magazine, Entrepreneur, Science, Elle, Redbook, Woman鈥檚 Day, and The Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald. And her award-winning book, The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer From Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive In Spite of It (Crown/Random House), is now available in five languages.