Imposter Syndrome - What's the Deal?
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👋 Welcome friend, to our little corner of the internet. Here we discuss how to get better at being who we are, even if it’s in tiny ways (it all adds up over time).
Imposter Syndrome - What's the Deal?
Do you ever have the feeling that you snuck your way into your current role by mistake? That perhaps someone mixed up your CV with someone else’s and you are now just bluffing your way through, waiting for the inevitable day that you are publically outed as a fraud? Welcome to Imposter Syndrome!
There’s a fair chance you’ve heard of Imposter Syndrome before, and also strong odds that you’ve experienced it yourself. It is a widely spread symptom of our modern, connected society which Wikipedia describes as “psychological occurrence in which people doubt their skills, talents, or accomplishments and have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as frauds”. Even if you’ve not suffered it yourself, the chances are that you’ll know someone who has, and will have an idea of the debilitating effects it can have, ranging from low self esteem and procrastination, through to actively setting you back in your career or self-sabotaging yourself.
The irony though is that someone experiencing imposter syndrome actually has a solid enough grasp on their field to know what they don’t know, or where the chinks in their armour might lie. It is the person happily oblivious to their own shortcomings who manages to completely swerve around imposter syndrome, when they are in fact the ones who should be worried by it. Knowing this doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to shake off though, and can even lead to recursive spiral of “maybe by telling myself I’m not an imposter, means that actually I am an imposter because I don’t realise that I am an imposter”. Yes, I know, it can be exhausting.
So what to do about it? As someone who very much gets to experience the rich emotional swings of imposter syndrome, I have developed my own ways of coping with it over time. I’m not going to tell you about them though. Not yet. Because, I think most people have their own clever solutions and I’d like to hear about them. In fact, I’d like to hear about people’s experiences with imposter syndrome in general. I think the more we can talk about it, and shine a light on it, the easier this menace will become to defeat. People are getting much better at admitting to suffering from imposter syndrome, but not discussing it further - how it impacts them, how it impacts others, how they’re keeping it a bay. So I decided to launch a survey to ask those very questions - to dig into what imposter syndrome means for as wide a set of real people as possible.
You can participate in the survey here and if you could help spread the word and get others to complete it too, that would be hugely appreciated and will help us draw some more powerful conclusions and learnings! It is a fairly short set of questions and everything is anonymous!
The survey will close on 17th November 2023 and will be followed soon after with a post where I’ll share the results and hopefully talk a bit more about any patterns or themes which emerge.
Bonus bits
👀 This is useful
Licensed Therapist Emma McAdam provides series of short, easy to consume lessons on topics such as dealing with anxiety, becoming more resilient, understanding panic attacks and handling grief.
📺 I’ve been watching
I’m a bit late to the party on this one but I’ve been very much enjoying Only Murders in the Building, the tale of three unlikely friends attempting to create a true-crime podcast after one of their neighbours is brutally murdered (and in which they are also suspects). The third season is running a little low on magic but overall it’s a great combination of unexpected twists and witty humour.
👨🎤 I love a good cover
Where Is My Mind? - Originally by The Pixies - Covered by Maxence Cyrin
Join the community on Slack
Scared shitless and doing it anyway. 😅