Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome, imposter phenomenon, imposterism, fraud syndrome, and all its other iterations, is something that almost every person carries in their vocabulary nowadays. Coined in 1978 by two psychologists, Dr Pauline Clance and Dr Suzanne Imes, the imposter phenomenon describes an individual’s feelings of fraudulence and not being deserving of their achievements or accolades in the face of external evidence that they are in fact competent and capable.
I do not purport to be a psychologist or expert in any psycho-related field; what I am is a university student with a penchant for existential crises and anxiety. I have tried and tested some of the most common titbits of advice for coping with and trying to overcome my imposter experiences. Through lived experience, I have devised some not-so-common tips that may help someone else who has tried ‘speaking affirmations in the bathroom mirror’ and/or ‘visualising success’ (a vague strategy, if you ask me) and has come up a bit short. Below are the strategies that tangibly work for me in my university and workplace spheres, and hopefully you can apply to your circumstances. In the alternative, hopefully these strategies assist you in discovering your own idiosyncratic ways of coping with imposter syndrome.
Smile at people
Have you ever walked into a networking event and known no one, or walked into a class with a teacher that you admire and by effect are intimidated by? Because humans are empathetic creatures, offering a smile usually will generate a smile in return. Due to the disarming and non-offensive nature of a smile, you will not only make yourself feel relaxed and happy, but you will give permission to the other people you encounter to also relax and to trust you. Science will also back this up, due to what is called “mirror neurons” that exist in our brains. These neurons are interesting because they light up when we both perform ourselves, and see someone else perform, a particular action. Smiling is one of these actions, like yawning.
Compliment people
An underrated trick for increasing your own confidence is by leaning into the things that you admire in others. Research has shown that giving and receiving gifts to people sends a rush of dopamine through our brains, which makes us feel happy and reinforces bonds that we have with people. Compliments are gifts in verbal form, and have also been linked to increased activity in the reward centre of the brain both when giving and receiving praise. Seeing someone’s positive, and often taken-aback reaction to a compliment reminds me that I have a unique power to make someone else feel good, and therefore I deserve to take up whatever space in any situation that I am in.
Distinguish spaces of teaching and spaces of learning
At the end of the day, all spaces are spaces of learning, no matter what role you take up at a meeting or a function or networking event. I have an affirmation that I use when I find that I am particularly nervous for an event or meeting with someone or interview and everything in between. I take a breath and say to myself, ‘I am here to learn.’ It is really as plain and simple as that and it reminds me to not put so much pressure on myself to be the most interesting or knowledgeable person in the room, and that I am allowed to step back and be curious and want to learn things from others. There will be other times when you occupy a position of relative authority; you may be a presenting guest on a panel or a judge of a competition, for instance, and you have something to provide to others by way of your knowledge, experience and level of expertise on a particular topic. Looking at that situation in the context of how other people are here to learn, and you have something to aid them in that learning process, can be calming, and ultimately lead to you to remove pressure from yourself and provide even more value to others.
Trade ‘imposter syndrome’ out for ‘brilliant conman syndrome’
Sometimes the only way to break from the rut of crippling self-doubt is to see-saw to the other end of the spectrum: boisterous self-confidence that maybe borders on arrogance. Brilliant conman syndrome describes an alternate state of self-perception that is characterised by not only accepting, but embracing and revelling in your self-perceived inadequacies and instead leveraging your ‘con-person’ skills to ‘trick’ people into being friends with you, giving you a job, giving you a good grade, whatever the case may be. Imposter syndrome will have a person talk themselves down from applying for that awesome job opportunity that they saw on LinkedIn because they do not feel qualified enough, whereas brilliant conman syndrome will have a person fudging their slightly to upsell themselves. This strategy can be closely linked to the psychological intervention known as cognitive behavioural therapy, also known as CBT, which aims to consciously change ingrained patterns of thinking and/or behaviour that are the source of a person’s difficulties and make positive changes to a person’s feelings. After practicing CBT for a while, you learn to recognise what negative thought patterns look like and you can stop them in their tracks and shift them to something more positive.
Hopefully these tips help. At the end of the day, if you are someone that feels constantly conscious about your competence and ability in particular aspects of your professional and academic life, there is a very good chance that you are indeed competent in these areas, and that you are committed to always improving. Imposter syndrome affects almost everyone you interact with and is nothing to be ashamed of. Imposter syndrome will also make you believe that you are deserving of less than what you truly are, which is the worst thing you can allow yourself to believe in your professional and personal life.
This article was written on Gubbi Gubbi country in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The author would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the unceded lands on which she writes and the publications to which she submits.
Article written by Ashton Darracott
This article appeared in the Torts Illustrated 2.5. Begin Again (2020) Publication