How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome
Someone wished for a cure for imposter syndrome. While I don't know of a cure, there are plenty of ways to work on it, whether it's a problem you have or other people have or one you'd like to prevent.
Fixing Yourself: Imposter syndrome is a pernicious type of self-doubt. (This is the false belief that you are incompetent or unaccomplished despite your achievements; if you actually have low skills, that is a different problem needing different solutions. Skills are testable and accomplishments are verifiable, so the belief itself is provable/disprovable.) Its more dangerous form is the boomerang bigot. Explore some research about it. Know the symptoms. Here is a flowchart to identify whether you have imposter syndrome and if so what type. These are some ways to overcome it.
Basically, imposter syndrome is a disconnect from reality -- a disability to assess your strengths and weaknesses rationally -- usually caused by abuse and/or discrimination that attacks your self-worth, competence, and/or right to exist. Therefore all sorts of techniques which promote self-compassion, self-awareness, facts, and logic are good tools against this type of problem. Knowing and tracking your skills empowers you to counterattack with facts when your brain, or another person, says you're not good enough.
Perform a Skills Assessment
Self-Tests Index
How to Track Your Work Accomplishments Throughout the Year
6 Cool & Helpful Ways to Track Your Accomplishments
8 Ways To Track Life Accomplishments & Milestones
Treating yourself with compassion is important for counteracting other people's cruelty, which can lead to self-bullying. Self-awareness will help you recognize how you are treating yourself.
Elements of Self-Compassion
5 Steps to Develop Self-Compassion & Overcome Your Inner Critic
Self-Compassion Exercises
What Is Self-Awareness and Why Is It Important? [+5 Ways to Increase It]
Building Self-Awareness: 16 Activities and Tools for Meaningful Change
"Bad tape" is a term for all the mean and misleading things that your internal voices says to you. Usually these are things picked up from other people. You get bad tape out of your head the same way it went in: one line at a time. Here is a poem on "Debugging Your Brain."
15 Ways to Get Someone Out of Your Head
Cognitive Distortions: When Your Brain Lies to You
Thought Distortions
50 Common Cognitive Distortions
Ten Ways to Untwist Your Thinking
Challenge Negative Thoughts by Reframing Them
A Look at Positive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
25 CBT Techniques and Worksheets for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Because imposter syndrome is a malfunction of the mind, any technique for improving your mental awareness and control can help. Meditation comes in many styles and they all affect the brain. Lovingkindness is a good counter to the mental cruelty of imposter syndrome. Meditation is tremendously powerful. It takes time, but it doesn't have to take a lot of time all at once. Meditating for 5 minutes a day will help significantly with many issues.
Your Hidden Superpower: Awareness
Tips to Improve Mental Awareness
How to Control Your Mind
Learning Mental Control Six Ways to Increase Your Mental Clarity and Focus
Positive affirmations can be helpful in many goals. The key is you have to find something you believe or it won't work. This can take some digging. Here is a list of positive affirmations.
Affirmations for Women
6 Positive Affirmations For Every Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Individual
7 Positive Affirmations that Destroy Impostor Syndrome
32 Affirmations for Artists and Makers
35 Positive Affirmations for Men to Supercharge Your Life
60 Affirmations to Boost Your Confidence and Self Esteem
60 Affirmations for Writers, Authors, and Creatives
67 You Got This Quotes to Give You a Motivational Boost
73 Creativity Quotes to Inspire Your Work and Play
What is Positive Mindset: 89 Ways to Achieve a Positive Mental Attitude
Wise Words & Affirmations for when we don’t feel Good Enough
The above is just one form of healthy self-talk, which is worth exploring further, because it helps you get through the hard parts.
The Toxic Effects of Negative Self-Talk
How To Turn Around Your Negative Self-Talk
Reduce Stress and Improve Your Life With Positive Self Talk
11 Tips for Healthy Self-Talk
The Complete Guide to Cognitive Restructuring
It has to be okay to make mistakes, because everyone makes mistakes and that's how we learn. They are a natural and necessary part of the learning process. Create an environment that is resilient about mistakes. This encourages people to deal with them and learn from them instead of hiding them and making matters worse. There's even a game for learning this. In one of my online classes I assigned students to try a project at the edge of their current skill level, which pretty much guarantees something will go a bit pear-shaped.
Helping Others:
Imposter syndrome is common. You probably know people who constantly belittle themselves or diminish their achievements. There are ways you can help.
Supporting Students Through Imposter Syndrome
Mentoring Someone with Imposter Syndrome
Praise has a lot of power to influence people. It is vital to catch teens and adults doing something right. On the other hoof, some people hate it and it can have drawbacks in therapy. Shiv mistrusts praise because it's unfamiliar at best and manipulative at worst ... but it still tugs at him a little. Understand how to give effective praise and what to do if praise makes you uncomfortable.
75 Great Compliments for Women That DON’T Talk About Their Looks
100 compliments ready to deliver right this minute
100 Positivity-Boosting Compliments
How to Give a Compliment
How to give praise that builds kids’ self-esteem
How to Give Meaningful Praise
Encouraging Words
Why It Pays to Praise: 40 Ways to Say ‘Good Job’
For an example of gentle teaching and coping with failure, see "Fall Down Seven Times."
Preventing Imposter Syndrome:
The way you speak to your children becomes their self-talk. Friends, teachers, bosses, anyone in a position of influence can have this effect, but parents get the first chance at it, so if they botch that, it's the hardest to fix. Speak kindly to others -- and yourself -- as a means of preventing imposter syndrome.
Use positive parenting to develop strong bonds and self-confidence. Many of these generalize to other contexts. "You worked hard on that" is equally applicable to toddlers, college students, and employees.
100+ Positive Parenting Tips, Skills and Techniques
The Ultimate “Say This, Not That” Cheat Sheet for Positive Parents
A Beginner's Guide to Gentle Parenting
GENTLE PARENTING TIPS: 26 THINGS TO SAY TO KIDS INSTEAD OF ‘STOP’, ‘DON’T’ AND OTHER COMMANDS
Discrimination and prejudice are the foundations of imposter syndrome. Undermine those and you can prevent it from growing.
10 simple ideas to eliminate racism
Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide
25 simple ways we can all be more disability-inclusive
101 ways to combat prejudice
How to Combat Homophobia & Heterosexism
Confronting Prejudice: How to Protect Yourself and Help Others
What men can do to stop sexism and male violence
Fire the bully!
Fixing Yourself: Imposter syndrome is a pernicious type of self-doubt. (This is the false belief that you are incompetent or unaccomplished despite your achievements; if you actually have low skills, that is a different problem needing different solutions. Skills are testable and accomplishments are verifiable, so the belief itself is provable/disprovable.) Its more dangerous form is the boomerang bigot. Explore some research about it. Know the symptoms. Here is a flowchart to identify whether you have imposter syndrome and if so what type. These are some ways to overcome it.
Basically, imposter syndrome is a disconnect from reality -- a disability to assess your strengths and weaknesses rationally -- usually caused by abuse and/or discrimination that attacks your self-worth, competence, and/or right to exist. Therefore all sorts of techniques which promote self-compassion, self-awareness, facts, and logic are good tools against this type of problem. Knowing and tracking your skills empowers you to counterattack with facts when your brain, or another person, says you're not good enough.
Perform a Skills Assessment
Self-Tests Index
How to Track Your Work Accomplishments Throughout the Year
6 Cool & Helpful Ways to Track Your Accomplishments
8 Ways To Track Life Accomplishments & Milestones
Treating yourself with compassion is important for counteracting other people's cruelty, which can lead to self-bullying. Self-awareness will help you recognize how you are treating yourself.
Elements of Self-Compassion
5 Steps to Develop Self-Compassion & Overcome Your Inner Critic
Self-Compassion Exercises
What Is Self-Awareness and Why Is It Important? [+5 Ways to Increase It]
Building Self-Awareness: 16 Activities and Tools for Meaningful Change
"Bad tape" is a term for all the mean and misleading things that your internal voices says to you. Usually these are things picked up from other people. You get bad tape out of your head the same way it went in: one line at a time. Here is a poem on "Debugging Your Brain."
15 Ways to Get Someone Out of Your Head
Cognitive Distortions: When Your Brain Lies to You
Thought Distortions
50 Common Cognitive Distortions
Ten Ways to Untwist Your Thinking
Challenge Negative Thoughts by Reframing Them
A Look at Positive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
25 CBT Techniques and Worksheets for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Because imposter syndrome is a malfunction of the mind, any technique for improving your mental awareness and control can help. Meditation comes in many styles and they all affect the brain. Lovingkindness is a good counter to the mental cruelty of imposter syndrome. Meditation is tremendously powerful. It takes time, but it doesn't have to take a lot of time all at once. Meditating for 5 minutes a day will help significantly with many issues.
Your Hidden Superpower: Awareness
Tips to Improve Mental Awareness
How to Control Your Mind
Learning Mental Control Six Ways to Increase Your Mental Clarity and Focus
Positive affirmations can be helpful in many goals. The key is you have to find something you believe or it won't work. This can take some digging. Here is a list of positive affirmations.
Affirmations for Women
6 Positive Affirmations For Every Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Individual
7 Positive Affirmations that Destroy Impostor Syndrome
32 Affirmations for Artists and Makers
35 Positive Affirmations for Men to Supercharge Your Life
60 Affirmations to Boost Your Confidence and Self Esteem
60 Affirmations for Writers, Authors, and Creatives
67 You Got This Quotes to Give You a Motivational Boost
73 Creativity Quotes to Inspire Your Work and Play
What is Positive Mindset: 89 Ways to Achieve a Positive Mental Attitude
Wise Words & Affirmations for when we don’t feel Good Enough
The above is just one form of healthy self-talk, which is worth exploring further, because it helps you get through the hard parts.
The Toxic Effects of Negative Self-Talk
How To Turn Around Your Negative Self-Talk
Reduce Stress and Improve Your Life With Positive Self Talk
11 Tips for Healthy Self-Talk
The Complete Guide to Cognitive Restructuring
It has to be okay to make mistakes, because everyone makes mistakes and that's how we learn. They are a natural and necessary part of the learning process. Create an environment that is resilient about mistakes. This encourages people to deal with them and learn from them instead of hiding them and making matters worse. There's even a game for learning this. In one of my online classes I assigned students to try a project at the edge of their current skill level, which pretty much guarantees something will go a bit pear-shaped.
Helping Others:
Imposter syndrome is common. You probably know people who constantly belittle themselves or diminish their achievements. There are ways you can help.
Supporting Students Through Imposter Syndrome
Mentoring Someone with Imposter Syndrome
Praise has a lot of power to influence people. It is vital to catch teens and adults doing something right. On the other hoof, some people hate it and it can have drawbacks in therapy. Shiv mistrusts praise because it's unfamiliar at best and manipulative at worst ... but it still tugs at him a little. Understand how to give effective praise and what to do if praise makes you uncomfortable.
75 Great Compliments for Women That DON’T Talk About Their Looks
100 compliments ready to deliver right this minute
100 Positivity-Boosting Compliments
How to Give a Compliment
How to give praise that builds kids’ self-esteem
How to Give Meaningful Praise
Encouraging Words
Why It Pays to Praise: 40 Ways to Say ‘Good Job’
For an example of gentle teaching and coping with failure, see "Fall Down Seven Times."
Preventing Imposter Syndrome:
The way you speak to your children becomes their self-talk. Friends, teachers, bosses, anyone in a position of influence can have this effect, but parents get the first chance at it, so if they botch that, it's the hardest to fix. Speak kindly to others -- and yourself -- as a means of preventing imposter syndrome.
Use positive parenting to develop strong bonds and self-confidence. Many of these generalize to other contexts. "You worked hard on that" is equally applicable to toddlers, college students, and employees.
100+ Positive Parenting Tips, Skills and Techniques
The Ultimate “Say This, Not That” Cheat Sheet for Positive Parents
A Beginner's Guide to Gentle Parenting
GENTLE PARENTING TIPS: 26 THINGS TO SAY TO KIDS INSTEAD OF ‘STOP’, ‘DON’T’ AND OTHER COMMANDS
Discrimination and prejudice are the foundations of imposter syndrome. Undermine those and you can prevent it from growing.
10 simple ideas to eliminate racism
Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide
25 simple ways we can all be more disability-inclusive
101 ways to combat prejudice
How to Combat Homophobia & Heterosexism
Confronting Prejudice: How to Protect Yourself and Help Others
What men can do to stop sexism and male violence
Fire the bully!