Many people in the world experience something that is known as Impostor Syndrome. Impostor Syndrome is the idea that you’ve only succeeded at something due to luck and you don’t really belong where you are.

I decided to make this post because impostor syndrome often goes hand and hand with perfectionism which was my previous post. The reason they are both connected is because people who experience perfectionism often feel like they are impostors if they don’t know everything. This is one of the main causes of impostor syndrome.

I have felt this impostor feeling multiple times in my life. Most of those times were because of the way I was looking at a situation and who I was comparing myself too.

For example, even though I can play the piano pretty well (Here is an old video of me playing the devil went down to Georgia) I still felt like I wasn’t that good because I couldn’t read sheet music well and I memorize most of the songs that I know. Even though everyone always told me how good they thought I was doing. I would still feel like I was faking it because I couldn’t read the sheet music quickly.

Then I realized that my ability to play piano is a separate skill from reading sheet music. I was comparing myself to professional piano players and by their standards I wouldn’t stand a chance. But when compared to the average person I am probably better at playing the piano than 99% of people just because I try.

How To Deal With Impostor Syndrome

I know that this is a very common problem for a lot of people so I decided to do some research to find how to combat this impostor feeling. I found some useful tips that have helped me reframe the way I compare myself to others. So here is a list of a few things I found in my research that will help.

1. You Are Not Alone

There was one main thing that I found very helpful when researching about impostor syndrome. That was the statistics from studies to see how many people experience it. Here is an example of one of the studies I found: (‘Impostor syndrome’ affects almost 58% of tech professionals)

After doing more research on the topic I realized that a large percentage of people are affected by impostor syndrome.

Simply knowing that there are many other people that feel the same way can really help. If everyone who thinks that they are an impostor actually was an impostor than you would see businesses failing all over because most of the workers aren’t qualified to keep the businesses running.

2. Focus On What You Know

It is common for people to focus on their faults rather than things that they are good at. A very important step to overcoming impostor syndrome is to change your mindset to focus on the things you have accomplished and what you can do to move forward.

Try to avoid thinking about how much you think you don’t belong. Instead try to focus on things that you can do to provide value.

3. You Are Where You Are For A Reason

I know sometimes you may feel unqualified to be in the position you are in. But something you always need to remember is that you got to where you are for a reason.

4. Impostor Syndrome Vs Reality

This vein diagram is a perfect visualization of where impostor syndrome comes from. On the left side you feel like you don’t know as much as everyone else does and you feel like you don’t belong because you don’t know as much as everyone else. This side represents what impostor syndrome feels like.

The right side is what is really happening. It’s not that everyone else knows more than you. Everyone just specializes in something different than you do. I’m sure many people that you think know more than you also think that you know more than them about things too.

On the left side you can really feel like you don’t belong because you don’t know as much as everyone else. But then on the right side you realize that you don’t need to know as much as everyone else and that the things that make you unique help you bridge the gaps in knowledge that your peers may have.

As I said before try to avoid comparing yourself to people that are your role models. Doing so will cause you to feel like you should be where they are. Instead try to do what I did and compare yourself to either the average person or to people that are on the same level as you.

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