Turn the Situation Around

Once you have taken this initial step, then you can turn your imposter syndrome on its head. When you feel like a fake, it is an opportunity to prove to yourself you are not fake. This is when you take actions for self-improvement and knowledge improvement, setting yourself up for success. Success is often success in mentality. This means you are a success if you feel you are a success. The best way to feel successful is to work on projects that are important to you. Then, succeed step by step by finishing those projects.

You can set yourself up for success by working on a simple passion project, then seeing yourself succeed step by step.

The word “simple” is really important here. This must be a project that you know you will finish. This also must be a project that’s important to you. Once you’ve achieved this, you will feel enough motivation to keep going.

Then, you add on complex features to the project one by one to see them into completion. Challenging yourself is key.

The point here is to fill yourself with motivation when you can’t muster the motivation.

What does this look like in real life?

I used to run six miles every morning rain or shine to overcome my imposter syndrome. The first two miles were my simple passion project. The last four miles were filled with hurdles: a big hill in the middle, stamina issues, hunger, physical pain, and fatigue.

You don’t have to use a project for work to fill yourself with motivation. You can use any project in your life.

Photo by Michal Perchardo on Upsplash

Ride the Motivation and Give Yourself Applause

Now that you are motivated to snap out of your imposter syndrome, this is the time to ride the wave. You ride the wave by taking a risk in your career. Taking risks is central to keep your motivation high and gaining confidence.

To resolve your long term feelings of imposter syndrome, the only way is to continually improve on your life and your career one step at a time. Here’s the formula:

T aking risks -> Self improvement -> Intrinsic Motivation -> Overcome Imposter Syndrome

The inherent part about taking risks is that there’s the chance of failure. In failure, you will stare imposter syndrome in the face again. You will deal with those feelings. Then, you will climb back up again. I never said the road to the top of the mountain is a straight one. Just like any project cycle, there’s an iteration to the steps to overcome imposter syndrome.

What does this look like in real life?

For me, taking risks meant:

Taking on projects where I had to learn a set of new skills. Taking challenging programming assignments. Taking on roles that I never thought I would take coming from a development background. Taking on roles in life that I never thought I would take on (I became a mother). Meeting new people and learning from them: changing workplaces or work teams every two to three years. Working in a different country. Working remotely. Studying and completing a degree that will advance my career. (I took five years to study graduate math, then finished a master's degree in statistics part-time while working.) Learning a new hobby where I had to start from zero.

Once I overcame just one of these big projects on my list by taking the risks I took, I applauded myself.

Each time you applaud yourself, you are giving your intrinsic motivation a boost.

Once you have applauded yourself, you move on. The thing about intrinsic motivation is that it is egoless. You are celebrating your success without letting it get to your head. After all, as soon as the celebration is over, there will be the next set of risks that will be presented to you.