You wake up in the morning and feel like you’re not worthy of your accomplishments. You look at other people’s lives, careers, relationships and wonder what they have that you don’t. You convince yourself that everything is a lie. That everyone else has it together but you don’t. And this feeling won’t go away no matter how hard you try to shake it off or stay busy with work. It haunts you day and night until finally – after months or years of trying to get rid of it – it takes a toll on your mental health, physical well-being, friendships, relationships…everything! We can break free from imposter syndrome by knowing our strengths and owning them!
Overcoming internal triggers and taking control of your mind is without a doubt one of the most difficult struggles we are faced with when working to better ourselves and working to get deeper into our mental hardships. This is a universal struggle everyone faces whether they know it, recognize it, and choose to deal with it or not. The mind is such a powerful tool both negatively and positively and learning to overcome negative thoughts, internal triggers or limiting beliefs is a process and definitely does not come overnight but it is so worth it, it is so worth the work that you put in to quiet all those preconceived notions and thoughts.
The first step in fighting imposter syndrome is to stop comparing yourself with others. You aren’t going to be the same as other people, and that’s okay! We are all different – our strengths come from what makes us unique. This doesn’t just go for skills either- you might have a strength where someone else has none. This means it’s important we don’t compare ourselves against one another… there will always be some sort of difference between us. People watching would be so boring if there wasn’t.
If we start by acknowledging these differences instead of focusing on how they make us feel inadequate or undeserving, then eventually those feelings won’t matter anymore when looking at other people’s lives. You will be able to look at what another person is doing and respect them for it and be happy for them instead of feeling jealous. Just because you’re different from someone else in your field or you’re doing something different from someone else does not mean that you don’t deserve it! Just because you never could have imagined yourself doing whatever it is that you’re doing doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be there doing it. It means that you’ve broken through the preconceived notions you had for yourself. You made it and you’re doing it and you better believe that it was your different perspective that helped you get there.
One of my personal favorite ways to deal with imposter syndrome is to give the negative nancy inside of you a name! You can even visualize them in your head so it’s easier to address them. It might feel a little silly when you first try to talk to an imaginary persona but just trust the process. This will help you to recognize easily when doubting thoughts come around and work towards shifting them to positive encouragement.
Keep doing what makes you happy, keep doing what you love and push through the feeling that you don’t deserve it. You deserve to have everything you’ve ever dreamed of. You are just as worthy as anyone else you walk by on the street. Believe in yourself and believe you belong, kick those negative thoughts to the curb baby!
