These feelings of being an imposter will represent a big conflict between the way you perceive yourself and the way others perceive you as well. Even as others take the time to praise your talents, you will write them off, saying things just worked out because of good timing or good luck. Basically, you do not believe that it was your own merits that earned you the praise and you worry that others are going to realize this as well.
As a consequence of this, you will pressure yourself to work harder to avoid detection and to avoid getting in trouble. Some of the things that will cause you to work harder include:
- ● You want to keep others from seeing your failures and shortcomings
- ● You want to become more worthy of the roles that you currently have but do not believe you deserve.
- ● You want to make up for your lack of intelligence
- ● You want to ease up some of the feelings that you have over “tricking” people.
You put in all this extra work, which gets you more praise, and the cycle will just continue. These further accomplishments are not going to reassure you. You will just see them as the product of all your efforts to maintain the illusion of your success. When you get recognition, you assume that it is pity or sympathy. You will link all of the accomplishments that you have to chance, but you end up taking all the blame for mistakes that you make, even small ones. Over time, this will lead you to feel guilt, depression, and anxiety.
Thanks again!!
It helps me to think critically. I want to do videos and have a YouTube channel.
I'm being stuck in doing it. What comes to my mind every time I started is -- this video should be perfect in the eyes of my former office staff and friends.
This is where I got stuck as I always strive for perfection in all that I do. Is this impostor syndrome? Looking forward to your thoughts on this. Thank you, in advance, Catherine.
All the best,
Letty
But that's a long story that I'll leave for now. Suffice to say that I lost confidence because of it.
I was always a high performer at school, but I believed I wasn't. I never thought that anyone else had noticed my dilemma, that was until about a year ago. It was at this time that I was reacquainted with several people from my primary school days. One who told me how she had always felt sorry for me and how I was treated by this bully boy and a certain teacher, strange thing was I didn't even remember the teacher. Another told me how they had avoided me because I was to intelligent, he was sorry for his actions.
I'm telling you this because, thanks to your article, I finally understand why I feel the way I do and what I can do about it.
I can't believe myself just what a profound affect your blog has had on me. I'm a big man, no longer young. I have achieved much, suffered much and have surrounded myself with a beautiful family. I have a great life, yet here I am opening myself up to you, with tears pouring out of my old eyes. Thank you Catherine. Jim