Ctrl Shift Impostor

Dealing With the Present with Impostor Syndrome

Your past, beliefs, and basic personality have led you to where you are right now. Dealing with these things allows for the possibility of making changes now. Impostor Syndrome won’t go away easily.

Once the past and your natural tendencies have been addressed, it’s time to address the present with these strategies:

1. Acknowledge the challenge of Impostor Syndrome in your life. This isn’t an easy challenge to overcome, so it’s important to recognize that it’s causing issues in your life.

● List all the ways Impostor Syndrome is making you miserable.

● List all the ways this issue is holding you back and limiting your life.

● List all the ways your life would be enhanced if you could work through it.

● How much happiness is it costing you?

● How much money is it costing you by limiting your employment opportunities?

2. Draw attention to your successes. Recognize your role in your success. You weren’t successful just because you were lucky or knew the right people. Recognize your contribution to all the great things you’ve done.

● You might need to enlist the help of friends and family for this. Ask them to list your positive traits.

3. Learn to like criticism. Most criticism can be helpful if you have the proper perspective. Each time someone offers a suggestion, you might be getting a great piece of advice.

● Not all criticism is given with positive intentions, but that’s just life. Some people are just negative like that.

4. Redefine failure. Failure is only a temporary condition. It’s stepping stone to achieving your goal. Some things require a few tries. Sometimes you’ll take the wrong approach and need to make a few changes.

● Imagine you made chocolate chip cookies and discovered that you didn’t add enough chocolate chips. Would you break down and wallow over what a wretched chef you are? No, you’d just alter your recipe and add a few more chips next time. Failure is that simple.

5. Learn to let go of the need for external validation. This is a tough one, but a fully actualized adult can work for nothing other than their own validation. You’re not a child anymore. You shouldn’t need someone to be in awe of every little impressive thing you do.

6. Learn to override your feelings. Uncomfortable feelings stop us from all sorts of things, like sticking with a diet, going to the gym, asking someone for a date, or applying for a job.

● The discomfort caused by Impostor Syndrome isn’t a literal set of shackles that immobilize you. You can override those uncomfortable feelings and go on to do what you intended to do. It just takes a little determination.

Dealing with your past and your tendencies is a huge step in the right direction. However, there is the present set of challenges to clear up, too. When you’ve approached the world a certain way for an extended period of time, you develop habits. Habits won’t vanish just by resolving childhood issues. Resolving those issues makes change possible.

With Balance & Wellness,

Shayla Peterson

Join the wait list for therapy in January 2021.