Has it happened to you that you enter a new school, a new job, a course, or start a project and think “My God, everyone must be smarter than me”?

This is called Imposter Syndrome and most of us suffer from it, I would even say everyone, but I don’t want to commit myself.

Basically, Imposter Syndrome is feeling that you do not belong to a place because you think your skills are inferior to those around you; that is, you feel like an imposter. Some other phrases that come to mind with this:

  • “What if they discover I am not the right one for the position and fire me?”
  • “What if everyone passes and I fail and they kick me out of the course?”
  • “I won’t be able to make the sale, I’m not good at this.”
  • “I’m not going to give my opinion because others will find out that I know nothing.”
  • “Surely I am not qualified for this and I am going to ruin it.”

It also happens to me every time I start a new job, although after a few days it passes and with more experience, the effect has been less. Recently it has been happening to me again but with something different, as I mentioned in a past post I am writing a book, and I can’t help thinking “What if they don’t like it?”, “What if no one ever reads it?”. I think for many it is impossible not to feel Imposter Syndrome to a greater or lesser extent.

This is what I do to combat it:

  1. Think about my past experiences and how I have moved forward in them; this reminds me that I have always been more capable than I thought.
  2. Throwing myself in even with fear and thinking “What is the worst that can happen?”. When I rationalize this, usually it is not something that bad.
  3. I don’t like this one but it is the one that works best for me. Thinking that we are all going through the same thing, no one expresses it but I am almost sure that my classmates or work colleagues also have Imposter Syndrome. I don’t like it very much because I think one shouldn’t compare oneself with others or do things based on what others do, but as I mention, in this case, it works very well for me.

So the next time you have Imposter Syndrome (And you will have it) I hope you now know how to identify it so you can diminish it.