If you have ever felt in your life that any of your achievements are pure chance and you do not deserve them, and you have doubted your ability to achieve them, You are probably a victim of imposter syndrome.
This alteration is an internal sensation through which a person believes that he or she is not as competent and valid as others believe or as their own achievements demonstrate. This belief causes us to have a very unrealistic view of what it truly means to be good and what it feels like to be valid.
Along with this feeling of not deserving and not being valid in the face of the successes achieved, there always usually comes a fear of being discovered as an impostor, as a fraud.
It is a syndrome that can affect us at any time in our lives, regardless of gender, social status, profession, etc. It can be circumstantial and temporary or, on the contrary, worsen over time and last longer.
It is not a disease as such, but it is a sensation that will negatively affect the person’s general well-being. People with this syndrome can reach experience anxiety and a lot of stress when they face tasks that require using their own skills and abilities because, despite having them, they continually feel that they are going to fail at the task.
All this problem means that the subject who feels this way experiences very negative internal dialogue Regarding their own self-concept, fears of failure and, as we have already mentioned, of being discovered as an imposter if they achieve success, they will be more obsessive with the mistakes made, always tending to be perfectionists and, finally, they will greatly exaggerate the preparation process. of each task, delaying it excessively in time.
Profiles prone to suffer imposter syndrome
There are 5 types of profiles that can be observed within people who experience this psychological phenomenon.
1. The perfectionist
It is experienced by those people who, by always demanding to reach their maximum, they think they could have done even better even having achieved their objective and do not stop searching for improvements.
2. The superhuman
In search of achieving the set objective they work more and more trying to cover his insecurities causing damage to their own mental health and their relationship with their environment and others.
3. Natural genius
They are characterized by his great ability to learn new skills quickly and easy but, after having learned it, they feel insecure when they have difficult objectives ahead of them.
4. The individualist
They prefer perform all tasks individually without asking for help for fear of showing their supposed incompetence.
5. The expert
You will not be satisfied until you know all the information about a topic. They have a continuous feeling of not having been sincere and, therefore, fear of being discovered as a fraud.
You may be interested: “Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy: do you believe in yourself?”
Once the different styles of this syndrome have been identified, it is important to take into account several strategies that help us combat it to alleviate the discomfort to which the subject experiencing it is subjected. It is very important to try to combat it, since, Due to its marked thinking pattern, it will negatively affect your work/academic performance, negatively impacting productivity, stress generated and way of carrying out tasks. These strategies are made up of:
1. Focus on the facts
It is very important that, once we analyze a situation, we focus on it as we perceive it. Irrational beliefs will arise, all around “I am not up to this task”, which will be what feeds this psychological phenomenon, but we must focus on the task, the results obtained, the assessments and evaluations, etc.
Related article: “Cognition: definition, main processes and operation”
2. Abandon perfectionism taken to the extreme
This perfectionism can sabotage achievements because there will always be “something missing” to make everything perfect. We must focus on optimizing and improving the process, learning from our own mistakes.
3. Learn to ask for help
Nobody will discover you as a fraud, Someone with more experience will be a good opportunity to learn and obtain the necessary tools in the process. Furthermore, when faced with excess work, a good option is to delegate.
4. Celebrate achievements
You should feel proud of the work done, validate your own skills and strengths.
