Unmasking Imposter Syndrome 

Celebrate yourself! For this type, success is rarely satisfying because they believe they could’ve done even better. But that’s neither productive nor healthy. Owning and celebrating achievements is essential if you want to avoid burnout, find contentment, and cultivate self-confidence.

Also, learn to take your mistakes in stride, viewing them as a natural part of the process. In addition, push yourself to act before you’re ready. Force yourself to start the project you’ve been planning for months. Truth is, there will never be the “perfect time” and your work will never be 100% flawless. The sooner you’re able to accept that, the better off you’ll be.

Start practicing just-in-time learning. This means acquiring a skill when you need it – for example, if your responsibilities change–rather than hoarding knowledge for (false) comfort.

A great tool to put this into practice is to take yourself on regular Tinker Time dates. These dates are a once-weekly; festive; solo expedition to explore something that interests you. It’s a date with yourself to fire up the imagination. Think mischief more than mastery. Tinker Time sparks whimsy, encourages play. 

It’s true that there’s always more to learn. Striving to bulk up your skill set can certainly help you make strides professionally and keep you competitive in the job market. But taken too far, the tendency to endlessly seek out more information can actually be a form of procrastination.

Mentoring junior colleagues or volunteering can be a great way to discover your inner expert. When you share what you know it not only benefits others, but also helps you heal your fraudulent feelings.

Sufferers who feel as though asking for help reveals their phoniness are what Dr Valerie Young calls Soloists. It’s OK to be independent, but not to the extent that you refuse assistance so that you can prove your worth.

Realize there’s no shame in asking for help when you need it. If you don’t know how to do something, ask a co-worker. If you can’t figure out how to solve a problem, seek advice from a supportive supervisor, or even a career coach.

Shellye Archambeau, CEO and Silicon Valley leader, says that the most important tool that you have in your toolbox is Cheerleaders. They remind you of what you are capable of. Sports people pump each other up. Everyone needs cheerleaders. None of us are built with courage – we build it. Cheerleaders tell us – "you can do it – you can do it!"

We really are stronger together. Have a coffee with a friend, talk to your sister, chat with your colleague.

The Superwoman measures competence based on “how many” roles they can both juggle and excel in. Falling short in any role — as a parent, partner, host/hostess, friend, volunteer — all evoke shame because they feel they should be able to handle it all — perfectly and easily.

Since people who experience this phenomenon are convinced they’re phonies amongst real-deal colleagues, they often push themselves to work harder and harder to measure up. But this is just a false cover-up for their insecurities, and the work overload may harm not only their own mental health, but also their relationships with others.

Imposter workaholics are actually addicted to the validation that comes from working, not to the work itself.

Start training yourself to veer away from external validation. No one should have more power to make you feel good about yourself than you—even your boss when they give your project the stamp of approval. On the flip side, learn to take constructive criticism seriously, not personally. As you become more attuned to internal validation and able to nurture your inner confidence that states you’re competent and skilled, you’ll be able to ease off the gas as you gauge how much work is reasonable.

A small but powerful way to build your internal validation is to give yourself a daily high five in the mirror. This may sound like a strange habit, but there is deep science behind it. When we high five someone, our brains think celebration, encouragement, connection… "You’ve got this!" "Well done!" "You rock!" The physiological act of high fiving yourself in the mirror is neurologically connecting a host of positive brain circuitry that has already been developed by high fiving other people. You don’t need to rebuild all those good thoughts, you just needed to link them to yourself.

Still not convinced? Read about how this habit helped former lawyer, author and TV host, Mel Robbins, out of a serious mid-life slump.

Natural Genius Types set their internal bar impossibly high, just like perfectionists. But natural genius types don’t just judge themselves based on ridiculous expectations, they also judge themselves based on getting things right on the first try. When they’re not able to do something quickly or fluently, their alarm sounds.

To move past this, try seeing yourself as a work in progress. Accomplishing great things involves lifelong learning and skill-building—for everyone, even the most confident people. Rather than beating yourself up when you don’t reach your impossibly high standards, identify specific, changeable behaviors that you can improve over time.
For example, if you want to have more impact at the office, it’s much more productive to focus on honing your presentation skills than swearing off speaking up in meetings as something you’re “just not good at.

A great tool for Natural Genius Types is the Morning Pages. These are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and
synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page... and then do three more pages tomorrow.

Morning pages are best done by hand. When we write by hand, we connect to ourselves. We may get speed and distance when we type, but we get a truer connection--to ourselves and our deepest thoughts-- when we actually put pen to page. I urge you to write your Morning Pages by hand, now more than ever. The act of slowing down brings us to real and surprising clarity, offering insights we would have otherwise missed.

Aim to do them first thing in the morning. We want to catch ourselves before our ego is awake, before its defenses are in place. We want to be vulnerable. If we wait to do pages late in the day, we find ourselves reviewing the day we have had and are powerless to change. Writing first thing in the morning, we lay down the track for the day that looms ahead of us. Caught off guard, we are apt to be honest.