[four-minute read]
Mastery, excellence, and integrity. These three values can lead us to great achievements in life. They drive us to ace a test, earn a promotion at work, or create a wonderful work of art.
These successes are hard-won. And yet many of us often feel as if we haven’t earned them, even when everyone else thinks we have. Instead, we feel like con artists who have swindled our way to victory—like impostors who don’t belong. Ultimately, the same aspirations that brought us to success still seem hopelessly unfulfilled.
This feeling that we haven’t earned our successes—that we’re inadequate, incompetent, or fraudulent—is a psychological phenomenon known as impostor syndrome. It’s something 70% of people experience, regardless of age, race, sex, or gender. One’s level of success doesn’t seem to matter either; extremely successful people are just as prone to experiencing impostor syndrome, if not more. In fact, some of the world’s most well-known and renowned achievers—like Albert Einstein, John Steinbeck, Meryl Streep, and Maya Angelou—have experienced it. For these people, impostor syndrome is an unsettling byproduct of continued success. But for countless others, it can seem like an insurmountable obstacle preventing them from reaching further in life.
At its core, impostor syndrome is a distortion of the values that motivate us to succeed in the first place. Fortunately, we can work to return these values to their undistorted state, where they can continue to drive us toward continued success. To do so we must first look more closely at how this phenomenon manifests itself in our lives and discover where it comes from.
How Do I Know If I’m Experiencing Impostor Syndrome?
There isn’t an exact diagnosis for impostor syndrome, but there are some tells that mean you may be experiencing it.
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Anxiety. Impostor syndrome is highly coincident with feelings of general anxiety.
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Self-doubt. Experiencing self-doubt from time to time is normal and even healthy. But frequent projecting intense self-doubt onto past, present, and future experiences is a sign of impostor syndrome.
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Feeling on the verge of being “found out.” A frequent symptom of impostor syndrome is constantly feeling that others around you will discover that you’re a fraud whenever you’ve succeeded in something.
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“That was just luck.” Those who suffer from impostor syndrome tend to attribute success to luck or describe it as a fluke.
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Post-success blues. Rather than feel happiness and pride in the wake of success, sufferers of impostor syndrome feel relief or even distress.
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Seeking validation. “Impostors” give authority figures—like parents or bosses—the agency to determine whether they are successful or not.
