Imposter Syndrome: Understanding the True Meaning
Success means a different thing to each individual and many successful people by society standards have trouble aligning themselves with their own accomplishments and feelings of worthiness. This internal battle often belittles the person’s own achievements in professional as well as personal life.
Imposter syndrome is a much talked about topic with many notable and successful people who have faced this type of inner turmoil. It is a form of social anxiety and can wreak havoc before a performance, board meetings, social outings and so on. It is generally associated with achievement relative tasks and works alongside with the deep-rooted fear for being exposed as a fraud in social and public settings.
Different classes of people suffering from impostor syndrome
While many people suffer from varying degrees of nervousness and anxiety, the people who are most affected by this disorder are perfectionists.
Perfectionists are people who need everything in the right place at the right time. While it is true that there are various factors of many situations that may be controlled, a lot of factors may be things that we cannot control. Perfectionists have a hard time accepting things the ways they are and as a result, they are always stressed due to lack of control. Micromanaging any situation is unhealthy and leaning to delegate and distribute chores is a point perfectionists need to work on.
People who are considered to be workaholics and cannot stay away from work for more than a few minutes suffer from this delusion, often quietly. Suffering from impostor syndrome, often makes them work harder, as they do not believe in the level of accomplishment, and thereby suffer from intense guilt and work harder to achieve more. This is a vicious cycle for a person with imposter syndrome and is difficult to break out of without help.
Soloists are people who feel the need to achieve everything on their own without any help. This results in undue stress and unhappiness when they cannot accomplish and reach their goals without burning out.
Overcoming the hurdles presented by this syndrome
Many different factors contribute to this feeling and overcoming take practice and patience with oneself, as well as others. One of the key factors that affect the feeling of being an impostor is self-confidence. As this is a problem, that is dependent on the person’s ability to view themselves as accomplished people, one should work hard at things that they believe help in feeling better, such as being well dressed, eating nutritious and healthy food and so forth.
Dressing well is one aspect that people can control in their lives. Since this syndrome works to negate the control, feeling in control with small aspects such as dressing, can make a difference.
Imposter syndrome takes away from a person’s achievements and accomplishments to induce the feeling of incapability. One of the main things to remember when trying to work your ways out is to remember to acknowledge your own accomplishments and how far you have come from the time you started. The symptoms intensify, especially when comparing your own work against other experts in the field. However, it will do good to measure your own success by your own achievement and not others.
No matter where you stand in life, without self-respect and confidence, it is difficult to move forward. Recognizing your own capabilities and achievements is one of the main factors that lead to peace of mind and happiness.