dealing with impostor syndrome

Welcome to The Introverted Path!

Happy Thursday! It’s been a scorcher in Kansas City this week. Temps have been near 100 with ‘feels like’ temps around 115 🥵. I always thought I preferred the heat to the cold…but this weather is making me rethink that.

This week I will be talking about impostor syndrome, aka impostor phenomenon. It’s something I have felt at different points throughout my life and I wanted to learn more about it.

This was also spurred by a conversation I had with Daniel Gullifor, Professor at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He and his colleagues recently wrote a paper based on research they did on this topic. I will link it at the bottom of this newsletter in case you want to check it out.

In today’s email:

• What is Impostor Syndrome?

• What types of people does it impact?

• How can we deal with it?

• Links to other content I enjoyed this week

Let’s dive in 🤙 

So what is Impostor Syndrome?

As part of Professor Gullifor’s paper, he cites a definition of impostor syndrome as:

The phrase impostor syndrome was first used in in the 1970’s in a study of high-achieving women within academia. These women had achieved all kinds of success - awards, publications, degrees.

Yet despite all of this, they were convinced their success was due to external causes. Luck, social connections, mistakes in the hiring process. They were placing their success on everything but themselves.

These women thought they had “fooled” everyone into thinking they were more intelligent than they were.

Sound familiar?

I have felt this numerous times throughout my life. I received a large promotion at my previous job which meant a lot more responsibility. At first, I was super excited. But then doubt started to set in…was I in over my head? Would people realize I didn’t deserve to be in this position?

Part of Professor Gullifor’s paper also went into the types of people who most frequently feel it. Let’s get into that next 👇️ 

What types of people usually experience it?

It is estimated that roughly 70% of people will experience impostor syndrome at some point in their life. So the next time you feel this, know that you aren’t alone. In fact, more people will have this same feeling at some point in their life than won’t.

One finding in the paper was that impostor syndrome had negative relationships with age. Younger people tend to experience it more frequently than older people.

Impostor syndrome also doesn’t appear to be limited to one gender. There are studies that have shown men to be more impacted, while others have shown women more impacted.

Many of the studies have been in relation to the Big 5 personality traits:

1. Openness

2. Conscientiousness

3. Extraversion

4. Agreeableness

5. Neuroticism

Of these, neuroticism is the most positively related to impostor syndrome.

Conscientiousness and extraversion are negatively related.

So for those of us here that consider ourselves introverts, we are likely at a higher likelihood to be affected by impostor syndrome.

You’re probably asking, how do we deal with it when it arises then?

How to deal with Impostor Syndrome

1. Think about your achievements

What have you done to get to where you are now? This can include degrees, awards, promotions, etc. Chances are, you have accomplished much more than you realize. Take some time to appreciate everything you have done to get to this place.

2. Focus your mind on something else

Step away from the current situation and focus your attention elsewhere. This could be exercise, a hobby, or your favorite TV show. By focusing on something else, you may come back to these feelings and realize they weren’t valid.

3. Seek feedback from others

Reach out to friends, family, or coworkers and solicit feedback from them. Positive and negative. This can help to put into perspective what others really think of you.

4. Don’t be a perfectionist

Mistakes are going to be made, and that is OK. Don’t let the fear of making mistakes hold you back. Don’t expect the perfect outcome to always happen. If you hold yourself to that standard, you will never be satisfied.

5. Know that you aren’t alone

As I mentioned earlier, 70% of people will face impostor syndrome in their lives. That’s 7 out of every 10 people. These feelings aren’t specific to you. Others are going through the same thing and you likely don’t even know it.

My thoughts 💭 

When I was talking with Professor Gullifor, one of the things he mentioned was that impostor syndrome seems to decrease as we age. As in, it is more frequent in younger people than older, especially in the workplace.

This makes sense - when you are first starting off your career you can feel overwhelmed. All the sudden you may find yourself working with people who have 30+ years experience on you. How can you possibly know as much as they do?

My response to Professor Gullifor was that this reminded me of how we view adults when we are kids. When we are young, we view our parents and other adults as having it all figured out. Surely they know exactly what they are doing.

But then when you get older and start having kids or see your friends having kids, you realize the adults aren’t that different than the kids. Everyone is still figuring it out as they go.

And that same thing happens as you age into the workforce. You realize that person who has 30+ years more experience isn’t that different from you. You are both still learning every day.

This is a good life lesson in general - even when people appear like they have it all worked out, they are likely still figuring it out as they go.

Links that I enjoyed this week 💥 

• The impostor phenomenon at work, an academic paper by Professor Gullifor et al (link)

• I enjoyed this tweet about creating “life margin” (link)

• The power of a personalized perspective (link)

That’s it for today - hope you enjoyed this weeks newsletter!

Best,

B