“I am not worth anything”. “I am not good enough”. “No one wants to be my friend”. These are phrases that most teenagers can resonate with. Nowadays, many Gen Z members feel like they are not worth
anything and that every advancement they have made in their life is just a stroke of luck. This is termed Imposter Syndrome, and no, it’s not about the infamous game Among Us.
If we explore these thoughts on a deeper level, several things are unleashed as we live
in a world of huge stimulus. Imposter Syndrome is not something strange as
research shows that around 70 percent of people suffer from this at some point in their lives.
The following are some ways which can help people avoid Imposter Syndrome:
Know the Signs
You feel like you “got lucky” when you actually prepared well and worked hard.
You find it hard to accept praise.
You apologize for yourself when you didn’t actually do something wrong.
You hold yourself to incredibly, sometimes impossibly, high standards.
You find the fear of failure paralyzing.
You avoid expressing confidence because you think people will see it as obnoxious behaviour.
You’re convinced you’re not enough.
This can be improved by giving attention to your thoughts and paying attention to the language
you use while talking to your friends about yourself.
Be Kind to Yourself
Change the way you talk to yourself in your head by practicing
positive self-talk. Not only can it help you become less stressed and anxious, but it can
also help you build the courage to do things that’ll bring you greater rewards.
Try to Keep a Record of Your Progress
When you feel like an impostor, one of the
hardest things to grasp is how much of a role you have in your own successes. You might
default them to luck or others’ hard work, when in fact, your own work, knowledge, and
preparation had a lot to do with it. To help show yourself that you’re actually doing well,
keep track of your wins in a private document. There are a lot of different ways to track
these successes, and the metrics you use will depend entirely on your job. If you’re a
blogger, you might keep track of your posts’ monthly average page views and watch them
go up, or compare them to the team average. You might also keep a separate tab to paste
kind words people have written to you via email, Twitter, blog comments, and so on.
Talk to Your Mentor or a Therapist
No one should suffer in silence. Sharing your
thoughts and experiences with someone else will allow you to be better equipped to deal
with your Impostor Syndrome. Talk to someone who appreciates you in their life and
acknowledges whatever achievements you have made on a personal or a professional
level. They will help you develop self-love and will also remind you of the times when
you did hard work to get the job done.
In conclusion, we know what the feeling is called. We know others suffer from it. We
know a little bit about why we feel this way.
And we now know how to handle it: Invite it in and remind ourselves why it’s here and what it means.