“I’m not good enough for this task. I ended up here by accident. Soon everyone will know that I am not a specialist, ”- this is how people suffering from impostor syndrome think. It may be a serious demotivator for many people. Let’s figure out where it comes from and how to deal with it.
l What Is Impostor Syndrome?
Impostor syndrome is not some kind of disorder that’s on the registry. This is a psychological phenomenon that can occur in different people. It is accompanied by a feeling of one’s incompetence and fear that one will be exposed: “What if everyone will guess that I really am a fraud?” And this fear may not be entirely conscious.
Imposture can manifest itself in different forms of behavior. For example, a student cannot manage all the assignments and decides to order paytowriteessays services. There might be numerous reasons for it, but he or she would believe that it’s their fault and they are not good enough to achieve success.
This syndrome is a combination of internal sensations (emotions, thoughts, fears) and certain behavior that supports this internal sense of self. A person feels doubt in their abilities: they work in a good place, in which they should not work, everyone around is an excellent specialist, but only this person is not very good and no one knows about it. And fear or anxiety begins to push an individual to do something so that others do not realize that they are actually incompetent – to work harder or, conversely, to avoid tasks.
l Where Does It Come from?
Every problem has its own story. The family and the environment in which we grow up greatly influence our condition in adulthood. The impostor syndrome has several sources. For example, parents are perfectionists who broadcast their worldview to children: doing something not perfect is wrong, so if you are not doing something ideally, you are bad. It is a typical overvalue of success – we will love you if you try.
It is also unacceptable to be mistaken in such families: children will be scolded for mistakes or poor grades. The harder and more often a child is punished, the more likely they are to have impostor syndrome. The environment also influences the formation of imposture. For example, parents are not so strict about failures but teachers in school insult, humiliate, and ridicule – this is also a traumatic experience.
l What Can It Lead To?
If a person lives by the principle of doing everything possible to avoid mistakes, then they usually become a workaholic. They invest in the work in full. And workaholism can lead to depression or other psychosomatic disorders. It not only interferes with life but disrupts health. People with workaholism suffer from cardiovascular diseases, their lives are distorted towards the overvalue of work and achievement of success, and other areas do not develop.
And if a person, on the contrary, avoids certain things due to imposture, then their life becomes incomplete. They miss good opportunities, postpone things, and don’t act brave. This could lead to job loss. And, as a rule, we procrastinate on something useless, spend a huge amount of time on empty and meaningless things, and life passes by. It probably doesn’t have the same effect it does on workaholics, but the quality of life also suffers.