Do you sometimes feel undeserving ? Impostor Syndrome !

Have you ever doubt yourself of your achievements , skills and talents and attribute your success to luck or timing ? If the answer is YES, you may have Impostor Syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is when a person has an exaggerated sense of doubt about their achievements and fear that others will expose them as frauds.

SYMPTOMS

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you worry that others will find out that you are not competent or capable as they think you are?
• Do you think that you have unknowingly deceived people into thinking that you are good enough for this job, but in reality you are not?
• Do you feel really undeserving of many of your successes?
• Will I be good enough ?What happens If I don't live up to everyone's expectations?
• Do you fear that at any moment, you can be exposed as a fraud?
• Do you avoid taking on additional tasks for the fear that you will distract  from or compromise the quality of your other tasks?
• Do you feel that your success is due to outside circumstances but whenever things go wrong, it's all because of you only?
• You often avoid seeking promotion as you deny your worth.
• Do you often set for you extremely challenging goals that you end up frustrated due to not achieving them?
• Do you hold yourself back and avoid seeking higher achievements due to fear of not succeeding?

If the answer to most of above questions is a YES, then you suffer from something called Impostor Syndrome.

It is often more frightening  than the joy that comes with success in people having impostor syndrome.

Source: Blavity.com

Five famous type of impostors as mentioned in "The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It" are :

• The expert:- Try to find out everything about any subject before starting, often procrastinate so much.
• The Soloist:- Try to work alone, and often end up working too much and frustrated.
• Perfectionist:- Focus on their shortcomings rather than celebrate their successes.
• Natural Geniuses:- Since they are genius by birth, its difficult for them to digest that mistakes are natural.
• Superheroes:- Workaholic people, often end up burn out and frustrated.

Source: Pinterest

How to Win and Thrive 

• Acknowledge the problem - This is the first step in tackling any problem. First you should accept that you have the problem. If you are not accepting, then also its a part of this syndrome 😕
• Share your feelings - Talk to your near and dear ones and get a realistic idea of life. Understand from their perspective that being mistakes are a part of life and if they are making mistakes, it is not equivalent to fraud.
• Perfectionism is just an illusion - Understand this and you will be at much ease with you in accepting yourself and the world at large.
• Remembering positive feedbacks- Do not just accept the negative feedback of people but accept their positive feedbacks also. People don't always mean what they say in words. So, be easy in taking each negative feedback literally.
• Own your successes: It is often said that reward yourself your your small achievements and this will help you own your success wonderfully.
• Use your body language to overcome your obstacles and "Fake it till you make it ". The video below is worth your 21 minutes time:- 

Some quotes to boost you up-

Inputs from:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321730
https://blavity.com/impostor-syndrome/impostor-syndrome?category1=opinion
https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are#t-1221357
https://mmpant.com/2020/12/31/learning-321-2/
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/impostor-sydrome-real