Imposter Syndrome – Some thoughts

I’ve heard a few friends say that they were feeling like they didn’t belong in university, they were telling me that they felt like they would be ‘found out’ to be in the wrong place and I knew exactly what they were meaning by that because I’ve felt that way too.

Imposter syndrome is:

a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.[1] Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds, and do not deserve all they have achieved. Taken from the wikipedia article on imposter syndrome. Found here

If you get a good grade on an essay you hand in and your response after being happy is a ‘waiting for them to realise they got it wrong’ then you’re not alone. It affects so many people, not just women (although that’s where a lot of the research is focused).

They call their success luck, good timing, and dismissed as other’s believing they were better, more intelligent and more competent than they actually are From Psychology Today. Found here

My advice for dealing with it if you’re feeling this way?

Talk to people. Be confident. Repeat to yourself that “I’ve got this” when something happens. Don’t be afraid to accept compliments and believe it when good things happen. Everyone is a work in progress, if you don’t have something down first time then keep trying! You can ask for help if you ned it too.

Check out this article on The Muse which has a focus on how to get over this. It won’t be an immediate change, but work on it, don’t worry about taking one step forward and two steps back at first. You’ve got this and someday you’ll look back and realise that you’ve made more progress than you ever thought possible.

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Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.

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