70% of people experience impostor syndrome.
Let’s mitigate this menacing mindset with these fun hacks:
1. Celebrate achievements often.
2. Treat failure as a learning experience.
3. Push yourself to act before you are ready.
4. Accept perfection is impossible.
5. Rely on internal vs. external validation.
6. Interpret constructive criticism professionally, not personally.
7. Realize accomplishing great things take time. Patience!
8. Avoid impossibly high standards. Instead, create SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goals to improve over time.
9. Ask for assistance when needed.
10. Be OK asking “dumb” questions.
11. Mentor junior colleagues.
12. Practice just-in-time learning.
13. Separate feelings from fact.
14. Create a “go me” journal – and pack this full of accomplishments and positive feedback.
15. Accentuate the positive.
16. Reframe a negative situation (eg redirection vs. rejection).
17. Know that the feeling is normal. Acknowledge it.
18. Open up. Tell your fans.
19. Practice positive affirmations and self-talk.
20. Know you can change.
High-achieving women are especially susceptible due to accusations that their success was a side effect of preferential treatment.
