Imposter Syndrome, in case you aren’t familiar with the term, is the internalized fear that you are not accomplished enough, have tricked everyone, and will someday be denounced as a fraud. As you can probably guess, due to centuries of patriarchal and racist bullsh*t, this largely affects women and minorities who have been told all their life, directly or indirectly, that they are not good enough. This can obviously be very harmful, so let’s talk about some ways to fight it!
1. Make A Ta-Da List!
This was really helpful for me when I was feeling overwhelmed with school, and my To-Do list felt a mile long. I put my obligations away, and made a list of things that I was doing that I was proud of, and it gave the silly assignments a lot less weight, which in a way, made them easier to complete.
2. Talk to Someone
Telling a mentor or even a peer that you don’t feel like you belong can be a huge help because keeping it all in your brain will just make it worse. Maybe that person will be able to make you feel better, maybe they’ve experienced the same thing, but even just saying it out loud will help.
3. Push Out the Negative Talk
Physically push it out of your brain. AOC does this in her new documentary, Knock Down the House. You are too busy to let unhelpful and mean self-talk take up space in your brain.
4. Over-Prepare
There really isn’t such a thing as overpreparing. Take the time to reflect after doing tasks, make sure you’ve checked all the boxes. Overpack your backpack, overdraft your paper, leave early to make your train. Even if it doesn’t actually help, it will help your anxiety!
5. Use it
Recognizing that MANY very accomplished people suffer from it (Tina Fey, Maya Angelou, and Meryl Streep to name a few), but that they haven’t let it affect their success. People with NO doubt in themselves often create sloppy work, so use it to motivate you and stay detail oriented.