Ever felt like you don’t deserve what you have?

Have you ever felt like you don’t deserve what you have right now? Don’t deserve to be happy? When one negative comment comes your way, have you felt like you have been caught red handed and feels like an impostor who has been finally exposed? If you ever felt so, you are not alone.

Michelle Obama, the former first lady of United States of America, mentioned she doesn’t deserve all the accolades she received despite her being eight years as America's most powerful woman and her accomplishment as an advocate for women and girls across the world. Albert Einstein experienced something similar and described himself as an involuntary swindler even though him receiving Nobel Prize in Theoretical Physics.

Many among you might have experienced something similar. It’s an experience that occurs in an individual and not a mental disorder. Psychologists named these feelings as Impostor syndrome or Impostor phenomenon or Imposterism.

It’s a psychological pattern in which one doubts their own accomplishments and accolades and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. It’s when you feel like you have only succeeded as if they were a coincidence and had nothing to do with all your qualifications, achievements, hard work or talent. Psychologist Dr. Pauline Rose Clance, was the first to study this unsolicited sense of insecurity in individuals, which affects both men and women though women are the prime victim. It is not a disease or any abnormality. 

Impostor syndrome is typically associated with high achievers. The more success one has in their job, the more impostor syndrome rears its ugly head. So one needs to learn to deal with this self-doubting habit. Otherwise it will prevent them from succeeding in their job and in life. The most surefire way to fight imposterism is to talk about it. Talking to someone you trust will help you to a great extent. The thing is while you share these feelings with anyone around like a professional, you will get to know that these are common and the awareness will definitely calm you. Self-affirmation is another way to combat this syndrome. What holds us back from being more confident at work is often a sense that we are fundamentally different from those who succeed. We need to convince ourselves that we are talented, capable and totally great the way we are. We are solely responsible for our life. We need to believe in ourselves and in our actions.

 

So overcome your fear and face head-on your challenges. As said, "The one frightened of climbing mountains forever lives in the ditches"