Imposter Syndrome: Silencing your Inner Critic

By: Sophia Ronga / July 27th, 2020

I’m a fraud and soon everyone will know the truth and hate me. I’ve had this thought before and, if you’re anything like me (young, just getting started in a career, a woman in an office full of seemingly confident men), you’ve probably thought something similar.

Imposter syndrome, as we’ve affectionately come to call this, is when we convince ourselves that 1) what we have is not the result of our hard work, intelligence, and ability but really sheer luck 2) no one else around us has realized this yet and 3) soon they’ll uncover it and we’ll be exposed for the frauds we are.

And of course we realize eventually (or at least I hope we do) that these thoughts are unfounded, the result of some light anxiety and possibly a change of environment. But in the moment, we find ourselves consumed by this fear.

Sound like you? Read below for three actionable tips about silencing that inner critic and blazing forward on your path anyway.

Recognize that a lack of challenge means a lack of growth

My job in consulting means that I get a new project once every 4-6 weeks. In my first year in my role, my tasks involved lining up experts and chatting with them about a specific topic. It became muscle memory. I was great at it.

About a year in, people in my role typically “graduate” to more quantitative work. But graduating to a new batch of tasks meant being out of my element again. It meant the possibility of failure. I started hoping to be put on projects where I could continue to be responsible for the qualitative work.

Three to four months later, I looked back on my projects and saw that I was guided by fear… and that it was leading to a lack of growth. I was scared that in a new role, when tasked with sinking or swimming, I would sink. I failed to realize that jumping into the water is part of the whole experience.

When you’re feeling the grips of Imposter Syndrome, think about the new heights you’d be missing out on if you held yourself back. Write them down. Look at them and consider if they’re really worth staying in your comfort zone. Then jump into the water.

Focus on the value you’re creating

Oftentimes, we feel Imposter Syndrome most when we’re focusing on what we’re doing and how we think we’re performing at it. We’re focusing on our own actions, and how people perceive them. Flip the switch and instead focus on the outcomes of your actions and how those are impacting other people.

For example, my senior year of college, I ran a charity auction, with the funds raised benefitting underserved students in the community. It scared the pants off me. I had applied for the position, heavily researched the best way to run auctions, prepared for the interview, and nailed it. The next thing I had to do was actually run the auction. Suddenly, I became overwhelmed with the what if’s. I’m 22 years old. I’m not qualified to tell people what they should do with their money. Fair enough, I’m probably still not qualified.

I focused on the “oh gosh what are people going to do when they realize I shouldn’t have been the one for this job?” I’ll admit it, it was easy to indulge in the imposter syndrome. But what likely would have been healthier is focusing on the outcome of the auction.

I don’t want to do a bad job because of how it might reflect on me. How people might think about me. I don’t want to do a bad job because education is a worthy cause and because people were counting on me.

The value I was creating via the charity auction was a much better motivator than fear ever was.

Give people around you more credit

This piece of advice comes from none other than comic queen, Nikki Glaser. Glaser admitted on a recent podcast that despite the success of her Netflix special, her U.S.-wide tour, and her Sirius XM radio show, even she struggled with imposter syndrome.

Her advice? Give people around you more credit, because they probably did know what they were doing when they selected you as a teammate, co-worker, role model, etc. The people you surround yourself with are smart too, and it would probably take some sort of genius to dupe them all into thinking you were one thing if you actually weren’t. Give them credit and give yourself some credit as well.