Here are a few of the main ways I got past my own tendencies towards imposter syndrome. First, I realized that it’s actually very self-centered and self-important. I was placing too much significance on the roles I was in or the achievements I was getting. They were nice, but they weren’t actually making me a superhero. Second, I realized that it’s arrogant and mean to think that these people around me who value me and think that I add value to their lives are all soooo stupid that I’ve been fooling all of them. “They actually have no idea how useless I am.” Like — really? I think they can assess if I’m helping them better than I can. And third — I stopped comparing myself to other people. Well — I started comparing myself to other people LESS — it is hard to stop. It’s part of our evolution. But it doesn’t serve us anymore. And nearly every human has more struggles, issues, problems, and failures than we know about, so for me to compare myself to them — when I know all the ins and outs of my own issues and challenges and know mostly the successes of others — it’s a brutally unfair comparison. The most successful people have the most failures. Those are a few of the things I have practiced to realize that if people value me or want to recognize me, it’s actually self-less and vulnerable to accept it graciously.
