Do you suffer from Imposter Syndrome?

Did you know that many people who are super-successful are walking around with imposter syndrome right now?

They are, by all accounts, very successful in their endeavors, but they feel lousy because they don’t think they deserve it. They feel like a fake. They feel as if everything they’re doing is a fluke and at any moment someone else is going to find out about the truth.

Can you relate to those feelings? If you feel that way sometimes, use these tips to overcome imposter syndrome.

Tips to overcome Imposter Syndrome

If You Think This Success Was Too Easy

If you are feeling as if your success was too easy to come by compared to what you thought it would take before you experienced it, this can be a reason you experience imposter syndrome.

You feel fraudulent because it was simple to achieve, and you now think it’s not even that special because anyone can do it.

The way to deal with this erroneous feeling is to look at some stats. How many people in your situation have achieved what you have achieved?

You’re likely to find out that not as many people have succeeded doing with what you’re doing as you think. This information alone should help you realize that you had to be responsible at least a little for your achievement. Even if other people could do it if they wanted to, you did it – they did not.

If You Think No One Is Self-Made So You Don’t Deserve Kudos

Everyone gets some form of help, whether it’s the zip code they’re born in or meeting the right people at the right time, or something else. Even if it’s just being able to drive to and from work, someone had to build the roads, and you had to be born being able to see in order to drive. Therefore, someone helped and you’re not totally self-made.

Guess what? No one is self-made.

But, everyone has some part in their own success. It doesn’t matter if you were born on first base, third base, or not even on the field; you are responsible for your actions from where you found yourself to where you are now.

You deserve kudos for it. You deserve the life you are building and it’s okay to accept that you value the things you have achieved.

You could not have done it without making the choices you made. Even if someone gave you a million dollars, you had choices. You could blow that million dollars or you could invest it and turn it into a billion dollars. Either way, you are where you are now due to your own choices at the time.

You Have Value

The hard thing for people who have imposter syndrome to understand is the value they provide by being who they are.

Even if 100,000 people are doing what you want to do, you provide a unique input and value to your version of that thing that no one else can ever provide.

This means that even if you are making money selling blue jeans, which are everywhere, your jeans are special because you came up with the idea.

Anytime you can provide something for someone, it is valuable (and that value is in the eye of the beholder); it doesn’t matter if it’s a commodity or if it’s totally 100 percent unique.

Your special touch adds just enough value to make it worthwhile to you and to others. When you accept your value to the world, you’ll be able to let go of imposter syndrome. Instead of asking, “why me?” you’ll start asking “why not me?”

Overcoming imposter syndrome is to accept that you are important as you are, that you offer something special even if it’s similar to others, and that you are valuable in your own right. You are valuable just because you exist and the things you do add value to the lives around you, even if it’s not totally original or new.