The unbearable…Impostor Syndrome

Let’s start with the good stuff, what’s impostor syndrome to you?

“Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, impostorism, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments or talents and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.” Wikipeadia definition

Did you also know that Albert Einstein had Impostor Syndrome? So the rest of us had no luck! Einstein felt like a fraud which is completely mad to think about, he was a genius, right? This just shows the extent of how it can make even one of the most successful people in the world doubt themselves. 

So many people have this feeling but mine really set in during my current role. I started as Marketing Executive and within 8 months was promoted to Marketing Manager which you can imagine, was a dream to me but also terrifying at the age of 25 and this only being my second role. I felt as though each success I had was only down to luck and that I also wasn’t having enough success, I needed to do better and do more.

This has been a constant ongoing feeling for me and it is a draining mindset, honestly it often just makes me want to have a large glass of wine and give up on a career. 

But, I won’t allow those negative thoughts to win. I wish I had an answer for how to cure this but that’s why I’m here and creating this blog. This is my own personal journey on how to embrace the highlights of my life and let the negative ones go (definitely while still having that glass of wine though).

One thing which has really helped me is speaking to others within similar roles outside of my company. I began attending marketing events and listened to talks from other marketing professionals, afterwards I connected with them on LinkedIn and reached out to thank them for their words. Doing this proved so useful for building relationships, you can share connections and grow your network or take inspiration from their own journey and career. 

So my piece of advice.

• Always reach out to people and talk to them, they will be so appreciative that you reached out, to speak to them about their journey. Maybe you read their LinkedIn post or maybe you listened to them on a podcast, whichever it is tell them how great it was and how it helped you. Everyone deserves a bit of hyping up!

What’s been one thing that has helped you beat the Impostor Syndrome thoughts?