A frightening amount of people suffer from imposter syndrome. Even if you think you’re the only one who accredits his or her successes to a series of lucky breaks and dreads being exposed, you should know that there are many people around who have felt the exact same way. According to a study by The National Autonomous University of Mexico, 70% of the world’s population has experienced, is experiencing, or will experience this feeling. Even the most successful people like Emma Watson and Neil Armstrong have confessed to experiencing it at one time or another.
So what are the symptoms? A constant feeling of insecurity and paranoia among people who feel that their careers, or the smallest step up the ladder, result from a random turn of events and not from their own merits. Overcoming imposter syndrome in a purely theoretical way can be effective, but tends to be a long process. More often than not, those who suffer from it reject the theory with the same readiness with which they reject praise and constructive criticism. However, with the help of two simple practices, you can silence the little voices in your head that criticize you and at the same time give yourself a big boost of self-esteem.
Stefanie Sword-Williams, founder of the F*ck Being Humble platform and movement, shared these two tricks during the Power Talks organized by Kérastase in Paris. An expert in self-esteem building and self-improvement, Sword-Williams invited the event’s audience to try out two tricks on the spot, both of which have a “physical” effect of ridding this mental self-sabotage. Below we provide the tricks.
Reflect on the moments you are proud of
Stefanie requested audience members get out their phones and create a new album titled “Moments I’m Proud Of.” In the album, there were to be any photos that showed something they were proud of. They didn’t have to be any major milestones in their lives, but rather any small thing that would make them proud. She concluded with, “From now on, whenever you doubt your own worth, look at this photo album.”
“Destroy” negative thought patterns
The second action Stefanie recommended was to write a negative thought on a piece of paper. “That’s good, did you write something down? Now we’re going to tear this paper up – crumple it up, roll it into a ball, whatever you want – and then we’re going to throw it away, toss it, get rid of it once and for all. Do this every time you have a negative, distorted opinion of yourself,” she suggested.
When turned into a physical process, the removal of a negative idea takes on a new lengths. The act of putting it down on paper and reading it to yourself allows us to be more objective and to identify it as false, but physically destroying it is even more liberating. You literally witness the destruction of the idea, which makes it more tangible, and very real.
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