A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Self-Doubt
Ever felt like a fraud despite your achievements? You’re not alone. This page will equip you with further self-help strategies to overcome Imposter Syndrome.
Welcome to page six in this series taking an in-depth look at Imposter Syndrome. In this article, we will explore some self-help strategies for Imposter Syndrome.
For the purposes of the series, we are describing imposter syndrome as a psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, internalised fear of being exposed as a fraud. Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing Imposter Syndrome remain convinced that they do not deserve their success or accolades. The key factor is the incongruity between the persons’ perceptions and those of an objective external observer. They may attribute their achievements to luck, timing, or deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and capable than they believe themselves to be. This can lead to significant stress, anxiety, and a reluctance to take on new challenges or opportunities.
The key issue is the incongruity between the individuals’ perception of their competence and worthiness versus that an objective external observer. Often this is driven by a limiting belief.
Orientation
Previous pages provided you with a powerful set of tools for laying the foundations for your personal development
Understanding the origins of Imposter Syndrome is the first step towards overcoming it. The first two pages in this series will help you with this: The Description of Imposter Syndrome and The Challenges from Imposter Syndrome
Imposter Syndrome awareness and acknowledgement, the third article provides an assessment of your experience and Imposter Syndrome or Competence discusses the differences between these two different experiences.
Imposter Syndrome as a Limiting Belief detailed a systematic way of growing up and out of limiting beliefs.
This Page Will
Introduce you to the ABCDE model – a revelation for those who have an unhelpful inner dialogue.
The ABCDE Model
There is a well-documented method for self-reflection that consists of recognising and then deliberating on the thinking patterns you wish to develop. Everyone already has the skills of deliberating, and we use them when an external person accuses us falsely of some dereliction. When, however, we say the same accusing things to ourselves, we usually fail to deliberate them – even though they are often false. The key to deliberating on your own unresourceful thoughts is to first recognise them and then to treat them as if they were said by an external person: a rival in life whose mission in life is to make you miserable.
The ABCDE model can be revelatory for developing your thinking. Once you recognise an unhelpful thought, deliberate on it using the ABCDE model.
A stands for the perceived adversity
B for the beliefs you automatically have when it occurs
C for the usual consequences of the unhelpful thought
D for deliberation of your routine unhelpful thoughts
E for the positive effects that occur when you deliberate it successfully
By effectively deliberating on the beliefs that follow an adversity, you can move your reaction towards the resourceful end of your nature: from dejection and giving up to action and positive outcomes.
It is essential to realise your beliefs are just that – beliefs. They may or not be facts. If a jealous rival shrieked at you in a rage, ‘you are a terrible person. You are selfish, inconsiderate, and stupid’ – how would you react? You probably would discount the accusations, and if they got under your skin, you would dispute them. We can, then, more-or-less easily distance ourselves from the unfounded accusations of others. But we are much worse at distancing ourselves from the accusations that we launch at ourselves on a regular basis. After all, if we think them about ourselves, they must be true – right?
Wrong!
What we say to ourselves when we face a challenge can be just as baseless as the ravings of a jealous rival – or stressed parent, or sibling, or colleague: or anyone with their own agenda. Our reflexive explanations are usually distortions. They are mere bad habits of thought produced by unpleasant experiences in the past – childhood conflicts, strict parents, or siblings’ jealousy. But because they now seem to issue from ourselves, we treat them as fact. They are merely beliefs, however. And just because a person fears that they are not good enough, undeserving or a fraud does not mean that is true. It is essential to stand back and distance yourself from your pessimistic explanations, at least long enough to verify their accuracy. Checking out the accuracy of our reflexive beliefs is what deliberation is all about. The first step is just knowing which beliefs warrant dispute. The next step is putting disputation in to practice.
How Should I Deliberate?
There are four ways to effective deliberation: evidence, alternatives, implications & usefulness.
Evidence. The most effective way to deliberate on a belief is to show that is it factually incorrect. Much of the time you have facts on your side, since our reactions to adversity are so very often overreactions. Adopt the role of a detective and ask – what is the evidence for this belief. It is important to see the difference between this approach and the so-called power of positive thinking. Positive thinking often involves trying to believe upbeat statements – ‘’every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better’ – in the absence of evidence, or even in the face of contrary evidence. Deliberation, in contrast, is about accuracy. One of the most effective disputation techniques is to search for evidence pointing to the distortions in your catastrophic explanations. Most of the time you will have reality on your side. You may identify some limiting beliefs as you deliberate. See the article ‘Imposter Syndrome as a Limiting Belief’ to help you resolve those.
Alternatives. Almost nothing that happens to you has just one cause. Most events have many causes. It is common for those experiencing Imposter Syndrome to revert to the worst of all these causes – the most personal, permanent, and pervasive one. Here again, deliberation usually has reality on its side. What are the multiple causes, why latch on to the most insidious one? Ask yourself if there are any less destructive ways to look at this. To develop your own thinking, scan for all possible contributing causes. Focus on those that are changeable, specific, and non-personal. You may have to push hard at generating alternative beliefs, thinking about possibilities that you are not fully convinced are true. Remember that much of pessimistic thinking consists of just the reverse, latching on to the most dire possible belief – not because of evidence, but precisely because it is so dire. It is your challenge to undo this destructive habit by becoming effective at generating credible alternatives.
Implications. With the way things go in the world, the facts won’t always be on your side. Reality may be against you, and the negative belief you hold may, actually be true. In this situation there is great benefit in de-catastrophising. Even if the belief is true – what really are the implications? How likely is the worst-case scenario? What can I do to build my resilience? At this point go back to the evidence and reconsider.
Usefulness. Sometimes the consequences of holding a belief matter more than its truth. Is the belief destructive? Some people get very upset when the world shows itself not to be fair. While we can sympathise with that sentiment, the belief itself – that the world should be a fair place – may cause more grief than it is worth. What good will it do to dwell on the belief that the world should be fair. Another approach is to consider all the ways you can change the situation in the future. Even if the belief is true now, is the situation changeable. How can you go about changing it?
So, during the next adverse event you face, listen closely to your beliefs, observe the consequences, and deliberate on your beliefs. Then observe the energy that occurs as you succeed in dealing with those negative beliefs.
Adversity Beliefs Consequences Deliberation Energy
Ready to overcome self-doubt and conquer your Imposter Syndrome?
Continue reading the series to explore Imposter Syndrome in depth and build your own toolbox to sustain your well-being for the long term. Here is the rest of the series
1 – Imposter Syndrome Demystified: Unlock Your True Potential
2 -The Challenges of Imposter Syndrome
3 – Measuring and assessing Imposter Syndrome
4 – Imposter Syndrome or Competence?
5 – Imposter Syndrome as a Limiting Belief
7 – 20 Solution Focused questions to ask yourself
8 – Imposter Syndrome as an Adaptive Survival Style
9 – Applying the model of neurological levels to Imposter Syndrome
10 – Imposter Syndrome in the Workplace