5 Reasons Why Imposter Syndrome is a Good Thing

The dreaded imposter syndrome…

Do you worry you don’t have what it takes to be a writer?

Even after a writing success, do you feel like you didn’t really deserve it? Do you worry that others will see the truth—that you really don’t know what you’re doing?

If so, you could be the victim of imposter syndrome, which is the feeling that all of your successes have been flukes and that you are a fraud, only “pretending” to be a writer.

The feeling isn’t comfortable, to say the least, and can keep you from progressing in your career if you’re not careful.

Instead of running from the feeling, though, or trying to patch a quick fix on it, I suggest you embrace where you are. Accept the insecure sensations and use them to your advantage. Looking at it from another angle, you can see that there are actually five good things about imposter syndrome.

What is Imposter Syndrome?

Psychologists Chance and Imes first described imposter syndrome in their 1978 study on high-achieving women.

They described it as “an internal experience of intellectual phonies,” and said it was particularly prevalent among women with outstanding academic and professional accomplishments.

“Women who experience the imposter phenomenon persist in believing that they are really not bright and have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise,” the researchers wrote. “Numerous achievements, which one might expect to provide ample object evidence of superior intellectual functioning, do not appear to affect the imposter belief.”

They blamed early family dynamics and societal gender roles and stereotyping for the problem, and identified several symptoms of the syndrome. Those under its influence tend do:

• Feel their accomplishments are due to “luck” or to something outside their control.
• Find ways to negate any evidence to the contrary.
• Fear someone will discover that they are imposters.
• Have a generalized feeling of anxiety.
• Lack self-confidence.
• Feel frustrated at their “lack” of ability to reach their own self-imposed standards of achievement.
• See achievement as a way to gain approval, and often base their self-worth on their ability to achieve.
• Engage in negative self-talk.

Imposter Syndrome Affects Everyone

Later studies found that it wasn’t just women who suffered from these symptoms—men did, too.

Kirsten Weir, writing for the American Psychological Association, describes imposter syndrome as a phenomenon that “occurs among high achievers who are unable to internalize and accept their success.”

Some experts think that our culture’s focus on success, money, and celebrity are partly to blame.

Weir goes on to state that though it’s not listed as an official mental disorder or illness, “psychologists and others acknowledge that it is a very real and specific form of intellectual self-doubt. Impostor feelings are generally accompanied by anxiety and, often, depression.”

5 Good Things About Imposter Syndrome

All this makes it seem like imposter syndrome is something you’d be best to leave behind you as soon as possible. It’s easier said than done, however, and is likely to take some time. Meanwhile, why not use it to your advantage? Here are five ways to do that.

1. It’s a good indication that you’re trying something new.

More recent research has discovered that imposter syndrome occurs not only in high achievers, but in those individuals who are trying something new.

In fact, it’s completely natural to feel like an imposter when you’re learning something until you reach a state of mastery.

The problem is that many writers don’t realize how long it takes to learn the craft. In truth, it’s a lifelong endeavor to learn to write, but even to get to a place of proficiency often takes many years.

No one would suggest that you could become a proficient piano player in one or even five or ten years. We understand that it takes time to learn this skill.

Writing is very much the same. We’re all students, especially for the first decade or more, so some feelings of imposter syndrome are natural. Use those feelings as proof that you’re still learning, and that’s okay.

The more you can grow comfortable with that, the more likely you will be to try other new things, too, like blogging, self-publishing, writing in another genre, conducting workshops, podcasting, new marketing techniques, or whatever.

In this way, you can use imposter syndrome as a signal that you’re on the right path—you’re stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone, and that’s a good thing.

Imposter Syndrome Benefit 2. It gives you a reason to work harder.

Those who are suffering from imposter syndrome usually work very hard to make up for what they think they lack in intelligence or skill.

If you’re a victim of imposter syndrome, you can use it to your advantage by tapping into that “work harder” tendency.

There’s nothing wrong with working harder toward your goals, as long as you don’t sacrifice your health in the meantime. In fact, most people who reach the pinnacles of their careers work very hard to get there.

In a recent interview with “60 Minutes,” award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence stated, “I am hard on myself…. too many people sacrificed so that I could be here. My parents, you know—changed their entire lives to support me.  And I—I worked too hard to get here to be stupid about it.”

American mystery writer Mabel Seeley is quoted as saying, “There’s less skill and more plain hard work to writing than anyone except a writer thinks.”

We need motivation to work hard, and sometimes imposter syndrome can be that motivation. Just be sure that you’re eating well, exercising regularly, and getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night while you’re doing it!

3. It’s a signal to work on your self-confidence.

When you recognize yourself in the symptoms of imposter syndrome, that’s a good thing, because it helps you to become more self-aware.

You can make choices for how to address the syndrome, and realize that your self-doubt may be holding you back. If you weren’t aware that the syndrome was plaguing you, you could have continued limping along not able to bring your full abilities and passion to your career.

Talking to someone who can help is always a good approach. You can also start to take a more realistic view of your strengths, maybe by writing down what you know you’re good at, or collecting evidence of your accomplishments to keep all in one place where it’s more difficult to refute.

One other thing that can really help you with your confidence is to offer the skills you do have to help others. Maybe you can mentor some students in writing, help your family with any writing they may need, or even run your own online course.

You may think that you don’t know nearly enough to teach someone else, but it’s likely that you know more than some people who could benefit from your help. Teaching is fulfilling because you’re helping others, and it can also help to boost your confidence.

Imposter Syndrome Benefit 4. It’s a sign that you’re actually gaining expertise.

You know the saying, “the more you know the more you realize you have to learn?”

This realization is common among writers as they gain expertise, and it can be that knowledge that actually creates imposter syndrome.

Let’s say you work on writing a fantasy novel for years, and you finally get it where you want it to be, and then you meet your hero, whom you think is the best fantasy writer ever, and you realize just how smart, quick-witted, and all-around amazing he or she is.

You go home that night half dazed by the interaction, and half floored to think you could ever be as accomplished as this person.

Many experts believe that imposter syndrome occurs in result to becoming more proficient at what you do. Ann Friedman, writing for Pacific Standard, say, “Some experts point out that the more you learn, the more you realize you have yet to learn. Impostor syndrome is, for many people, a natural symptom of gaining expertise.”

If you’re feeling some symptoms of imposter syndrome and you haven’t before, this could actually be a sign that you’re improving as a writer. You’re learning more, and getting better. That something to celebrate.

5. It could be a sign that you actually are a good writer.

I’ve often mentioned that I’m a musician as well as a writer. There’s an unspoken rule among musicians that almost always proves to be true—those musicians who brag on their abilities are rarely as good as those who are more likely to admit they have a lot to learn.

Imposter syndrome is most common among high achievers, and has been found to actually get worse (particularly if the person is unaware of it) with each successive achievement. That means that those who suffer from the syndrome are usually intelligent and accomplished, as was discovered in the very first study on the syndrome.

John Steinbeck wrote in his diary:

“I’m not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people.”

Writer Olivia Hill wrote in her article for Quartz, “There is evidence to suggest that imposter syndrome correlates with success, and that those who don’t suffer imposter symptom are more likely to be the real frauds.”

She went on to state that people with imposter syndrome work extra hard, “So if you do suffer from imposter syndrome, chances are you’re doing a pretty good job.”

Being Overconfident Isn’t Good Either

Writers who are overconfident in their skills, on the other hand, may suffer from what’s called the “Dunning-Kruger effect,” based on a groundbreaking study by researchers Dunning and Kruger.

The researchers tested undergraduates with tests of humor, logic, and grammar, and then had the students rate how well they thought they performed.

Results showed that those who performed the worst grossly overestimated their performance and ability. Further analysis linked this overestimation to an inability to distinguish between good and poor performances.

The researchers wrote, “Poor performers—and we are all poor performers at some things—fail to see the flaws in the thinking or the answers they lack.” They went on to find that “improving the skills of the participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.”

Dunning also noted, “the knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task—and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at that task.”

In other words, if you’re not overestimating your ability, it probably means that you’ve already learned quite a bit about writing. Further, you may just be a much better writer than that guy at the conference who’s going on and on about his various accomplishments.

To Beat Imposter Syndrome: Try to Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

In general, we all would rather things feel more comfortable, but the more you can adapt to uncomfortable feelings such as those brought about by imposter syndrome, the more likely you will be to continue to try new things, and the faster you will move forward in your career.

Meanwhile, you can try a few more things to help deal with imposter syndrome:

• Talk to other writers—most have experience with the symptoms!
• Focus more on what you’re learning than how you’re performing as a writer.
• Realize that imposter syndrome is very common among writers and among professionals in general.
• Address your fear of failure, and realize that failure is necessary to eventual success.
• Have a real purpose behind your writing—a reason why you’re doing it. The deeper, more meaningful your reason, the more it will sustain you through the inevitable ups and downs.

How do you deal with imposter syndrome?

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Second photo courtesy José Ignacio García Zajaczkowski via Unsplash.

Sources

Bloom, H., & Infobase Publishing. (2003). A Really Fine Book. In John Steinbeck (pp. 4-4). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241-247. doi:10.1037/h0086006

Friedman, A. (2013, October 22). Not Qualified for Your Job? Wait, You Probably Are. Retrieved from https://psmag.com/economics/qualified-job-wait-probably-imposter-syndrome-psychology-68700

Goldhill, O. (2016, February 1). Is imposter syndrome a sign of greatness? Retrieved from https://qz.com/606727/is-imposter-syndrome-a-sign-of-greatness/

Hambrick, D. Z. (2016, February 23). The Psychology of the Breathtakingly Stupid Mistake. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-psychology-of-the-breathtakingly-stupid-mistake/

Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121-1134. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.77.6.1121

Murphy, M. (2017, January 24). The Dunning-Kruger Effect Shows Why Some People Think They’re Great Even When Their Work Is Terrible. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2017/01/24/the-dunning-kruger-effect-shows-why-some-people-think-theyre-great-even-when-their-work-is-terrible/#3ff5d5265d7c

Weir, K. (2013). Feel like a fraud? Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud.aspx

Whitaker, B. (2018, February 25). CBSNews CBSN Live Video. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jehttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/jennifer-lawrence-surprising-trip-to-the-top-of-hollywood/nnifer-lawrence-surprising-trip-to-the-top-of-hollywood/