Impostor syndrome
So some of you already heard the podcast episode but if you didn't let me explain what impostor syndrome what is it means and how it affects us. First off what is the definition of impostor syndrome, Impostor syndrome is the condition of feeling anxious and not experiencing success internally, despite being high performing in external, objective ways. This condition often results in people feeling like "a fraud" or "a phony" and doubting their abilities. Now before you start self-diagnosing yourself, we all come across a point in our lives where we don't believe we're good enough in the moment that is different than impostor syndrome and lets please please stop normalizing self-diagnoses for things we only somewhat relate toooo okayyyy.
The Five Types Of Impostor Syndrome
According to researcher Dr. Valerie Young, there are five impostor types:
The Perfectionist. This type of imposter syndrome involves believing that, unless you were absolutely perfect, you could have done better. You feel like an imposter because your perfectionist traits make you believe that you're not as good as others might think you are.
The Expert. The expert feels like an imposter because they don't know everything there is to know about a particular subject or topic, or they haven't mastered every step in a process. Because there is more for them to learn, they don't feel as if they've reached the rank of "expert."
The Natural Genius. In this imposter syndrome type, you may feel like a fraud simply because you don't believe that you are naturally intelligent or competent. If you don't get something right the first time around or it takes you longer to master a skill, you feel like an imposter.
The Soloist. It's also possible to feel like an imposter if you had to ask for help to reach a certain level or status. Since you couldn't get there on your own, you question your competence or abilities.
The Super person. This type of imposter syndrome involves believing that you must be the hardest worker or reach the highest levels of achievement possible and, if you don't, you are a fraud.
Who Does It Affect The Most?
The more I read about imposter syndrome the more intrigued I was so why am I talking about it on the blog post you may ask why I am bringing this up at all. The reason being because minorities experience higher levels of imposter syndrome than non POC.
Hospitality insights adds One reason that minorities and women may be more likely to experience the imposter phenomenon is that they may face added pressure to “prove their worth” in an environment where they may already feel marginalized.
Let's get deep now, you and I both know that no one in is this world should make you feel like you have to prove yourself right..........especially *cough cough* the white man because let’s face it no matter how hard you work it’s never going to be enough for them or for anyone in that matter that makes you feel that way. The truth is the only person you owe to make happy and proud is yourself you are your own biggest critique, and that inner critique is the one you need to shut up and silence, all the outside noise is just a distraction, and it doesn’t align with your purpose and if you didn’t know then you know now.
I want everyone reading this to do a little exercise for me call it shadow work if you want. I want you write about a time you felt you weren’t good enough for something and you ended up being overqualified and once you’re done writing that REREAD IT TO YOUR DAMN SELF EVERY TIME YOU FEEL YOU ARENT GOOD ENOUGH. Like my good friends would say do better….
con mucho amor, Ediliana De La Cruz💐🫶🏼