You’ve been working on your new project or web app for ages and you can’t quite seem to make it perfect. You’ve spent months upon months and can’t quite seem to perfect it. Maybe you’re not as good as others make you out to be; maybe you won’t get that senior level position you’ve been hoping to get; or maybe you suffer from Impostor Syndrome.

According to Wikipedia, Impostor Syndrome is:

The impostor syndrome (also spelled imposter syndrome), sometimes called impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome, is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.

When I discovered this I immediately asked my wife, Jade Ellenbrook, MA, TLLP about this syndrome. According to Jade, Impostor Syndrome is not a diagnosable condition according to the DSM, or the Psychologists’ Bible in layman’s terms. However, that does not Crmean that it doesn’t exist.

Jade goes on to say,

“Imposter syndrome is the psychological phenomenon in which a person is unable to internalize their accomplishments and feels any success that is achieved is due to luck or timing. Similar to imposter syndrome an individual may experience existential guilt in which they feel they may not be living up to their full potential and therefore do not have a clearly defined meaning associated with their life. They may feel they are not accomplishing things worth noting and ultimately cannot give any self-credit.”

Do I suffer from Impostor Syndrome?

When I discovered this phenomenon, I started to consider all of the aspects of my life and how I often dismiss any and all praise given to me in those areas. I often find that I personally think my Jiu Jitsu is lacking, my development isn’t progressing fast enough, and I am simply not where I’d like to be in regards to these areas.

After doing a bit more research on the subject of Impostor Syndrome, I thought it might be nice to compile a list of things that anyone can benefit from whether you suffer from Imposter Syndrome or not.

How to overcome Impostor Syndrome

Before I leave you with my top five ways to overcome Impostor Syndrome, I’d like to talk about the most important activity one can do to deal with it. Write.

Writing is not only a great way to keep track of thoughts and ideas but in regards to Impostor Syndrome, writing allows one to internalize their accomplishments. It allows them to document their activities and goals. Simply keeping a log of their day-to-day ongoings allows them to realize that they do accomplish a lot and that they are worthy of the praise of others.

I ran with this idea and, with my friend Daniel, created a web app called Morning Pages. The goal of Morning Pages is to give users a place to write three pages of stream of consciousness thought without being judged, exposed, or anything in between.

One can register on Morning Pages and within seconds they’ll be able to write as much or as little as they want from anywhere in the world. It’s a great alternative to something like Live Journal or Blogger which both create public posts by default. Morning Pages is for you and you alone.

Five ways to overcome Impostor Syndrome

1. As with almost any problem, the first step is acknowledging the fact that Impostor Syndrome exists. Once I acknowledged it existed, I began working toward overcoming it.

2. I started to accept any and all compliments. Although most times I still couldn’t internalize it, I would simply give a “Thank you. I appreciate that.” as a response versus my usual “Oh it’s not that big of a deal because of X, Y, and Z.” that I’d normally respond with in an attempt to downplay any accomplishments that I might have.

3. I worked to tell myself that my success is not attributed to luck. My success has a direct correlation to how hard I work and how much effort I put forth when I set out to accomplish any given task.

4. Number four resonates with me because it relates specifically to web development. I frequently tell myself that perfection simply does not exist. I can’t strive for the perfect product. Sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable for things to be good enough. Good enough doesn’t mean bad. Good enough simply means that any further effort put forth trying to make the product perfect is not worth the time work:reward ratio.

5. Embrace the fact that you have Impostor Syndrome. There’s a link between self esteem and Impostor Syndrome and that’s not a bad thing. On a recent episode of Adam and Dr. Drew #190, Dr. Drew Pinsky “People with low self esteem tend to accomplish more.” The simple fact stands that if one doesn’t feel worthy enough, they’ll try to accomplish more in order to win the praise of others. If you’re dealing with Impostor Syndrome then consider it a blessing. You work hard and you want to accomplish a lot.