How to Battle Imposter Syndrome

Feeling inadequate, not up to a task, or undeserving of your position or success? You should talk about it, and maybe get inside your head to figure out what’s really going on, experts say.

When my journalistic career hit what some might perceive as a high point — a promotion to the executive suite of a growing media company, overseeing content creation for several publications while launching new websites on a range of topics — imposter syndrome nearly overwhelmed me some days.

Who was I to run multiple teams of talented journalists who often knew much more about their specialized area of coverage than I did?

And how could an introverted, creative type like me hang with MBA execs and make deals with highfalutin muckety-mucks at some of the largest media companies in the country?

I wish I knew then what I know now: Imposter syndrome is common, including among many successful people, and there are effective ways to deal with it.

Imposter syndrome, a term I was unaware of back then, is a self-perception that you don’t deserve your success or aren’t qualified for your job or a task you’re given, even if others deem you capable and deserving. It generates anxiety, promotes both perfectionism and procrastination, and can lead to utter exhaustion. Imposterism can be rooted in an overall sense of inadequacy, or it can pop up in specific circumstances, particularly as one advances in their field or shifts gears in life.

“You might have been confident at work, but suddenly find imposter syndrome comes up if you become a parent,” said Clare Josa, author of the book Ditching Imposter Syndrome. As she explained to me:

Your feelings of inadequacy will likely manifest in negative self-talk. You might ask yourself: “Who am I to be doing this?” or “What if they find me out?” or “What if they realize I’m not good enough?”

“If this is coming up for you, take heart — you are not alone,” Josa says. “It’s incredibly common. And far from being incurable, there is plenty you can do to set yourself free from it.”

An effective coping mechanism for imposter syndrome is to simply talk about it with friends, family or trusted colleagues, rendering the invisible demon realistically — as feelings and thoughts that do not, and should not, define you. Holly Hutchins, PhD, a professor of human resource development at the University of Houston, studies the talk-it-out tactic and has brought people together to test the remedy.

​​“When they’re in a room talking about these things often for the very first time in front of other people, it’s incredibly powerful,” Hutchins said. “They now have language to recognize it for what it is. It’s just a story. Thoughts and feelings, while powerful, aren’t factual.”

Who you chat with can make a difference, however.

College students reduced their imposterism feelings by discussing it with family, friends or professors, but not when they talked about it with other students in their same major, one study found. “After reaching outside their social group for support, students are able to understand themselves more holistically rather than being so focused on what they felt they lacked in just one area,” said study co-author Jeff Bednar, PhD, a management professor at Brigham Young University.

While talk therapy, formal or informal, can be a great strategy for battling imposterism or any mental or emotional construct we might struggle with, many of us aren’t entirely comfortable exposing our demons so openly.

So what if there was a way to get inside our own minds, on our own, and figure out what’s really going on in there and do something about it?

Meditation teacher and author Dawn Mauricio knows a thing or two about the demon of imposterism.

“For thirteen years, I used to teach yoga,” Mauricio writes in the mindfulness app Ten Percent Happier. “I think it took me seven or eight years to get over my imposter syndrome as a yoga teacher. Then I became a meditation teacher and it started all over!”

But eventually, mindfulness meditation helped Mauricio learn to tolerate discomfort, as she puts it. It’s not about eliminating the feelings, but when the anxiety of imposterism does bubble up, perhaps during an important meeting or when taking constructive criticism on a project, mindfulness can be a great coping mechanism one can apply in the moment, anytime, anywhere.

“I used to be way more fragile and perfection-oriented,” Mauricio writes. “If it wasn’t perfect, then it was a complete fail, and then I would fall into a shame cycle that would last for days. Now, difficult moments may still be really uncomfortable, but I see that the discomfort is not bad, it’s just something that I could learn from instead.”

Mindfulness meditation is something to be continually practiced rather than perfected, a quiet time set aside for a guided or self-directed session of internal reflection that can be as brief as a few minutes or as long as you wish.

The idea is super simple: One sits, relaxes, and puts intention into focusing on a single sensation — the sound and feel of breathing is the most common suggestion — and being present in the moment rather than thinking ahead or looking back. That’s pretty much it.

What actually happens is nuts. Thoughts come and go like bees buzzing in and out of a hive — the past, the future, the unknown, the good, the bad and the worrisome. The trick is to let them be, to not judge them. You don’t try to push thoughts out or avoid thinking. Each time you realize you’re distracted by a thought — which is, like, all the freaking time! — you simply begin again, returning focus to the breathing and the present moment.

And the results are rewarding. With practice, you’ll get better at noticing that your mind has wandered off on unproductive thought processes. You’ll experience fleeting moments of intense calm as you observe what’s really on your mind without judging it and, in the best moments, your head may totally clear. And then, sure as bees can sting, the buzzing is back.

Through the practice of mindfulness meditation, mindfulness itself begins to spill into the rest of your day. I think of it this way: Instead of overthinking everything, your brain learns to be more mindful about where your thoughts go and what you do with them.

By exercising your brain, like a muscle, it becomes more powerful, better able to fend off intruding negative thoughts or neuter their power.

Think of how practicing martial arts can make you stronger and more able to battle a physical intruder. Mindfulness cultivates the powers of rationality, perspective and focus that helps you deal with the stress and anxiety of otherwise overwhelming thoughts and perceptions. Bad stuff still happens, crazy thoughts arise, and stressors present themselves. But now you’re able to spot them for what they are, no more no less, and create a little distance between what comes at you and how you react to it.

Stress and anxiety, you learn, are not things that happen or that might happen, but how you react to things that happen or that might happen.

“Like a clear, still pool without ripples, mindfulness perfectly mirrors what’s occurring without distortion,” writes Kristin Neff, PhD, a psychologist and author of numerous books and articles on the benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion. “Rather than becoming lost in our own personal soap opera, mindfulness allows us to view our situation with greater perspective and helps to ensure that we don’t suffer unnecessarily.”

Mauricio has used mindfulness to deal with much more than imposter syndrome.

“In my mid-twenties, freshly out of an emotionally and verbally abusive relationship, I was having regular bouts of extreme anxiety,” she writes in her book Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners. “I would cry uncontrollably and often felt assaulted by my unrelenting thoughts. The only time I got a break from these emotions was when I practiced yoga. The physical sensations brought on by practicing yoga acted as a portal to mindfulness, and it was the mindfulness — being present in the moment — that brought me peace.”

I’m lousy at talk therapy. I tend to keep my demons to myself. And to suggest I’m an expert in mindfulness meditation would be truly imposterish. But one of the many things I love about mindfulness is that the conversations I have about my demons are all with myself—nobody has to know.

Having given mindfulness meditation a try more than a year ago amid much skepticism, and ultimately embracing its potential, I can vouch for its calming effect, its ability to facilitate rational contemplation of stressful thoughts and circumstances, and to sort facts from feelings which, if left to run wild, induce anxiety and make me question my self-worth. I’ve learned how to take a few deep breaths, literally, to sink into a brief calming moment of mindfulness just about whenever and wherever it’s useful, and find a sliver of peace — even as my emotional mind screams that I’m in way over my head.

As Mauricio describes it, you might still hear the voice of imposterism, but mindfulness can train you to no longer believe it.

Learn more: In this article, I provide more examples of how mindfulness meditation works, plus suggested books and apps to help you get started.

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