Using The Imposter Syndrome To Your Advantage
A controversial take on headspace management to fast track your growth
--
Thrilled to be a part of this series, Our Imposter Stories!
The root cause of imposter syndrome is an impaired sense of self-esteem, which is something people do not like talking about publicly.
I sporadically feel the effects of the imposter syndrome, but have decided to use it as a source of motivation to propel me forward. During the last couple of months at Google, I’ve led projects across 4 different organizations — Google Shopping, Crowdsource, Cloud and Youtube, while working on Gulliver on the weekends.
I’m incredibly thankful for the people who’s enabled me to take on such exciting projects, but looking back, I have realized that the desire to do more and learn more ultimately stems from the fact that I don’t feel like I am enough — that I’m not learning fast, broadly, or in-depth enough. As such, I decided to expand my scope and pick up other opportunities along the way.
If you are someone who’s got an ambitious streak in you with a constant hunger to grow that brain of yours, chances are you are probably doing more than the average person. Something you’d realize is the more you read and learn, the more you’d realize there are even more areas where you fall short, and spiral deeper into the imposter syndrome.
Remember: You can be anything you want, but you cannot do everything.
You know you suffer from the imposter syndrome when you constantly feel like you are not enough — and many people have the perception that from the career progression standpoint, this can either be a major liability as you under-perceive your abilities and worthiness to tackle difficult projects, hence become less ambitious in pursuing opportunities.
There are more than enough articles out there talking about how to tackle this issue on having a low sense of self-worth, and how to rebuild it.
