?? 5 Key Influences Behind Imposter Syndrome

This is the second part of my Imposter syndrome series.?

In this issue, I'm exposing the 5 key influences behind Imposter Syndrome and how they're contributing to making it even worse…

You can delve into more detail in part 1 -?Is it really Imposter Syndrome? ?But let’s recap briefly here with a definition and a brief summary.?

Imposter Syndrome: A psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalised fear of being exposed as a "fraud", despite evidence of their competence.

To Summarise Imposter Syndrome

?? It’s caused by HOW you think.

?? This way of thinking is persistent.

?? Evidence exists of your competence.

With that covered, let’s kick on.

How does it take hold?

As I see it, we need to consider five key influences that, when combined in the “wrong” way, can lead to feelings of imposter syndrome and its consequences.

The five key influences behind imposter syndrome:

?? Habits

?? Beliefs

?? The Subconscious Mind

?? Your Wellbeing Processor

?? Thought Recursion

Let’s dig a little deeper into each one.

1. Habits

Ok, maybe not the habits you’re thinking of; I’m referring to your brain and its habitual thought patterns.

Although, your other habits will play a role, too.

Your brain is highly habitual, which can be a great power and a terrible curse.

One such habit is how often you lean on?your beliefs.

Your beliefs practically define you, so you’ll encounter them a lot.?

The more you think about them, the stronger they become.

The stronger they become, the more you think about them…

You get the idea. We'll discuss why this is important shortly.

In addition to our strongly held beliefs, many of us neglect to pay attention to what we expose our brains to and through sheer repetition, we’ve learnt quite negative or unhelpful patterns of thinking…

Unfortunately, your brain has retained these unhelpful thought patterns, which contribute to your self-belief and the world around you.

I want to stress that you haven’t done anything wrong here…

Powerful forces, such as the news, societal expectations, TV (Netflix, YouTube), and social media, constantly tug our attention in multiple directions.

These forces are so pervasive that we fail to acknowledge their influence and the beliefs we form based on them.

2. Beliefs

The beliefs you hold about yourself are a key influence behind imposter syndrome. Probably one of the more obvious influences, right?

If you believed your skills were up to scratch, that you worked hard for every opportunity, and deserved to be where you are right now…

You probably wouldn’t be reading about imposter syndrome…

Your beliefs are a powerful concept, so much so that you accept them as true or real by definition.

YES, even when they aren’t…

You rarely question them, and this is where things can get a bit sticky.

Some of those beliefs might not reflect who you are now.

They might have been formed in a completely different context.

And yet, they are playing a significant role in shaping your reality now.

Beliefs can be formed in several ways, one being through sheer repetition, which is why we need to be so careful about what we give our attention to.

Like your habitual thoughts, your beliefs are embedded in your subconscious mind and given priority status…

?? This is a short version

The full version concludes with:

--> The Subconscious mind

--> Your Wellbeing Processor

--> Thought Recursion

You can find it here :

A quick recap

You have mental habits that have filled your subconscious mind with many unhelpful thoughts.

You’re harbouring strongly held beliefs that could be outdated and no longer relevant.?

Your subconscious mind is trying to be helpful by making these really fast and easy to access. It supplies you with many of these thoughts.

You inevitably pay attention to them and feel their full force via your Wellbeing Processor.

Sounds pretty gloomy, and unfortunately, there’s one more piece of the gloomy puzzle to come… Thought Recursion...

Rich’s Recommendations

Check out my recommendations to improve your wellbeing, mindset, leadership or tech skills:

?? Basma Taha - Your Guide to Fast-Track Your Software Engineering Career. Newsletter: An Engineer's Echo

?? Hemant Pandey - Writes about career growth, study abroad and life experiences.

He's a Tech Lead at Meta.

Newsletter: The Hustling Engineer

?? Crushing Digital - Dave Roberts Get help to stand out in the market, land more interviews and get the job you deserve.

?? Neo Kim ’s weekly newsletter to learn system design: Newsletter: System Design Newsletter

?? Nick Cosentino ’s weekly newsletter to help you level up as a software engineer! From a Principal Engineering Manager at Microsoft. Newsletter: Dev Leader Weekly

?? John Crickett ’s weekly coding challenge to help software engineers level up: Newsletter: Coding Challenges

Closing

We’ve exposed 5 key influences behind imposter syndrome and detailed the role each plays in how it takes hold and even grows due to the habitual nature of your brain.

In part 3,?I’ll cover imposter syndrome's impacts on software developers and I’ll share my story.

Part 4 will be How to beat Imposter Syndrome…

In the meantime, be more purposeful about what you expose your conscious mind to, and consider the impact it could be having on your subconscious mind (autopilot)…

Remember

There's nothing more important than your own wellbeing!