How to tackle imposter syndrome

Imposter syndrome is known as the “persistent inability to believe in one’s success” – basically not believing in yourself.

This is so easily done in everyday life, and it cant be super difficult to get yourself out of this mindset and into a place where you believe and know you can achieve whatever you want.

In my personal experience, Imposter Syndrome has stopped me from attending work events whether they be for meeting clients, or even work socials after work, simply because I felt I wasn’t good enough to be doing so. Going into the construction industry with no experience at all, I felt as though I needed to prove myself to others, and never believed I would get any further in this career path.

After my first few months in my apprenticeship, I had a review with my line manager who asked me lots of questions about my future and what I wanted to achieve in life and also my 5 year plan. Within this discussion, it made me realise that if I wanted to get my dreams, I needed to believe in myself as much as everyone else did!

Therefore, from that first meeting, I decided to make some changes to help tackle imposter syndrome for myself, and I really have seen a huge different in my confidence both in my personal and work life.

My top tips for changing your mindset and rethink yourself are:

1. Write down your goals you want to achieve within the year: keep these goals somewhere you will see them everyday so you never forgot – for example, create a new lock screen for your phone with these goals, and then you will see them every morning you wake up
2. Keep a journal: write down each day or week a few things that you have achieved that day / week that you have been proud of and why. Upon reflection, this will help you realise that you can do anything you put your mind to!
3. Unfollow people on social media: within reason of course, but social media influencers have such an impact on our lives and can make us feel as though we are not good enough sometimes, therefore, only following those that truly influence you and make you happy to see their content will help hugely.

Along with these tips, becoming a Not Going To Uni ambassador has also made me realise that I can achieve anything I put my mind to, and there are always others who may be in my position. I believe that sharing my experience and how I got to where I am today is extremely important to make other people aware, and understand what they may be feeling and why.

In reflection, I really do wish I had started to believe in myself a little more, or branched out and connected with those who were in the same boat as me. Looking back, I can see how quickly I was able to turn my Imposter Syndrome into something much more positive!