Unless you are a supremely confident being, it’s likely that from time to time you worry that someone is going to question what you are doing, or how you are doing it. The reason you worry is that you’re not exactly sure how you’re doing what you’re doing, or how you manage to keep up with everything.

This is a normal part of daily life. The fact we have so many balls to juggle in the air doesn’t help matters. Now, if you’re often living in fear of someone tapping you on the shoulder and calling you out as a fraud, that is something else entirely.

Have you heard of ‘Imposter Syndrome’? This is an almost constant fear of your own success catching up on you. It’s basically a total lack of belief in who you are and what you have achieved. You might have worked extremely hard, battled many adversities, and studied until your eyes were bleary, but Imposter Syndrome will make you believe that it was nothing special and you probably ‘winged it’.

You didn’t wing it!

Imposter Syndrome is on the rise, and it is thought to be down to the huge number of pressures we place on ourselves daily. Does social media help? Not at all. When you’re bombarded with pictures of so-called perfection in body image, career, and life in general, is it any wonder that from time to time you sit and wonder whether you’ve bumbled through it all? Everyone else seems to be so self-assured and have it all sorted out, and you feel like you’re living a life of rollercoaster anxiety.

Do you know the truth? Everyone feels like that. Seriously, everyone.

Big Yourself Up!

Getting over true Imposter Syndrome takes more than a pat on the back, but it’s a great place to start. If you have no sense of self-worth and a low amount of self-confidence, it’s time to build it up and start to see that you have reached your current point through hard work and talent. You didn’t reach it because you did a deal with the Devil that you can’t remember.

Building your self-worth takes time, but it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. So, how can you do it? Start with baby steps.

• Use positive affirmations on a daily basis and repeat them in the morning, throughout the day, and whenever you’re having a moment of doubt
• Try mindfulness meditation to help you live in the moment and stop worrying about things that may never actually happen!
• Write a list of your 10 strong points and add a new one to it every day
• Have a weekly reflection session. This means sitting down and noting down all the things you achieved throughout the week, no matter how big or small
• Doing good deeds for others. This helps to boost your confidence and the image you have of yourself in your own mind

These might seem like small things, and they are, but when you practice them daily and you start to build up a snowball effect of confidence, your level of self-worth will reflect your hard work. When you value yourself, you start to see the wonder in what you have achieved. Nobody is going to tap you on the shoulder and call you out for cheating to the point you’re at in your career; you got there through hard work.

The little Devil on your shoulder needs to have the volume turned down, and you need to pay more attention to the Angel on the other shoulder, the one who is screaming but can’t be heard!