Even the most successful creatives a little secret we all share - from time to time we feel like frauds. It's called design imposter syndrome and it is a psychological phenomenon where you have a belief that you’re inadequate despite evidence to the contrary. In this episode, we will look at why it is something we all have, the 5 different types of imposter syndromes, and what you can do about it.
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Even the most successful creatives a little secret we all share - from time to time we feel like frauds. It's called design imposter syndrome and it is a psychological phenomenon where you have a belief that you’re inadequate despite evidence to the contrary. In this episode, we will look at why it is something we all have, the 5 different types of imposter syndromes, and what you can do about it.
SHOW NOTES:
http://thecrazy1.com/episode69
FOLLOW THE CRAZY ONE:
Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
What's going on everybody, and welcome into the 69th episode of The Crazy One podcast. As always, I'm your host, Stephen Gates. And this is a show where we talk about creativity, leadership design, and everything else that helps to empower creative people. Now if you want to listen to all the shows, make sure you get the show notes and everything else that goes along with this podcast Be sure to head over to the crazy and the number one, the crazy one.com new URL, same content, but if you want to find out about the show, listen to other shows, check out the show notes, anything like that. Be sure to head over there. And while you're on your favorite podcast platform, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you get the new shows whenever they come out. Now you start like normally I probably would have stopped this and we've gone back and re recorded it as my two plugs have entered the room. I think they definitely want co producer credits on the show. I do know some people have mentioned that you can hear them in the background for whatever reason I try to get them out of my studio like close the door whenever I record. They seem to take them As a challenge and often want to come busting in like at some sort of like episode of cops and they're serving a warrant or something, I don't know. But if you ever hear them in the background, that's what they are is they seem to like to camp out under my desk and figure out why even in the cold fall, whether they can find ways of being hot and noisy. Anyway, moving on with the show. This week, I want to talk about a kind of an interesting secret that we all share. And I don't care what level you are in your career. I don't care where you're at. It's something called design imposter syndrome. And it's something if we're all being honest, that from time to time, maybe we feel like we don't measure up. Maybe we feel like we're fraud. It comes in a lot of different forms. And this is another one of those problems that I think you know what I think we don't talk about it enough. I recently read a study that suggested that over 70% of people experience imposter syndrome at some point in their Career? That's nuts. So in this episode, what I want to talk about is for creatives in particular, what is it? What are the different flavors of it? How do you fight it? How do you keep it from getting away your creative process? And ultimately, keep it from holding you back? But let's start with the simple question. What the hell is it? Now, for a lot of these shows, I do a bunch of research, I have my own thoughts and my own opinions. But I always want to go out and sort of make sure about how do I ground that in what other people are doing? Or how do I be able to go out and research to really make sure that I understand what I'm talking about, and especially whenever I get into areas of psychology like this, because again, I think I can empathetically understand it but whenever you got to research it, you see that it's a psychological phenomenon where you believe that you are somehow inadequate, often, despite of a lot of evidence to the contrary. Now, in real life, it can be more You're having one of those days where you look at your work and you think, man, I just don't think this is very good. I hope other people like it. What if the client hates it? In its simplest form, it's some level of doubt. Maybe you think that when something doesn't work out exactly the way you expect on a project, somehow you failed. Maybe it's some technique you can't grasp, or some work a client didn't like. But at the end of it, you know, on the extreme, maybe you feel like a fake, maybe you feel like you hope nobody finds out how you work. Because you think, you know, that's not the way quote unquote, real designers work. Now, whenever we talk about this, there isn't there is a fine line and an intersection point between what is healthy behavior, what is work ethic, what is drive, what are those things that we do need to progress in our career, but it's ultimately about the balance of those things. The size of those things, the scale, is it a voice that is proportionate, that It drives you forward that you find to be motivating and keeps you moving. Or is it a little bit? too big? Is the voice a little too loud? does it lead to too much self doubt? does it lead to destructive behaviors that maybe actually can hold you back and can hurt you? And so as we go through and talk about this, I think that's the thing that I want you to think about is that in some cases, you may think to yourself, you know what, that's actually something I feel like I need, and in many cases, you'll be completely right. But what it is, it's about balance amounts, about how do you start to look at yourself and understand what is it that's going on? How do I accept it? And then ultimately, what do I do about it? If it is out of balance, so that I can get it back in the right proportion? And that can be a much healthier thing? So why is this something that we all have because I did say we all have it and we do this is something I struggle with lots of people I talk to it I'm sure it's something you struggle with how much you want to admit it or not? Well, that's another story. But we have it because as I've talked about numerous times before, creating is a personal act. And it's something where whenever you make your mark on a blank page on a blank screen on anything else, what informs that mark? What what makes you make it the way that you do? comes from what you've experienced? What are your things give you confidence? What are your insecurities? What are everything else in between? What are the ways that you see the world and you connect the dots. So the thing is, then that inner dialogue, that personal connection to your work, obviously, then is going to create some amount of anxiety, whenever it's judged, commented, liked or disliked. That is a natural part of the process. Now, imposter syndrome is a little bit different, because, again, it's how healthy or restrictive is that dialogue? And I think, if you don't follow Pablo Stanley on Twitter, I would highly just tell you to go do that. Here's some When I work with envision an amazing designer, he hosts a live show on YouTube. But ultimately, he's also a cartoonist. He does these amazing cartoons about kind of like the day in the life of a designer. And he did one this past week and posted it that really probably pushed me to finish the show, because it was just simply somebody asking a designer how they were doing, and they replied, fine. But then behind them, and you can see in their thoughts are the 200 other responses about the things they're struggling with the things that are going well, the things that they aren't, and all this like massive inner dialogue. And that's the part of this right is that this is yet another one of those things that we rarely ever discussed these insecurities. So this inner loop, this inner dialogue can build up to the point where it can become unhealthy, because doubt and problems are a part of the process. But here again, it's about the amount and the balance of those that makes the difference. And you may know if you do this if you do things because it can it can sort of come to life in a lot of different ways. If you're constantly going back and changing some In your design, because not because you know you can improve it. But because you feel like you don't know what the best choices are, and your design ends up being a mess, because you ultimately don't trust yourself, you won't commit to something. So you just sort of try to please everybody. And this is also made more complicated because this industry does have real imposters, some of these imposters you don't, they've watched enough YouTube videos, they talk a good enough talk, they fake the funk enough that they look to everybody else. Like they really know what they're doing what the rubber meets the road. You know what, maybe they can't deliver on that. But for so many of us, we never see those moments, we never see where the rubber meets the road. And so what do we end up doing? We end up judging our insides by everybody else's outsides. And there are other ways that imposters can create this false image and a lot of it is thanks to social media. I say this all the time. Just because somebody looks a certain way acts a certain way towards a certain way does not mean and again And even at the end of the day, just cuz somebody's got a big title or they work in a big brand, does not mean that they know what the hell it is they're doing. It makes it harder for the rest of us. Like, why don't we do that for this Halloween? Why don't we all go as the people we pretend to be on social media. But here again, it feeds this imposter syndrome because you feel like oh, my God, everybody else has it. So to go so together, oh, my God, everybody else has all the answers. Everybody else is doing it the right way. Why am I so different? Why do I not have all the answers? reality is they don't, they may be faked a little bit better, they may have a little more confidence. And ultimately, we'll come back to that because confidence ultimately, I think is a big a big part of this. It's sort of the heart of what it is we're talking about. Now, whenever we talk about imposter syndrome. Here again, we don't do a lot of research and and really found that it can take on a bunch of different forms. And I think that the form it takes depends on your background, your personality, the circumstances in which you grow up. And with all these shows, I do a lot of research but in this One, there was one book one piece of writing that Kim kept coming back to. It was from a woman named Valerie young. And I think what I would tell you to do is to go out if this is something that interests you, go out and get her book. And I think especially for the men in the audience, you may hear this title and think, why would I get this? Trust me, it's useful to everybody. I'm gonna put the link in the show notes, you can go buy it on Amazon, they have it Hardcover, softcover, everything else in between. But the book is the secrets, the secret thoughts of successful women, why capable people suffer from the imposter syndrome, and how to thrive in spite of it? I think it really, it had the best structure. I think it had the best way of as I was going through and trying to sort of lay this out. She went through and really laid out what are the five different subgroups. And so for this show, how to make sure give her credit and, and go out and be able to read that book because I think that I'm going to use those subgroups to be able to do this and then bring in an overlay sort of what are my insights? How do we make this specifically for creatives and for what it is that we're going through, but I want to go through each one of these five in a little bit more detail. so that you can understand what they are, you can really get a sense of what it is how do you tell if it's you and then ultimately, if you feel like this is something that is a part of your work or part of your career, what can you do about it? So the five we're going to be the perfectionist, the Superwoman or Superman, the genius, the individualist in the expert. So we'll start first off with a perfectionist. Now, perfectionism and design imposter syndrome, in my experience go hand in hand, a lot, because perfectionists are these people that set this like crazy high goal for themselves. And then when they don't reach that insanely unattainable goal, they go through like this major self doubt and really worried about if they're measuring up. But as it applies to creativity, the other part of this that becomes much more problematic is that they're often also control freaks. And they really feel like if they want something done, right, they've got to do it themselves. And this obviously creates a problem because as you advance in your career, as you start taking on leadership, you need to be more and more inclusive with your creative process, you need to be able to trust other people, the worst creative leaders, the worst bosses are the managers who just lay out what the idea is, and then let everybody sort of color inside of their lines. That's not what creative people are interested in. That's not what they want to do. And in it, I've talked about this before. It's a test that I'll actually give people who say they want to step up and be in leadership, or I'll give them a problem. And we'll say, they'll have five days to do it. I'll give them two people to be able to work with what I want to see. I don't want to see what people say, I don't want to see people on a good day. Because what people say doesn't always match what they do. And everybody's fantastic. On a good day. What I want to do is I want to see somebody under stress. I want to see somebody when there's a problem because I think that gets you a real sense into their psychology. It really lets you understand, what do they have going on underneath the hood? And so what I'll do is that five day deadline, I'll get them started say I've got five days to work on it. The next day, I'm gonna come back and say something has changed. The deadline has changed for some reason. Now, the time timeline is greatly accelerated, because I want to put them under stress and see how they react. because inevitably, you're going to get two different results, the first result is going to be that they're going to be the control freak, they're going to be the perfectionist who is going to be afraid. And by doing that, what they're going to do is they're going to pull all the work back into themselves, they're gonna say, I have to do it, as opposed to the people who should be leaders, the ones who are not as affected by this particular flavor of imposter syndrome. What they do is they delegate, they come up with a plan, they work with their team and use the resources they have. And the reason why I do this is because it gives you a real clear sense of where somebody is. And again, I think that with all of these, if you are a leader, it's good to understand on your team, which one of these do people fall into? Which one do you fall into? so that you understand how do you deal with that? Now, if you're asking yourself, okay, great. How do I know if this applies to me? For each one of these sections, there's a couple situations a few questions that I'm going to ask and see if you can relate to this. See if this is Something that you feel like is you, like, has anybody ever told you that you're a micromanager? Do you have difficulty delegating? And when you do, do you get really frustrated, maybe even disappointed in what the results because they're never as good as what they would have been if you just would have done it yourself when something doesn't come out the way that you want, right? Like when you miss the mark on something, do you really get down on yourself? Do you kind of like do that I'm not cut out for this or you kind of beat yourself up maybe four hours, maybe four days about, you know, why did it not go really well. But I think ultimately, do you feel like your work has to be 100% perfect 100% of the time? those tend to be so if you answered yes to a few of those. You may be in the midst of some of this because I think that's the thing right is for perfectionist success is rarely satisfying, because you always feel like you could have done better. And the problem is it's not a productive were really a healthy mindset to be in, in this eternal state of dissatisfaction. Now this is one of the states. And again, I think as I've gone through my career, there's probably a few of these that I've moved through. I think the first two, absolutely. In some ways, I think this one, the perfectionist want to be able to put behind me a little bit. But the thing that you need to do, and I had one boss, who were going through and doing a bunch of work, told me this one thing that's really kind of stuck with me and it's whenever you're in the midst of doing something, to stop, to take it in to appreciate it that whatever you do, do something, own it, celebrate it, because that's how you that's how you avoid burnout. It's how you find contentment. And it's how you start to cultivate self confidence. Because that's sort of the kryptonite to all of this is to start to figure out, how do you start to build confidence. Now if you feel like this is you if you are this sort of perfectionist? You can find it by doing a few different things. I think the one is just making peace with the fact that you need to take mistakes in stride because it's going to be a part of the process. having problems is not a problem is not a problem. This is not math, two plus two does Before, like two plus two for us equals like Burnt Sienna, right like, channel your best inner Bob Ross and, and just understand that again, it's just like a happy little accident. But I think that the other thing to do is to and a lot of cases, push yourself to start that project to act before you're ready. Don't sit around and like plan for months at a time, don't sit around and just get so far a bound up in your head and everything has to be perfect and precious, and you hold on to it, and you want everybody else to see it. And you need to get it until everything's been thought out. And it's all completely perfect. And then it's an impossible standard because whenever you show it to people, one, you're going to put so much time and effort into it that if anybody questions anything, you're going to lose your mind. But just the pressure that comes from having to do that by yourself. And to take on that amount of stress is just bananas. So again, push yourself to try to open up a little bit faster, think about it a little bit sooner, and do some of those things that again, can try to help Some of that perfectionism. Now as we move on to the next one, the Superwoman or Superman, this is about people who experienced this phenomenon because they ultimately, if they're being really honest, if they're letting that inner voice really come to the front, they're somehow convinced that you know what they're phonies who are working alongside people who really know what they're doing, and that they push themselves to work harder and harder to measure up. This is, this is where I live, right? Because I think at the end of the day, I feel like, man, there are so many other people out there who are so much more talented. And especially as I've done this podcast and whatever this bizarre so delist notoriety that's come with it. You feel like you need to live up to being kind of what what do people think that you are and I think for me throughout my whole career, I've always been the one who's like gonna lean in and work harder and the thing that I've come to accept about myself, and especially about this It's just a false cover up for a big insecurity. Because that work overload, it can be harmful to your mental health. But I think it also going to really hurt kind of relationships with other people. Because in some ways you will start to begrudge or hold over other people or do things if they aren't doing what you do. But again, you're doing this to drive and try to feed this sort of like insecurity. So it creates this really just not very healthy kind of balance around things. Now, again, if you're one asking yourself, like does this apply to you? Do you do some of these things? Like do you stay later at the office, than the rest of your team, even past the point when you've completed your work, right? Like because you want to be the first one and the last one out? You want it because that says something about you. And this is one of those spots where again, you know, you can look at this and say, Look, Steve, the line between work ethic in this, what's the difference? And again, I think it's about amount, proportion and the impact it has on you. Absolutely Don't be the last person in the last in the first person. Right, like don't do that. Because you're kind of like I have impostor syndrome I need to eat. No, that's, that's bullshit. That's not what I'm saying. But what it is, is it's the amount it's about how do you find a healthy balance in this? Like, do you get stressed out when you're not working? And like, do you just find like relaxing or downtime to be? You don't feel like it's a waste of time. Again, this is one of those things where I almost I, there have been points in my life, I have to like force myself to relax, which sounds so stupid. But even then I'm kind of like, Okay, I need to play a game. I need to be on my iPad, like I need to accomplish something. Like just sitting still, is something that I've had to work on because I ended up going on this vacation. And normally my wife and I go to like destinations or running around or we're doing things this time go to a beach resort, but she's like, great, we can just lay on the beach. It was like nails on a chalkboard to me because I'm just laying there on there. I'm like, okay, am I Well, I need to relax. I'm relaxing. I'm not thinking about anything. Am I not thinking about anything? I think I'm not thinking about anything. I'm relaxing, right? Like this is relaxing. Hey, what about this thing at work? Oh, there's an idea. Hey, what about that and then all of a sudden, I'm spun back up and I'm working again in my head. And it was just insane. And it was not healthy. And I think the other thing I saw was like I was thinking, letting things like my hobbies and my passions fall by the wayside, and I was sacrificing them for work. And that's the thing is like, at the end of it is you almost feel like you really haven't earned your title in spite of whatever achievements you have. So you feel the pressure to work harder and longer than everybody else around you so you can prove your worth, right. And I think that what this really comes out of is that if you look at that sort of like persona of a workaholic, it's that they're addicted to the validation that comes from working, not really from the work itself. They like to get things done faster, everybody else they like to stay late or their rails, they like that recognition. And again, the destructive part of this is that when that's out of balance, is that what you're ultimately doing is that nobody should have the power to make you feel good about yourself. But you and now is everything has become about external validation, external happiness, external things like that. It's not sustainable. It's not gonna be a good path for you to go down. So if you want to fight this, what you need to start doing is you need to start training yourself to know Just simply get validation from external sources, you've got to recalibrate about how to get this internal validation. So you're able to ease off the gas, you're not gonna be that like super person as much. And then whenever you do that you can gauge how much of the work you're doing is really needed and how much of it is healthy. Because at the end of the day, you control your happiness, you control your joy. And look, that's going to be the hard part about this is that if you want people to like you, and again, if you this is almost an overcompensation, but again, as you look at so many of these things, they belie almost the opposite of what the person is trying to project. So in this case, how do you find that validation from yourself? How do you find peace with yourself? So that again, you can have the confidence to push through this sort of stuff. Now, we move on to the genius. This is always it's a little bit of a strange title because I I don't know anybody's like, oh, genius. I mean, look, some people I know they are and they've got the math scores to prove out or whatever, but it really is about Don't get too hung up on the title. What it really is, is that this is about people who struggle about how do you judge success based on their ability rather than their effort. And so like the Superman or Superwoman, they, they just innately feel like they aren't that talented. So they need to overcompensate with work. The genius, they, they have to be like, Look, they're gonna work hard, but they assume that you're going to set again, this Emperor, this impossibly high bar. But unlike a perfectionist, they're going to judge themselves not only on that ridiculous expectation, but on if they can get it right the first time. Because they do think that they're smart enough, they do think that they have the ability so they have a confidence in that. So again, this is not coming out of that insecurity. This is almost the opposite. This is coming from almost being too secure, too arrogant about what this is. If you're not sure if this applies to you, if you're saying to yourself, Hey, is this gonna be me? Here are a few questions that you might actually want to ask yourself. Off with, do you have that track record? Right? Are you the kid that got straight A's in schools, gold stars and everything? You always got the trophy, top of your class and do things like that. And did you do it in everything you do? Were you often told when you were a kid that you know what you were in the smart group, you were gifted, you were better? You were special? And you know, did you get that from your friends, your family, your peer group? I think obviously, there is a style of parenting that has emerged in the last decade that very much supports this. This is where, again, sometimes the participation trophy, the fact that you are great at everything can certainly give rise to this. Do you honestly hate the idea of having a mentor because you think to yourself, you know what? I can handle all this stuff on my own? Whenever you're faced with a problem, whenever you're kind of actually going to work on something whenever you get uncomfortable? Do you find your confidence just plummets. And ultimately, does that lead you to avoid challenges because it's so uncomfortable to try something different and that you're not great at that honestly, you would probably just rather skip it. Now, those are all definite signs of kind of having that genius problem. Now if you want to fight it, a few things that you need to do and a few things you need to think about. One is that instead of putting the same pressure on yourself, you have to get it perfect out of the gate every single time, because that is an impossible standard, what you need to do is you need to see yourself as a work in progress. Because, again, everybody, everybody is because who you are as a person now, one year, five years, 10 years, whatever it is down the road is going to change the people you work with the teams that are part of the company, the all the all these different factors are going to constantly be in flux. So what you need to understand is that this idea that you're constantly gonna know everything you're constantly going to be right, you're constantly be the a student, especially as you get older is going to get much harder because the other thing that you're going to find is that as you go on in your career, natural talent, the things that you were so good at as a kid are going to start to become less than less powerful, less than less useful, because as you go on, those talents are great. They're going To get you to a certain level, but then you're gonna start to get to the place where to advance to get better, you're gonna need to start to work on the smaller things, the uncomfortable things, the things that are on the edges of your talent, the things that make you uncomfortable. And that's whenever this kicks in. That's whenever it becomes such a problem. But that's also why it's so important for you to see yourself as a work in progress. And that's the that's it right? Because like accomplishing great things involves this lifelong learning and skill building. Even for the most confident people. You have to constantly be investing you have to constantly understand, there's more to know, especially if you're in creative fields. Good Lord, like if you look at I mean, 10 years ago, iPhone didn't exist. You know, however many years before that computers like things change, new tools come in, new things come in that has an impact on the way that we work has an impact on our customers like all these different variables keep moving around. So rather than beating yourself up when you don't reach that impossibly high standard, identify specific, changeable behaviors that you can improve over time. Think about yourself. Like a product, right? Like, if you were an app, how would you say, Okay, look, here's the minimum viable person that I want to be, here are the things that I want to work on, map those out, figure out how to use start to work on the make, he'll make peace with the fact that you're working progress. And then you can then start to set about working on those over time. Also don't feel like okay, you know, I said I was going to do this, and I'm not different A week later. It's not the way this stuff goes. Because for all of these, it's like any change in life, you want to change your diet, you want to change your exercise, you want to change your mind. It is about how do you put small, sustainable changes in place that you can work on over time, crash diets, the same way it goes with food doesn't work for your brain, then all of a sudden, you're like, hey, big change, big change, big change, then eventually we're going to see is that it's not sustainable. Your brain doesn't ultimately buy into it. It starts to contract, you go back to the way you were and then you feel like you're a failure. So again, go about this differently. Now, the individualist the individualist as somebody who feels like asking for help, really reveals that they're an imposter. Like, it's okay to be independent, but not to the extent or you honestly refuse help from other people, just so that you can prove how valuable you are. Especially creative. Creativity is a team sport. It is best whenever done with other people. And so again, you can't be the person that's on the team and just hogs the ball all the time, who just runs around who takes all the shots? Who does all that stuff? One, nobody wants to play with that person, but also with the fact that again, that's not the way a team functions. So again, if you're wondering, Is this me some of these questions right, like, do you really believe that you need to accomplish things just on your own? Have you caught yourself saying things like, you know what, I don't need anybody's help. Like, does that sound like something that you would say? And I think also whenever you do ask for help, do you frame that ask in terms of the requirements are the needs of the project, rather than your own personal needs? So instead of saying I need, you would possibly say like, you know, I need because I need to be able to do this on a project, I need this because there is this deliverable. I need this because the client wants it. Because if it's just simply you as a throughput, because you don't want to take ownership of the question, because then you feel like somehow, it makes you look weaker. Now, if you're doing those sorts of things, I think that some of the things you can do to help fight it. The first one is how do you externalize your creative process and share your work in progress. Don't be precious about it Don't be and again, this starts to borderline a little bit on the perfectionist but it's a similar thing here about how do you start to externalize? How do you share out because look, sharing things you're struggling with to trust groups and trusting people makes you feel better and like in looking here, again, start small, so you can feel comfortable, you can share little things and then build up over time again, don't go on like the brain crash diet and be like, here's my biggest darkest secret The thing that I struggle with one because it tends to freak people out because if you go from zero to 200 They're not sure how to deal with it. But again, I think that that way you can sort of get comfortable being uncomfortable and start to fight that individualism because as you go on here again, if you want to lead a team, if you want to grow in your career, being that individualist will often limit you to being an individual contributor, which again limits a lot of things in your career that those are only have so much value monetarily, positionally, you know, from, from a resource perspective to teams. So again, you want to be the person who can work with other people who make them better for you being there, not just they make you better. And again, it's that one way street. And finally, we have the expert, and the expert is somebody you know what they feel like they somehow tricked their employer into hiring them and that as a result, they have this like fear of being exposed as not as being like inexperienced, or they don't know enough or they're not knowledgeable. And here's the thing is that again, as we talked about balance, there's always more to learn. It helps you professionally keeps you competitive in the job market keeps you moving forward, I'd even talk about how that's why I like to speak. It's why I like to do this podcast, I like to give away what I've learned, even whenever I learn new things like about this, this was a subject I sort of knew about I mapped out, when did a bunch of research sort of leveled up on it feel like a little bit better on it, but I like to give it away, because it forces me forward. I can't just sit on and kind of saying like, Yeah, I know this, and that's gonna make me like, feel good. I'm just gonna sit on that for a while. But here again, it's about balance. And whenever the balance gets out of whack, it's about this tendency to endlessly seek out more information to constantly almost like hoard it right? Because it can be it can be a form of procrastination, it can be a form of insecurity. And, you know, do you again, are these some of the things that you do? Do you shy away from applying to jobs unless you meet every single requirement because you feel like unless you meet every single one of those And somehow you're an imposter? Are you constantly seeking out new classes and training, because you think you need to improve your skills, you constantly need to level up, right. And I think that can be a good thing. But on the other hand, if all you're doing it is to do it to keep your insecurity at bay, and it's not something that is useful, it is not something that, again, is really benefiting you. That's all you need to think about. And even if you've been in your role for a while, and by a while, I would say six or eight months at a minimum, and you feel like you still don't know enough, then that can obviously be a problem. And here again, look, there's all stuff in our jobs where like, there are certain times somebody says an acronym, and I'm like, Hey, I don't know what that is. That's not what I'm talking about. I feel like if you fundamentally feel like there is this insecurity, you're going to be found out. That's what enough means for that. So if you want to fight it, what I will tell you to do whenever I've worked with people who have had this in the past, it's about how do you practice? We'll call it like, just in time learning. How do you go get that knowledge, how do you get that skill when you need it, rather than hoarding it to really give you this false sense of comfort, because what you need to do is you really need to realize there's no shame in asking for help when you need it. And if you can't figure out how to solve a problem, then go get advice, go find a supportive team member, go find a leader go find somebody else. But it's this hoarding, where it's not knowledge for a reason. It's just knowledge for the sake of knowledge. And that that, again, is feeding insecurity. It's feeding a sense of procrastination, as opposed to really facing and focusing on what are those things that really matter. Now what can we do about all this? Right? Like, again, there's some little sort of nuggets in there. But, you know, the reality is, is that you may fall into one of these categories, you may fall into more than one I think, you know, you might have a primary and border on a few others, but, you know, you're gonna move through these as you go through your career, but the best way to fight this is confidence and confidence comes from not accepting your failure or disappointment. But partially from knowing that some things are out of your control, being human out of your control your upbringing, out of your control, some of those things, but what it also comes from is, it comes from knowing your process of questioning your decisions, trusting ultimately yourself. And that that trust really comes out of self awareness, self awareness in how do you accept yourself? How do you make peace with yourself? How do you say that look where you came from, the way you grew up the way that you are, it's not wrong. It's just different. And it's unique. And everybody's story is different and unique. But because it is different and unique, and that, again, movies and TVs and all this stuff that we watched this summer that create these social norms that we don't see ourselves. Maybe we don't look like that. We don't act like that. We don't talk like that. It's somehow we are the other. The other is not a weakness. The other is actually your strength. That whenever you lose into it, you accept it. That is the start of confidence. Now, it sounds so easy like, Hey, be more self aware, just watch what you do, hey, have more confidence. But I think as I look at myself, there are three sort of areas that I tend to focus on three cheat sheets that I try to keep in the back of my brain to help fight some of this stuff and help me keep moving forward. The first one is to keep asking for feedback. It is amazing how at first, it will not feel like this. But how empowering it is when you open up and admit things that you are afraid of, and the empathy and advice that you get from other people when you do it. At first, you're going to feel like you're going to die, they're going to judge me, and it can be a problem. And the problem is, is that it is also thinking about the format in which you do this. I would encourage you to do it with people that you know, do it face to face, do it in those sorts of forums where it can be supportive where you can actually have a discussion if you go into to social media and ask for that, yes, in some cases, you will find insane amounts of support and empathy from people you don't know people who want to come in and rush in and be supportive. But the other part that can be destructive, especially in the early phases of this and even at other parts, is you're going to find the assholes, you're going to find the trolls, you're gonna find the people who just seem to celebrate, in just pointing out what they don't like in making themselves feel better, feel bigger, feel stronger, by putting other people down. Now here again, that's a reflection of their insecurity, that's a reflection of their problem, but it's not going to feel like that to you what it's going to feel like, it's going to feel like rejection, it's gonna feel like a fucking hurts. And so what you want to do is to understand, and to think about the place and the way the medium that you use to be able to get that feedback, because the sooner you're able to identify those fears and give them a voice, the sooner you're gonna be able to help and get the help of other people to get you through those challenges. Because that's a big part of so much of this of so much that we talked about on the show, right? is how much of this stuff we go through alone. And we don't need to. But it's the fear. It's the insecurity, it's I'm going to be judged people are going to know something about me, oh my god, like, what's that gonna do? They're gonna think less than me. Now ultimately, I think they're human. At the end of the day, they're gonna think that you're going through probably something very similar to what they're going through. They also just didn't necessarily have the fear to be able to, you know, and they were afraid to put that out there. So keep asking for feedback. And then the next one is get out of your area of expertise and get out of your comfort zone. I have talked at nauseam about how comfort is the enemy of greatness. And that's the thing is just comfort keeps us limited. We need to learn new things we need to push ourselves because that's where confidence comes from, is whenever I say hey, I'm gonna go do something that I don't know how to do. And then when you do it, build some confidence. You think, Hey, I put myself in an uncomfortable situation, hey, I did something new. And it was okay. I got through it. I was good at it. You do that enough times you make peace with yourself you start to understand Your process, you start to say, hey, look, I can get in these situations and be good at it doesn't mean that I have to have all the answers. But what it means is that I've got a process, what it means is that I know myself, what it means is that I can do these things and figure it out. And then I have the confidence in that. Not in that I have to have all the answers, but that again, I can push through, and I can figure it out. So get out of your damn comfort zone. And lastly, and maybe the biggest one is measure yourself by your own standards, by your own palette, as we talked about, about being that MVP, right? Like, what is the minimum viable person? Like what are those things that if you were to step back and say, if you had to give advice to yourself, if you didn't know yourself? What were the things that you would say you should work on? What are those kind of things right, because it's so easy to be consumed by other people's talents by comparing yourself to others and it is an impossible game to win. Somebody is always smarter. Somebody is always more creative. Somebody always has a better background a bit different resume, like they're doing something you're like, dammit. That's so cool. So just again, except that that's going to be there. And that come that constant comparison is not going to be useful. It's not going to be helpful. Instead, try to compete with yourself. Where were you? And I want you to think about this. Where were you a year ago? Where are you six months ago? Can you measure that improvement over time, not only from where you've been, because I do think it is good from time to time to stop and look back and to take credit for where you been. But to also think about and to be deliberate about where are you going this is, this is why I want people to build their brand or to think about this. So that again, your career, your growth, your happiness is not by happenstance, it is not just simply by the opportunities that the company you're a part of gives you. It's about what do you create? What do you need? How do you understand that and how do you set that bar that balance so you're working on those things that are going to be the things that make you more productive, make you happier, make you stronger? That, again are going to be the things that you're measuring yourself against. Because again, that is a sustainable way of looking at things because confidence will come and go. But know that we all struggle with this stuff. You're not alone, that having this problem isn't a problem. It's only a problem if you don't acknowledge it. And if you don't work on it, if you just simply say, I am the way I am, this is who I am, I'm not going to change then it's a problem. Because those people will then tend to get more and more frustrated. They tend to get angry and angry as they go through their career about why they're not being recognized. Why are they not moving up the ladder? Why and they're not getting those opportunities, but they again remain so rigid, so unchangeable, and you can't get both. You don't get to say this is absolutely 100% I am, I cannot learn I cannot grow and I cannot or will not improve. But then again, why am I not being recognized as being somebody who ultimately improves believe that you can be and are a great designer? Do the work, don't give up. Question your motives. Think about yourself, understand and again, make peace with who you are and what you do build that self awareness. Because ultimately, what you want to have is you want to have imposter syndrome be less and less a part of your life, that you have the tools to fight it whenever it is, because he's still going to be there. Again, no magic bullet here, you're not going to go, Oh, I understand this, poof, it's gone. It's not going to be gone. It may come in different forms. But again, if you have the self awareness to say, hey, why is that happening? You have the support of people who can help you along the way with that, you can have the roadmap to continue to work on it, you are that constant work in progress. Then again, that is what breeds confidence. And confidence is what can hold this at bay, and that making peace with yourself and understanding that it's okay to be going through this stuff. We all have problems. We all go through this stuff. It is a part of every single person's job. And so again, understand that it's not different. This is just a part of the deal. So as always, if you You find this that all helpful, please take a second on your favorite podcast platform. leave a review, let people know what you think about the show. While you're there, make sure you hit the subscribe button so you get the latest episodes whenever those come out. As always, you can find out more about the shows, get related articles, get the show notes, listen to other shows, do all of that fun stuff. Head over to the crazy and the number one calm podcast, the crazy one calm. If you want to follow me on any social media channels, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Instagram, all that good stuff. You can go over to Facebook and whenever you're there, go and type in The Crazy One podcast like the show. I'm always like posting different articles, answering questions and doing stuff like that. As always, everybody wants me to remind you that my views here are my own. They don't represent any of my current or former employers. This is just me out here talking. And finally I say it every time because I mean it every time but thank you for your time. I know that time is truly the only real luxury that any of us have was incredibly humbled that you want to spend any of it with me. So understand you're good enough. You're smart enough. Damn it people like you. This imposter thing again. Comes with the deal. And as you're going out there, try to fight it. I'm here for you right me if you need help, and all the while while you're doing it, stay crazy.