So this is not a blog about good and evil per se, this is more about the eternal internal battle most if not all of use struggle with at some point in our life and careers. The WHO ME? moment, when your chimp or your imposter syndrome really kicks in.
I know that I have really struggled with this over my career to date and even today as I write this blog somewhere inside me there is a voice saying " who are you to write about imposter syndrome" .... "what qualifications do you have to make your blog worthwhile"
I have over time read many a book on how to manage or learn better behaviours on the subject from "The Chimp Paradox" by Prof Steve Peters and "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey, to the more recent thought leadership titles such as "F#CK being humble" by Stefanie Sword-Williams and "Happy Sexy Millionaire" by Stephen Bartlett.
Did these books rid me of my imposter syndrome? Of course not I will never get rid of my imposter syndrome. What they taught me is that I am not alone in this battle and that the key to overcoming my syndrome or chimp is how I react to it. Too often my worry has been that I am not good enough and that people will find out sooner or later. I have found the best way to manage my imposter syndrome are:
Listen to those around you who see your worth
Write down or take note of every win
Work hard to achieve your daily goals
But don't beat yourself up if the day takes on different route
Learn from mistakes keep a personal retro log so as not to keep repeating them
Don't surround yourself with people who don't see your value
Listen it isn't easy to manage your imposter syndrome, if it was there wouldn't be so many article and books about it. But I bet that there are many contacts, colleagues and friends who will happily help you keep it to a manageable distraction.
You are not alone, you are not the only person who is impacted by the imposter syndrome, but you are the only person who can manage how you react to the challenge the imposter syndrome presents.