How to overcome Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt as a Professional
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As the calendar turns to a fresh year or month, do you feel the urge of starting new adventures or chasing dreams? It could be as big as launching a new business or as simple as picking up a new skill. The beginning is always refreshing, but the challenge is to keep chasing those dreams even when the excitement fades.
Ever set out with a list of goals to achieve, only to lose interest after a while? We're going to look at some essential psychology tips that can help chase dreams successfully. And for those of you who are professionals, startup founders or business owners, understanding the positive characteristics of entrepreneurs from this article could be a game-changer on your journey to success.
For those keen to pursue your ideals, establishing habits is incredibly important. Here, we're not just talking about forming a specific habit but cultivating the habit of forming habits, or what we might call a 'meta-habit'.
We should aim for habits that are easily achievable. Why? If you consistently set very high standards for your habits and fail to meet them, it can impact your self-image. You begin to view yourself as someone who can't set and maintain habits. Sometimes, what's important is not the habit itself but how you perceive yourself—whether you see yourself as someone who can achieve certain habits.
When faced with a goal that seems too large and unattainable, our first reaction is to feel daunted and then to give up. How can we overcome this obstacle? Often, it's by breaking a large goal into several smaller, more manageable milestones. Each milestone should be easily reachable from the previous one. For instance, if you aim to establish a habit of exercising, don't set your first milestone as running a half marathon, which is 21 kilometres. Instead, set a simpler goal, like running around the block five times a week. Then, you can gradually increase the challenge. Achieving these small milestones gives you a sense of success. You're not just forming a habit; you're also building a self-image of someone who can form habits, which is even more crucial.
Once you start to see yourself as someone who can establish habits, you're not only able to do this with exercise but can apply the same logic to any area where you need to establish habits, be it making friends, learning new knowledge, or developing healthy eating habits. The approach remains the same.
Exercise has a significant relationship with our mental health. Throughout exercising, our brains respond by releasing more testosterone (Howlett T. A., 1987) and endorphins (Harber, V. J., & Sutton, J. R., 1984), two chemicals crucial for our mindset. Testosterone helps maintain our fighting spirit, while endorphins help soothe our emotions, making us less susceptible to life's negative aspects.
In other words, when you exercise, you become someone with determination and less sensitivity to negativity. Beyond emotions, studies have found that aerobic exercise, such as running for twenty minutes a day, helps maintain our cognitive health (Mandolesi, L., et al., 2018). Another study found that some of our cognitive skills peak at around the age of 22, and then a slow decline begins at around the age of 27 (Salthouse T. A., 2009). Many of our viewers are likely around this age. Regular aerobic exercise can slow the deterioration of our attention span and be key to maintaining it.
Why is this so important? Because intelligence plays a significant role in long-term career development and success in the workplace. Psychologists generally believe that for basic positions, such as cleaners or clerical workers, conscientiousness from the Big Five personality traits can predict workplace performance. However, as you climb higher in your career, requiring more complex thinking, like a manager or consultant, your IQ becomes a better predictor of your professional success than conscientiousness.
While IQ is somewhat innate, imagine that simply through the habit of exercising, you could maintain a relatively stable level of intelligence over the decades, in a lifespan where it would typically be in slow decline. Isn't this a situation where there are only benefits and no drawbacks?
I believe that when it comes to forming habits, one cannot simply follow the crowd blindly. When choosing which habits to develop, it's essential to consider what habits are necessary for one's own identity rather than mindlessly adhering to societal standards.
For instance, consider learning a foreign language. Many people opt to learn Korean or Japanese, but more often than not, those who choose to learn these languages are interested in the related culture or have a professional interest in it. For example, if someone is very fond of anime, then learning Japanese as a habit is likely to be more sustainable. However, if you decide to learn Japanese simply because you think it's a good habit, you may find that you're not using your time as effectively as you could.
We should consider what truly fits us best. And how do we determine what's best for us? There are many approaches to this, one of which is certainly to take a personality test. The Big Five Personality Test can help you understand what types of work and careers are more suitable for you. For example, if you are an extroverted person and your job requires you to spend a lot of time on the computer or handling data, that job might not be the best fit for you. In other words, sometimes it's not about replicating the success of others but rather taking the time to think about what success and ideals mean for you personally.
When chasing dreams, it's crucial to understand what success and fulfilment mean to you as an individual. This is where MindForest can be a transformative tool in your journey. By engaging with this innovative AI coaching app, you can:
MindForest isn't about emulating someone else's path to success; it's about carving out your own. As you converse with the AI, your thoughts and reflections are seamlessly turned into journal entries. Why not take the first step towards nurturing your own definition of success?
Download MindForest today, and start cultivating the life you aspire to by forming good habits—one conversation at a time.
In conclusion, each of us has the ability to foster the habits that are essential for chasing dreams. This endeavour goes beyond the simple act of setting goals; it is a profound transformation that integrates the characteristics of entrepreneurs. It is about evolving into a person who not only has consistent habits but also commits to regular self-improvement and chases aspirations aligned with our unique life goals.
While not all of us may walk the path of entrepreneurship, we can certainly embrace its spirit by taking ownership of our lives with the same dedication. Let these psychology tips in this article guide us as we methodically build one habit at a time, steering ourselves towards the dreams we aspire to achieve.
Harber, V. J., & Sutton, J. R. (1984). Endorphins and exercise. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 1(2), 154–171. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-198401020-00004
Howlett T. A. (1987). Hormonal responses to exercise and training: a short review. Clinical endocrinology, 26(6), 723–742. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2265.1987.tb00832.x
Mandolesi, L., Polverino, A., Montuori, S., Foti, F., Ferraioli, G., Sorrentino, P., & Sorrentino, G. (2018). Effects of Physical Exercise on Cognitive Functioning and Wellbeing: Biological and Psychological Benefits. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 509. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00509
Salthouse T. A. (2009). When does age-related cognitive decline begin?. Neurobiology of aging, 30(4), 507–514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.09.023
