We ended March with our second event highlighting the experience and advice from Dr. Vanessa Chan, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame and past graduate from the University of Toronto.
Vanesssa introduced the science behind Impostor Phenomenon - the belief that others hold you to a higher standard than you think you deserve to be held at. She highlighted one of the common problems of impostor phenomenon for her - the common duality of how everyone else sees us and what we see ourselves as. Specifically referring to the discrepancies that we see between how we describe situations and successes to other people vs. how we ourselves experience them.
She took the time to share her feelings on how focusing on her passion helped her to be confident in her journey and what practices help her deal with feelings of impostorism:
1. Find a support network and try to be vulnerable with them in moments of impostorism.
Find the people that will be in your corner even when you yourself don’t feel like you are!
2. Trust others’ judgements that you belong
Positive reinforcement from your peers, friends, your supervisor and others can help show you that you do belong here.
3. Let go of perfection and place your value elsewhere
Placing your value in other environments (i.e. your well being and happiness or your support group) will help prevent feeling less than. Value needs to be let go from being caught up in impostorism and that it is more than, for example, the next publication or your set of lecture slides.
4. Go do something else for a short bit and commit to doing it
Commit to your hobbies and things that bring you peace - talking with a friend, learning to knit, run, etc. Tying into the ideology of perfection - stepping away is okay!
5. Don’t try to mind read - others could be feeling exactly the same!
Talk with your peers, your supervisor, and anyone in your environment - you may be surprised how common these feelings are and that we cannot predict others expectations.
6. Get in the habit of celebrating things big and small
Change your habits in celebrating your achievements - celebrate every event, small or big!
With these core lessons and tricks, we can help each other move forward towards crushing it!