As the first quarter of the year gradually comes to a close, now seems a better time than ever to recollect your goals & achievements. 

One detail you might find hovering in recollecting some of these achievements is the persistent feeling of deception. 

This feeling of deception, imposter syndrome ever so often felt by many high achievers, borders on the belief that you feel inadequate and incompetent for achievements you clearly put in the work for. 

A physiological feeling of incompetence, imposter syndrome often takes different forms, mostly depending on your background, personality and position. It creates a feeling of insecurity, waiting on someone to “find out” that you hacked your way to the top. 

More recently, Dr Valerie Young, an expert on the subject, developed five categories of imposter syndrome based on decades of research studying it among high achievers. These categories aptly describe the different ways imposter syndrome shows up as well as how to tackle each of them: 

• The Perfectionist

For the perfectionist, the focus is placed on how things are done. And if you fall into this group, chances are that you hold unrealistic standards of perfection and view any minor flaw as a failure. That is, a 99 score in a test score over 100 would have you sulking for days, wondering if you put in enough work.

The only way to fix this is to understand that not everything is perfect, and everything doesn’t need to be perfect. 

• The Expert

The experts are the know it all of the group, and not in a ‘raised shoulders’ sense. The experts focus on ‘what’, ‘how much they know and can do, expecting themselves to know everything. So once you come across something new, lack of knowledge displayed quickly denotes failure and shame. 

So, to overcome this, it is important to understand the difference between saying ‘I’m so stupid and ‘I feel so stupid in this moment.’ Not everyone knows everything and frankly speaking, no one expects you to. 

• The Soloist 

If you prefer to work alone and only consider tasks completed only when you do everything yourself, you fall into this class. Asking for help is usually considered a sign of failure. 

However, no man is an island, and collaborations are vital to get things done sometimes. So choosing to complete projects yourself might take longer.

• The Natural Genius

Working without struggle often invokes feelings of incompetence amongst The Natural Genius. They measure accomplishments in terms of ‘how’ and ‘when’ they are completed, and anything that cannot be completed at the first trial equals failure. 

Instead of expecting to hit the ground running, it is particularly helpful to remember that the more you do anything, the better you get at it. 

• The Superperson

The superperson focuses on ‘how many’ roles can be juggled at once and measures competency based off these roles. They are always quick to volunteer for something new and start to feel incomplete when they’re not involved in something. 

Understanding that you’re not expected to do everything is the first step to battling this inposter syndrome. Opt to lower your standards, finding time to remind yourself that you are doing the best you can.