Your early life
How you were brought up and the lessons your learned about how to be in the world influence how you develop. In some cases, the messages that children hear or interpret, can lead to unhealthy beliefs in adult life.
Once you have identified which imposter type you are, it is useful to reflect on how that belief or behaviour formed in your childhood.
Lets look at some examples and how they might manifest into the different types.
The perfectionist. Did you hear the words "practice makes perfect" or get labelled as a perfectionist in an endearing and complimentary way? Were you praised for always being tidy, clean or organised.
The Problem:
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The Solution:
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Self belief
Lack of self worth, self belief and self esteem seems to be the precursor to developing imposter syndrome in adults. Research shows that any increase in self-esteem is accompanied by a decrease in impostor syndrome and vice versa. People who have never experienced imposter syndrome before can develop it later in life as life experiences knock self esteem. There are links to marriage breakdowns, job losses, bullying and grief and other significant life changes that knocks someones feelings of self-worth and self esteem. It is also noted that health problems, menopause, weight problems, for example, can impact ones self esteem. This can then lead people to lack faith in their abilities and feel like a fraud.
Personality
Your personality or behavioural profile will help you understand which imposter types might be more prevalent within you.
The dominant personalities like targets, results and action. They like to win. Therefore, the super hero and expert behaviours might manifest. Conscientious people have high standards and like to be experts. This might manifest in perfectionism, natural genius and expert behaviours. The influencers also like to be liked and held in high regard. therefore they prefer to be the helpers rather than be helped. They might also fall into super hero or even soloist behaviours as they don't like to appear as failures. The steady people don't like to be a burden. They might then take everyone elses needs into consideration before their own, forgetting to delegate and ask for help.
Knowing your personality style helps you identify your strengths and limitations. It might help you to identify what you are like on a good day and a bad day. Thus giving you the opportunity to understand, accept, develop and form new habits.
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