What is Impostor Syndrome (IS)? 🤔

The context here is that in the brave new world of Web3 DAOs, everything is new. People frequently find themselves doing new things, in a new context, and sometimes with unclear expectations of how something should be. Added to this, most  work is carried out asynchronously and remotely, with limited forms of communication. All of this can add up to potentially higher chances of IS rearing its head. 🐍

IS is a common syndrome consisting largely of false self perception and insecurity. IS is an issue with projections of Self not matching ability.

Either

• Ability is below that which we believe it should be, and we feel bad about this dissonance. Although we fear our incapability is transparent, we work to live up to our aspiration and hope no one notices the difference.. all the while suspecting that they do. 😬

Or

• Our self perception is lower than our actual ability. Despite doing well at our tasks and receiving good feedback, we dismiss these acknowledgements as by-products of hard work (that anyone else could have done) or maybe as politeness, as encouragement to improve, or even a form of pity. We are, as a result, never satisfied and may suspect others are not being genuine with us.✋

These projections can come from ourselves, our histories and upbringing or from the culture we currently find ourselves in. This insecurity typically manifests in an ongoing ‘cup half empty’ feeling of inadequacy and quiet desperation. This can cause anxiety and low self-esteem and/or over working.

We will explore it further below by looking at signs, beliefs, cultural influences, aggravating factors and possible solutions. ✔️

Initial impressions of how it feels...

• You feel like a fraud.
• You worry people will, or already do, see through your ‘charade’ and realise you are tricking them. You do not belong where you are really.
• Any signs of success or appreciation come from dumb luck, hard work anyone could do, or charity/pity on the part of others.
• Others perceive you as being more competent than you are and it is just a matter of time till disappointment and resentment arise from this sorry situation…

Who is prone to IS? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Me, them, anyone! First thought to be associated with perfectionists and women more than men, research on imposter syndrome has since debunked these myths.

All of us humans experience times of doubt. In DAOs, freedom and lack of structure can be greater, creating extra room for anxiety and neurosis. Increased room for interpretation and individual choice can also give rise to greater self doubt. This is a flip side of the opportunities such community structures provide for us. ☯️

Wait, are you actually an Impostor? 😱

Unless your aims are to secretly extract value unfairly from a situation, while offering little in return (think thief or parasite), then the answer is simply NO, YOU ARE NOT AN IMPOSTOR!

Easy to say and yet, the feeling can persist. It is often deeply rooted in the mind as conditioning— as the saying goes “what we resist, persists.” So let us look at how this can play out.