0-14 Very few IS (imposter syndrome) characteristics.
15-28 Some IS characteristics.
29-56 Very uncomfortable experiences due to IS.

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If your results suggest that you may have moderate to strong IS tendencies, you are likely to be motivated to learn and work harder so that you can finally feel that your skills are adequate and your work is valuable.

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On the negative side, however, this motivation doesn’t come from a healthy place. The price of success, in this case, is your constant anxiety and exhaustion.

 

To make things worse, you are likely to hide your feelings and suffer in isolation. It doesn’t come as a surprise that imposter syndrome is often associated with anxiety and depression.

 

A lot of people with imposter syndrome are perfectionists. They can be very smart about what they do, but they wish to be geniuses.

 

Some of them may spend unreasonable amounts of time on their work, hoping to get it perfect. Some others, however, may procrastinate for the very same reason.

 

There are those who attribute their success to luck, connections, or their likable personalities. And there are those who believe they succeeded because they worked harder than everyone else despite their perceived lack of skills and intelligence.

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Tips and ideas:

1. Focus on your strengths instead of perceived flaws.

2. If you have been successful for a while, you must be doing something right.

3. Things don’t have to be hard to be great.

4. If you don’t know everything there is possibly to know about your subject field, it doesn’t necessarily make you ignorant.

5. Not all goals can be achieved from the first try. Trying and failing can be part of the process.

6. Be aware of what you do to “protect” yourself from being discovered:

• Changing jobs often

• Not speaking out in meetings

• Procrastinating so that you don’t have to show your work to others

• Keeping a very low profile to avoid scrutiny

• Sabotaging yourself

• Limiting yourself because you believe that you can’t replicate your success in another place or in another domain

7. If you are a perfectionist, learn to stop when the task is done well enough.

8. If you spend too much time overpreparing and trying to get things perfect, limit the time you spend on your work projects.

9. Asking for help isn’t necessarily a sign of weakness or incompetence.