by Mickey Rountree
You’ve had a good couple of years of photography, made some really nice images, won some awards, and gained some new skills. And then one day you look at your images and ask yourself “How can you pretend to be a photographer? You’re not good enough to call yourself a photographer, you just don’t have the skills.” Or you’re on stage playing in a band, when it hits you that you don’t belong up there. You don’t play well enough, and everyone in the band and the audience knows it.
You’ve just experienced the “Imposter Syndrome” and most people will experience at least brief imposter feelings at some point in their lives.
First, let me say that I’m not a psychiatrist, or psychologist and I couldn’t even play one on TV. I barely passed Psych 101 with a “C”, though I did make an “A” in Abnormal Psych (I guess I could relate). I just want you to know that if you’ve had these doubts and fears you aren’t alone.
Imposter syndrome was first described in the 1970’s and is the feeling that you are not as competent as you should be, or as others see you. Any minute now people will see you for the fraud you are. This is in contrast to all objective evidence of your skills, talents and accomplishments. Common characteristics are: self-doubt, inability to accept your own skills and achievements, underrating yourself, fearing that you don’t meet the expectations of others, being driven to overachieve, setting impossible goals, and then feeling bad when you don’t reach them.
Often imposter syndrome happens to very high achievers, such as executives, doctors and other healthcare workers (the context in which I first heard the term), and creatives such as actors, musicians, and, yes, even photographers. Most of my friends are photographers and/or musicians and almost everybody I know has had these self-doubts at least briefly, so in my limited experience, creatives seem particularly vulnerable. In fact, my examples above are due to the fact that there is a huge correlation between photography and music. I think creatives may be even more at risk because it is difficult to evaluate the arts like photography, music, painting, etc. objectively. That also makes it easier to subjectively devalue your own skills and accomplishments.
For most people these symptoms are temporary, but if they persist or feel like they are controlling your life, you may need to see a professional. If you just get those occasional doubts, here are several things that may help.
- Talk to other people in your field. You may be surprised to find out that you are not alone in these feelings. Just recognizing that others have the same self-doubts may help reassure you that that you aren’t as bad off as you think.
- Learn to evaluate yourself objectively without self-criticism.
- Have someone whose opinion you trust and value, critique your work, and help you see your strengths.
- If someone critiques your work and points out a flaw, or suggests an improvement, it doesn’t mean that you are terrible or worthless. Do consider the merits of what they tell you.
- Accept that there is always someone better. Stop comparing yourself against the best of the best. Don’t forget that even they sometimes have these thoughts too.
- Don’t expect to reach perfection, and certainly don’t expect instant success. Appreciate that steady small improvements are a much more practical and achievable goal. And give yourself credit for the improvements you do make.
- Let these feelings inspire you to work to improve, but don’t let them drive you to an incessant quest for perfection that burns you out and only adds to your feelings of frustration, exhaustion, and unworthiness.
- Don’t let these feelings keep you from working. Start a new project or shake up something in your work to get you moving and keep you motivated.
- If you see someone else struggling with self-doubt, try to do something to help them. You will probably find that it helps you as much as it helps them.
- If these feelings are persistent, debilitating, or dominate your life and keep you from functioning get help from a professional.
More