How to Beat Your Imposter Syndrome?

Angelina Yang
5 min readNov 6, 2023

Questions about imposter syndrome are extremely common. Whether you are a recent graduate searching for a job, a new member of a team trying to fit in, or an experienced professional dealing with workplace conflicts, the truth is,

Imposter syndrome affects us all.

As a therapist once said,

“I don’t think I’ve had a patient come to me that believed they were enough, whether they are an Olympic star or a business person. At the heart of them, there was some kind of deeper self-esteem issue.”

Today I want to share what I learned about how human brain functions when dealing with emotions like “feeling like an imposter” from Professor Steve Peters. Professor Peters is a renowned psychiatrist who has worked with some of the world’s most accomplished individuals.

Three YOU in you

There are three systems in your brain: the chimp, the human, and the computer.

Source

In a nutshell, they are different in the following ways:

  • The chimp — primitive, defensive, impulsive, the YOU shared with our primitive ancestors
  • The human — analytical, the YOU in you
  • The computer — underpinning system you can program, this is where YOU can work on to manage

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