Babble Challenge: 50 Ways to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

1. Write down your own criticism so it no longer feels fresh
2. Have your criticism read aloud to you by someone else
3. Argue back to this criticism
4. Write down your counter-arguments so they stick
5. Document your own progress
6. Get testimonials and references even when you don't "need" them
7. Praise the competence of other people without adding self-deprecation
8. Same as above but in their vicinity so they'll feel compelled to praise you back
9. Teach the basics of your field to newcomers
10. Teach the basics of your field to experts from other fields
11. Write down the basics of your field, for yourself
12. Ask someone else to make your beverage of choice
13. Ask them to tell you "you deserve it" when they're giving it to you
14. If your instinct is to reply "no I don't", consider swapping the roles
15. Drink your beverage, because it feels nice
16. Build stuff that cannot possibly be built by chance alone
17. Stare outside the window, wondering if anybody cares about you
18. Consider a world where everyone is as insecure as you
19. Ask friends about their insecurities
20. Consider you're too stupid to drink a glass of water, then drink some water
21. Meditate on the difference between map and territory
22. Write instructions for the non-impostor version of you
23. Write instructions for whoever replaces you when people find out you're an impostor
24. Validate those instructions with other experts, passing it off as project planning
25. Follow the instructions to keep the masquerade on
26. Refine the instructions since they're "obviously" not perfect
27. Publish the whole thing here, get loads of karma
28. Document everything you don't know for reference
29. Publish the thing as a list of open problems
30. Criticize harshly other people's work to see how they take it
31. Make amends by letting them criticize you
32. Use all this bitterness to create a legendary academic rivalry
33. Consider "impostor" as a cheap rhetorical attack that doesn't hold up
34. Become very good at explaining why other people are better than you
35. Publish the whole thing as in-depth reporting of the life of scientists
36. Focus on your deadline, time doesn't care if you're an impostor or not
37. Make yourself lunch, balance on one foot, solve a sudoku puzzle
38. Meditate on the fact you actually can do several complex things well
39. Consider that competence is not about knowing exactly how one does things
40. Have motivational pictures near you and argue how they don't apply to you
41. Consider the absurdity of arguing with pictures
42. Do interesting things instead, not because you have to, but to evade the absurdity
43. Practice the "I have no idea what I'm doing, but no one does" stance
44. Ask people why they think they know how they do things
45. If they start experimenting impostor syndrome as well, support them
46. Join a club of impostors, to learn from better impostors than you
47. Write an apology letter to everyone you think you've duped
48. Simulate the outrage of anyone reading this letter
49. Cut ties with everyone who would actually treat you badly after reading
50. Sleep well, eat well, exercise, brush your teeth, take care of yourself

50 Ways to Solve Imposter Syndrome

1. Say to myself, "I have imposter syndrome, but I am not an imposter."
2. Write encouraging messages on sticky notes and place them in places I will see.
3. Pretend I AM an imposter and make a game out of deceiving my peers.
4. Smile to myself as I write my stupid ideas into a scientific looking paper, because everyone will just eat it up.
5. Remind myself that research and papers aren't just something I happen to do, they are part of who I am. I am a researcher and a paper writer.
6. Call a parent or someone who believes in me, and ask them what they think of what I do.
7. Talk to strangers and tell them about my work.
8. Read previous papers I've written, and tell myself what's good about them.
9. Read previous papers I've written, and critique them, so that I can see how far I've come in my skills and intuitions for this field.
10. Read papers someone else has written in this field, and write down what I would do differently or better.
11. Pretend I'm some other researcher that I know of, and imagine that they have imposter syndrome too, and write down their anxieties and fears.
12. Talk to my pet, or get a pet. I'm smarter than this cat, aren't I? This cat would REALLY have messed this up.
13. Pretend I'm someone smarter, and do the work while pretending to be them.
14. Write down a list of any specific failings or anxieties I have in this area. Is there anything I actually don't know or can't do that my imposter syndrome is feeding off of? Make those fears concrete.
15. Address the items on my list with actionable tasks that I can do to work on my weaknesses. Read that paper that I skipped, learn that formula I never quite got, etc.
16. Post something on reddit about having imposter syndrome and let the encouragements roll in.
17. Make a really simple to do list of the next five things I need to do to accomplish this.
18. Make a list of things that I would expect from this project so that it doesn't suck, and then try to make sure it doesn't suck.
19. Write down a list of all my gut wrenching fears about this, and then write a counterpoint list that directly states the opposite of every fear as a personal mantra, and repeat those statements to myself every day.
20. Pick a class that I did well in at some point, and spend some time fondly remembering how well I did.
21. Make a list of my classmates/peers that I think I'm better than.
22. Pick someone in my field who is only a LITTLE bit better than me, and state why. Then make a plan for what I can do to surpass them.
23. Buy something for myself that makes me feel like a person who does what I do -- some sort of prop that represents my valid identity.
24. Go talk to a professor/advisor, and tell them about what I'm experiencing. Record the conversation since they'll probably give me encouragement and advice.
25. Explain what I'm working on to a rubber ducky or something with equivalent intelligence, to help me work through what I'm thinking about.
26. Pick a paper/project that has a worse premise than mine and remind myself that mine will at least be better than that.
27. Remind myself that this process of struggling is part of the growth that will turn me into what I want to be, and it's okay if I'm not there yet.
28. Take a break and spend some time with some friends.
29. Get drunk or do drugs and work on the paper while intoxicated.
30. Play loud music or white noise into some headphones and work, to cut out some of that internal chatter.
31. Write a fictional story about myself overcoming these obstacles.
32. Exercise and work when I'm exhausted.
33. Get some actual sleep for once.
34. Eat some better food.
35. Try NOT drinking or doing drugs, if I'm doing those things already.
36. Browse popular media or forums where laypeople discuss the field I'm in, and shake my head at how little they know.
37. Go to therapy.
38. Look for other available mental health resources, and get some help already.
39. Talk to a friend about how hard things are, and for once try NOT being an imposter and just being myself. Let my barriers down for a bit.
40. Cry. Figure out some way to make myself cry if I can't cry.
41. Write a fictional conversation between myself and one of my idols in this field, and imagine the sort of things they would say to me to help.
42. Get well-groomed and dressed up like I'm on a date or something. Make myself feel good about my appearance and let those good feelings propagate to my overall sense of self.
43. Do that thing from that one TED talk where you pose in a position of power, with your arms up superman style. Body language affects your self-perception.
44. Record encouraging statements and listen to them.
45. Design business cards with my current title on them.
46. Get a tattoo that has something to do with my field of research. Now I'm really committed.
47. Pick a special physical space that I do work in that feels important and intellectual, and separate my personal life from work life by only working there.
48. Make a "study group" of peers and work on our projects together in the same room.
49. Write about things I know about online, anonymously, to remind myself how much more I know than the average person.
50. Study and work really hard until the imposter syndrome goes away.

Something really interesting about this exercise for me was how long it took me to consider the idea of seeking  professional help or talking to someone like a professor or advisor. I tend to be overly self-reliant, and I would have probably benefited from both social and professional advice when I was in college, but it just didn't seem like something I could do. Writing down ALL the ideas is really helpful in shaking off those assumptions. 

1. Read a book on imposter syndrome.
2. Meditate
3. Talk to someone
4. Cut yourself some slack
5. Read about babble!
6. Ignore it and publish the result anyway
7. Look at your past achievements
8. Do a poll on twitter asking how many people get imposter syndrome
9. Sleep
10. Go do something you know you're amazing at
11. Write about your feelings - writing therapy
12. Enjoy it until you have it.
13. Get a coloring book and color inside the lines. That's hard!
14. Cook something delicious
15. Listen to some motivational/self-help speaker for some short-term boost
16. Go for a walk
17. Do some intense workout
18. Laugh at yourself
19. Take some time off and have some fun
20. Take a crazy cold shower or better yet, an ice bath
21. Watch batman take on the Justice League
22. Help someone less fortunate than you
23. Dance
24. Take it out on a punching bag
25. Do some kindness meditation
26. Maintain a streak of how many times you overcome imposter syndrome
27. Break it down to identify the underlying reasons, and solve them one by one.
28. Join the army.
29. Do something you think you can't do.
30. Go for a therapy session
31. Get out of your room and surround yourself with nature
32. Watch an uplifting movie
33. Have sex
34. Go to a coffee-place and chill out
35. Go for a hike
36. Pick something else, and come back to your current activity later.
37. Pray to god
38. Talk to yourself and increase your self-confidence
39. Ask someone to take a look at your paper - you'll probably hear that it's not that bad.
40. Hangout with someone
41. Sit by a river/lake/sea
42. Play with some animals (puppies?)
43. Talk to someone who you know is an imposter
44. Act like a real imposter and fake something. You'll realize you weren't being an imposter earlier.
45. Read psychology
46. Buy a block of cheese and slowly enjoy it to its fullest
47. Do a r/roastme
48. Sing your favourite songs
49. Go to a language club of your native language - feel like a king.
50. Don't do anything. Sit there and notice when that feeling passes away.

1. feel better
2. go for a walk
3. write what you think you would write 10 years in the future
4. write in order to post a juicy post on subreddit "today I fucked up"
5. Do an activity that you are more clearly an expert on in order to set a competence mood
6. Don't do it - can't be an imposter if you are not in the role touches temple
7. Be an imposter - write under a pseudonym
8. Hypnotise yourself out of imposter syndrome
9. Outsource, get a ghostwriter
10. Study more
11. Make thesis more modest and defendable (yikes!)
12. Instead of writing what you thin write what a socially acceptable median member would write
13. Recall all your qualificiations in detail, examine thoughts on why it woudl be insufficient for the task
14. Get an addtional qualification before starting to feel more competent
15. Fraudulently get an socially unassailable qualification to your name
16. Get someone to threaten you at gun point in order to do it
17. Go talk to whoever you would hand your text to and start talkign how you can't deliver and try to make it as painful as possible
18. Cry to your friends how incompetent you are in order to elect passion and reassurances
19. Cease to exist - can't have negative emotions if you are not having emotions touches temple
20. Take psychoactives to induce a manic episode to have illusions of grandeour to carry you through
21. Get so wasted by alchol that you inhibitions are super low (text quality warning)
22. Promise not to publish and have easier time to write - then write text you can publish based on text you have promised not to publish
23. Write multiple options intending to reject most and then try to keep the least stupid production
24. Do a roleplay session and write the paper roleplaying as a high-int character
25. Insult the whole world so much that you feel the most confident person on earth
26. Hire a servant / prostitute to worship you to get ego boost
27. Do an addtional paper before that has easies and way less complex journals on its basis
28. Publicly annouce that you are going to do a performance art how people talking about such a topic are laughable
29. Be so harsh on yourself that you think nobody else could be any harsher - then if you live throught the experience you know you ahve nothing worse to expect
30. Intentionally sabotage the articles so that any unintetnional mistakes are masked by intentional mistakes
31. Reflect on why you want to write the article and either feel like the pain is worth it or is not worth it and quit
32. Start writing a "bad article" cariatyre and then keep writing less and less cariatyrish versions
33. Start by writing the most prestigious and prideful article and keep humbling it until it feel your own
34. Ask for extension to accomodate the slowdowns / just take it easy and suffer the imposter syndrome
35.  Write it in the voice of other people to the extent that your own voice is not discernible and thus you feel you yourself haven't said anything
36. Ask people to prereveiw the arcticle and restrcture it based on feedback to the extent that you feel like it is only made out of feedback
37. Wear a mask as you write. Then feelings of imposterness are appropriate and understandable.
38. Make the subject so narrow that your audience is so narrow that your expectations don't trigger
39. Write the opposite of what you think. Then invert that before submitting.
40. Defame the publication you are writing for so you don't feel letting the publication down.
41. Dictate instead of write. Go thorught all different modes of production and pay attention whether same feelings arise
42. The moment you start the smallest incling of imposter go do your favorite leisure activity. Don't allow yourself do leisure activity for any other trigger beside progress.
43. Deconstruct the institute that reading articles is meaningful and promote communication channels that don't require premeditation
44. Go find people more stupid than you so taht you get a statistic that you are atleast of average respectability
45. Stare at a wall and psyhoterapy where your feelings of insecurity raise
46. Cease thinking and Just Do It
47. Apply a punishment to yourself everytime you feel like an imposter (ABA warning likely to be dysfuncitional in obvious and unobvious ways)
48. Apply imposter syndrom to the doubts about yourself - who are you to think that you are an imposter?
49. Prove to yourself taht no human can write a respectable article in the topic you are about to write. Then write a unavoidably bad article.
50. Defame yourself so you have no reputation to lose by being stupid.