I remember the beginning of my career, as a self-taught, I was struggling to feel confident about my skills, I had what the community refers to as «Imposter Syndrome». Here are 4 ways I managed to change my mindset and turn this «Imposter Syndrome» to my advantage:
1 - Practice
We all have busy lifestyles, but practicing your skills frequently will help you build confidence, schedule some time every day, even a few minutes to practice your skills.
On that note, a lot of folks struggle to find projects or tasks to work on. What I usually do when I don’t have ideas: rebuild a product/app you like yourself, look at your favorite repositories/packages and see if there are issues to tackle or documentation to contribute to. Practice can also be «Offline», go on dev.to to read interesting articles, follow fellow developers, designers, «techies» on Twitter to see what they are up to, or even pick up a book.
2 - Mentor others
At the beginning of my career, I didn’t think I could help anybody, as I didn’t know enough. Turns out, there are always people behind you on their journey and could use the extra help to make progress. It is also a great way to consolidate your knowledge and realize that you know more than you think.
3 - Don’t overthink
I am guilty as charged when it comes to overthinking. I spent years in my early career overthinking every solution, every conversation at work, with my friends and family. I was driving me crazy. It’s only a few years back that I made the decision for myself to stop overthinking and assuming things. Assumptions were the real killer for me, I would always try to assume what people think or why people do some things. It wasn’t easy to stop, but telling myself every day that I don’t know and can’t control what other people think, but I know what I think and what I can control, so I should focus on that, helped me tremendously.
4 - You are not alone
Sometimes, we are so focused on our life that we forget that other people are living too and they most likely struggle with the same things as us. Helping someone with their project/task/learning, telling them they can do it, they got this will not only help them build confidence, but it will also help you.
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You can also find these pixels on my Instagram: https://instagram.com/valentinprgnd. I will publish Pixels every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about career development in tech, code, mental health and health for developers. Follow me for more tips @valentinprngd and check out my podcast https://rebased.whatdafox.com.
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