I got rid of impostor syndrome after having it for nearly ten years, and I predict the results are replicable.

In this post I’ll explain how to do it yourself and describe the upcoming class I’m running where I’ll see if I can replicate it with a small group.

The very summarized version of the method is

Do loving-kindness meditation practice directed towards yourself for an hour a day for a week straight.
Do confidence practice (like loving-kindness, but for confidence. Explained below) for an hour a day for two weeks straight.
(Optional) Do occasional maintenance practice to “top up” your confidence or bounce back from setbacks.

Apply to attend the class here.

What I tried before

I was a confident kid, then I did an internship at 80,000 Hours back in 2013. Living in Oxford gave me impostor syndrome almost instantly. Turns out that basing your confidence on being a big fish in a small pond only works if you stay in a small pond.

Between 2013 and 2022, I had more or less chronic low confidence and high anxiety around work. I tried everything to get rid of it: mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, internal family systems, memory reconsolidation, exposure therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, talk therapy, and just plain old reason. Nothing made a dent.

What it feels like to go from impostor syndrome to self-love

When I had impostor syndrome, every time I made a mistake or performed less than perfectly, I’d beat myself up mercilessly. Even when I succeeded by virtually anybody’s standards, I would always have a reason for why it didn’t really count, and couldn’t everybody see all the ways I’d messed up?

I was terrified of receiving feedback because then I would find out that secretly everybody hated me and thought I was useless, and they were just putting up with me because they had to. I felt I was always one step away from being kicked out of the community and being eaten by bears.

I've since experienced a 90% reduction in my work anxiety. After failures, I no longer feel debilitating self-recrimination; instead, I am inspired to think about what went wrong and improve.

In the past, when I looked at pictures of myself, the first thing that came to mind was how ugly I was. My initial reaction is now, "Aw. I love that girl."

I can now look clearly at the things that I’ve done and see the bad and...

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