How you dress can affect 

how other people perceive you, but it can also affect how you
perceive yourself. Wearing different clothes can prompt you to think or behave
differently. This effect isn’t just limited to feeling good about yourself. Dr. Adam D.
Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School, found that participants in a study
who wore a white lab coat exhibited more focused attention. In other words, when
people dressed like a doctor, they behaved more like a doctor, or at least how they
thought a doctor might behave. If you want to feel more confident, dress the way a
confident version of yourself would.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story

Defy your impostor syndrome

Impostor syndrome is a nasty mental bug that convinces you that your accomplishments
don’t really count and that you’re going to be found out as a fraud. This doubt can creep
in because it’s easier to remember faults but more difficult to remember successes. Make
a habit of periodically writing down or reflecting on times you’ve done things well. It’s
easier to be confident in your abilities when you remember them.

Dealing With Impostor Syndrome When You’re Treated as an Impostor

June 12, 2018

Adjust your posture

Much like how you dress, the posture you adopt can affect how you feel about yourself.
While it might feel a little silly at first (remember that tip about stepping outside your
comfort zone), trying out powerful stances can help adjust your frame of mind. Research
from Ohio State University suggests that something as simple sitting up straight can
make you feel more confident in what you’re doing.

Avoid the arrogance trap

As you start to express yourself more confidently, it’s natural to worry about becoming
arrogant in the process. However, according to Mr. Houpert, arrogance isn’t confidence
run amok.

“Arrogance is more the result of insecurity than high self-confidence,” he said.

“Confidence is self-satisfied while arrogance requires external validation to feel good. So
you get people who brag to solicit the recognition of others. Someone with true self-
confidence is capable of being assertive and standing up for themselves, but they’re
unlikely to adopt a tone that others perceive as arrogant. Oddly enough, the best defense
against arrogance is developing true self-confidence.”
If you start out doubting yourself, it will take time before you feel like you belong. In the
interim, your own creeping doubt can try to tell you that feeling good about yourself or
standing your ground is really arrogance. Recognizing that this is a symptom of
insecurity — and that being aware of the symptom is its own form of inoculation against
it — can help you push past it.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Dr. Adam Galinsky was a professor at
the Kelogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He was, and was at the Kellogg
School when the study referenced was published, but he has since joined the faculty at the
Columbia Business School. That reference has been updated