Beating ‘I Am The Best’ Syndrome

Believing in oneself and seeing oneself as being the best tends to help in certain situations and leads to building a confident attitude. However, it can also lead to overconfidence, arrogance, and other issues, which might not bring productive results in different aspects of one’s life. Remember the good old hare and tortoise race story!

Here are some ways to not fall into any bias while assessing oneself so that confidence remains but does not progress to supreme sense of confidence or overconfidence.

1. Check for Bias.

Most of us love ourselves, and think of ourselves as being more special and capable than others. This is not experienced only by those who are optimists, but also by people who hold pessimistic attitude. We tend to value ourselves more and this judgement is not always as accurate as we think. So keep checking for bias caused by love for self.

2. Listening skills.

Being confident about one’s abilities makes a person become more receptive. However, the ‘I am the best’ attitude tends to make people refrain from listening to others perspectives, suggestions, and constructive criticisms. They thus tend to miss on space and room for improvement since they fall into a false belief that no one is capable enough to advice them or help them. This also portrays that they tend to look down on others, which is not a very appropriate and healthy behavior. After all, modesty has been a desirable trait since times unknown for a reason.!

3. Staying oriented in reality.

We all like to dream big and think big; which is great! But, it is important to be more realistic while we evaluate our abilities, and accuracy. So, along with dreaming big, comes a responsibility to work towards that dream and to set more realistic goals by evaluating ourselves in a fair way. This can be done by keeping a lot sheet of our experiences, both success and failures, and assess the possible reasons for both kinds of experiences.

4. Focus on growth and learning.

There is always.. always something left to learn! No matter how perfect you think you are, there is always space for growth and learning. Focus on developing yourself constantly through all possible resources of learning. In today’s fast paced world, new information keeps coming every Milli-second. So, remember that we never ‘Know it All’.

5.  Know your strengths, and your weaknesses too.

Analise your performances, experiences, and know what you are good at. But, at the same time, also know that you are not Omniscient and just like any other person, you too have ‘not so awesome aspects’. So, try and know what your weaknesses and limitations are and be open to work on them.

These basic pointers will help you analyse yourself better and not fall into the trap of overestimation and overconfidence; and to maintain the belief you have in your abilities. So, don’t forget to keep a consistent check and an eagle eye on yourself. Keep calm and remember- the modest tortoise won because he beat ‘I am the best’ syndrome and sincerely worked his way towards his achievement!

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About the author:

Gargee is your special friend from Your D.O.S.T team. She is a clinical psychologist and has experience of working with various hospitals in Bangalore and Bhopal. Her areas of interest are Positive Psychology, Psychotherapy, Assessment, Mindfulness, special education, De-Addiction Counselling, Psychoanalysis, Yoga Psychology, Psycho-Oncology. An extremely compassionate person who finds happiness in helping others.