April Fool might be just one day in the year. But if you feel foolish every day, you may have fallen into the spiral of why do I feel stupid feelings?
It’s normal to feel stupid sometimes. Even a brilliant person around you, who you might take as super smart, also feels dumb at times. The problem occurs if you start defining yourself as a constant fool, affecting your potential to chase your dreams.
Feeling stupid is mainly related to low self-esteem problems. Later, social comparisons, imposter syndrome, unrealistic expectations, and childhood bullying make you feel like a fool all the time.
Now you might be thinking, how do I stop feeling stupid anyway?
This article will help you understand the signs and causes behind this problem. And how can you fix it once and for all?
Without further ado, let’s get started.
What Does it Mean to Feel Dumb?
Maybe you have confusion till now that even you feel stupid or not. To ensure this, the points below will give you the feeling of stupid meaning.
1. You Beat Yourself Up For Your Mistakes
Making minor mistakes is a wholly natural thing. No human being on earth can avoid it.
But if you keep beating yourself up for not doing stuff in a “perfect” manner, this is undoubtedly a sign that you may feel like a dumb person.
2. You Compare Yourself To Others
This is what comparing yourself to others looks like:
“Why my brain doesn’t work as quick as Linda? If it would be a bit sharp, maybe I’d be the lucky one to be the center of attention in class.”
You don’t say this stuff aloud, but your inner subconscious keeps comparing you to others in such a negative way that you ultimately start feeling stupid.
3. You Can’t Speak Infront Of People
Putting your opinion at the table when a large group of people is in the audience could be the scariest thing ever for you.
You often dare not unlock your lips to disprove other’s points.
4. You’re The Biggest Critic Of Yourself
You may not know, but your inner critic does his job so silently that you can’t grab it by the neck just in time.
Pay close attention that you are judging yourself on your actions.
5. You Give Powers To Others
As feeling not-so-smart, you often hand out your decisions to others. It could be your parents, friends, partner or teachers.
You don’t lead your life because you don’t think of yourself as a wise person to make the next moves.
What Are The Signs Of a Stupid Person?
Despite all the facts, stupid people still exist. We are just never short of them. So you’d be thinking, “Am I stupid or not?”
If you wanna confirm you AREN’T one of them and FEEL stupid, here you have some signs of stupidity.
- They make impulsive decisions.
- They talk a lot about themselves.
- Being sarcastic all of the time.
- They spend a lot of time and money on their appearance.
- They give un-needed and unwelcomed advices.
- They deal with all individuals in the same way.
- They are dead-sure about their opinion.
- They can’t pick social cues and gestures.
- They don’t learn from their mistakes but repeat them.
There are more signs of being stupid, but that’s a grey area. Because if we consider an act somewhat foolish, maybe it won’t be in other cultures. So there isn’t any set-in-stone rule of being a stupid person.
Reasons Why You Feel Stupid
Across the board, feeling dumb relates to the incident when somebody rejected our words, actions, efforts, or emotions. However, the most common causes for feeling stupid are here:
Childhood Experiences
If you ever think, why do I feel stupid when I talk, this thought might relate to some childhood experiences.
A lack of praise and acceptance can lead people to think of themselves as less competent than others. Parents’ criticism of their kids as they don’t fall to their standards can be the most significant cause to develop of such behavior as an adult.
Bullying In Student Life
You might be wondering why I feel stupid even if I have good grades in my degrees. But if you had faced some bullies in your student life, I’m sure you started lacking self-assurance back then.
When students get bullied in class, even though it’s like not a big deal, it damages their self-image. And they, for a lifetime, started doubting their abilities.
Social Comparisons
Might be that you aren’t comparing yourself to others, but it’s your parents, partner, friends, or others are that keep weighing you according to social standards.
Society defines you based on its definitions of success like grades, job, marriage, finance, and more. But these unhealthy expectations kill your self-confidence and bring you to the point that you start thinking, why do I feel dumb than others.
Workplace Influences
Many workplace factors can also cause you problems. Few of them include uncooperative co-workers, leg-pulling, letting down each other, always picking faults in others’ work.
If you want to know how to stop feeling stupid at work, you have to fight through a negative workplace environment. Or else you should move to another job to make sure you can blow and grow.
Unrealistic Expectations
If you think that only an A+ grade will make you intelligent, this is what we call unrealistic expectations.
See, you don’t need to win a spell-bee competition to be smart. The day you’ll stop expecting way more than you can from yourself, you’ll find peace.
Unrealistic expectations by others can also make trouble for you. Maybe your father wants you to go into the research field while you have a musician’s brain. These conflicts can affect your self-image and put you to the point where you finally start saying, “Holy crap! I feel dumb!”
Imposter Syndrome
When you have imposter syndrome, you think of yourself as shameful because you feel inadequate, incapable, and insufficient.
People with imposter syndrome have a strong chance of feeling doubtful and foolish. You’ll always feel like—you don’t deserve your job, how on earth you’re going to accomplish this project, why they selected me—kinda things.
Being aware of the fact that it can be your imposter syndrome can, however, make things easy on you. Then you’ll know I’m not the only one who is facing this problem.
6 Fixes To Stop Feeling Stupid
1. Write A List Of Your Positive Qualities
Even though intelligence is the most praised quality, but in the long term, people like to be around compassionate, caring and generous people.
Pick up a journal and start writing down good traits that you think you have. Doing this will give you a sense of being someone and the feeling of “Yes, you matter!”
2. Recognize Your Inner Critic
No wonder, many a time, you get a question in your head; why do I feel stupid all of a sudden?
The answer is the holy inner little judge that doesn’t let you do stuff without making you feel bad about yourself. (Your inner critic.)
The only way to put it to silence is by recognizing and then denying it.
When you start disapproving of the negative statements of your inner critic, it’ll be all set in your mind. No self-sabotaging anymore.
3. Forgive Yourself
You forgot the name of your old schoolmate and thought why do I feel stupid and useless? See, that’s OKAY.
If you couldn’t answer the question your boss spontaneously asked, that’s fine as well.
You don’t need to beat yourself up for making minor errors. A normal person can’t go through life without making blunders.
4. Stay Productive
Being productive and accomplishing day-to-day tasks can put your inner self in high regard. Remember, consistency always wins over intelligence.
Start planning your days. Try to get the most out of your time. And when you start seeing the outcomes of staying productive, there will be no questions in your mind regarding why I feel stupid.
5. Be Realistic About Your Potential
If you expect your brain to act like Robert Einstein, then don’t ask yourself why am I feeling stupid all the time?
Everybody has their own superpowers.
You can set the goals but make sure they are realistic enough that you don’t start being so hard on yourself for not accomplishing them.
6. If It’s Because Of People: Don’t Listen To Them
When someone makes you feel stupid, they are actually reflecting their own personality, not yours. Remember, some people are too mean to treat you better. And some of them are just jealous of you and keep letting you down on purpose.
Try not to affect your brain with their opinions.
Moreover, if they get worse day by day, have a conversation with them and try to shut them down. At best, you can distance yourself from such people.
Takeaway Message
You might be a PhD and still have confusion in your mind and question yourself, why do I feel dumb?
So here’s the takeaway message: feeling stupid has nothing to do with your potential and skills. It is just in your mind.
You have to find out what makes me feel stupid and cure it. So unstoppable you can achieve your goals.