Imposter Syndrome Quotes

Maybe we all have imposter syndrome and perpetually feel like our real life is right around the corner,

We are wrestling with some form of imposter syndrome, unable to internalize and appreciate our own accomplishments

Imposter syndrome” wasn’t coined as a term until the 1970s, but it’s safe to assume women have always felt it: that nagging feeling that, even after you’ve just done something great, maybe you actually don’t deserve the praise.

You have heard of imposter syndrome? Everything in me screamed I am a fake! I do not belong here! Even after four thousand years of godhood, six months of mortal life had convinced me that I wasn’t a true deity.

His Infernal Majesty leans towards me confidingly. “You have imposter syndrome,” He says, “but paradoxically, that’s often a sign of competence. Only people who understand their work well enough to be intimidated by it can be terrified by their own ignorance. It’s the opposite of Dunning-Kruger syndrome, where the miserably incompetent think they’re on top of the job because they don’t understand it.

Penny Googled “imposter syndrome.” Informally used to describe people who are unable to internalize their accomplishments despite external evidence of their competence.

... I succeeded at math, at least by the usual evaluation criteria: grades. Yet while I might have earned top marks in geometry and algebra, I was merely following memorized rules, plugging in numbers and dutifully crunching out answers by rote, with no real grasp of the significance of what I was doing or its usefulness in solving real-world problems. Worse, I knew the depth of my own ignorance, and I lived in fear that my lack of comprehension would be discovered and I would be exposed as an academic fraud -- psychologists call this "imposter syndrome".

Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in which individuals doubt themselves and have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. Last year my friend Ingrid told me I had it. I had just told her that I didn’t feel like I belonged at my previous bookstore job. I told her that I didn’t really get 1984 and that I hate poetry — so I wasn’t sure if working at a bookstore was right for me. She told me, ‘You have a classic case of impostor syndrome.’ I told her that I’m not sure that’s a real syndrome. I said I wonder if everyone’s an impostor. What if beneath every lawyer’s suit and every stay-at-home-parent’s apron, everyone is just a baby who doesn’t know what they’re doing?

Expand! You are not small. Your Foremothers did not do what they did so you could occupy small!

Many students go through "imposter syndrome" as they try to assimilate into a professional culture.

Morrigan frowned. She sometimes felt that her true knack had nothing to do with being a Wundersmith. That it was, in fact, her remarkable ability to assume the worst. It came, of course, from a lifetime of believing she was cursed, and it seemed to be stitched into the very fabric of her being, even now. Telling her not to worry about bad things happening around her was like telling Hawthorne not to get excited about dragons, or Jupiter not to be ginger.

The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that at any moment now they will discover you. It's Imposter Syndrome, something my wife Amanda christened The Fraud Police. In my case, I was convinced that there would be a knock on the door, and a man with a clipboard (I don't know why he carried a clipboard, in my head, but he did) would be there, to tell me it was all over, and they had caught up with me, and now I would have to go and get a real job, one that didn't consist of making things up and writing them down, and reading books I wanted to read.

Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things. On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.” And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.” And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.

I think what I really want is to treat life less like a war. Wouldn't we have less Imposter Syndrome and fewer actual imposters if we just lowered our standards a bit? Modern productivity dogma encourages us to act fast, and milk our exceptionalism for all it's worth. Under that kind of pressure, perhaps the truest rebellion is to embrace our ordinariness. In everyday life, if we could not only tolerate the discomfort, but wholeheartedly embrace our own lack of expertise, then we might have a far better chance of showing others the same grace. Then perhaps life might feel, at the very least, less agitating, at most, we might even find peace. How’s this? Let’s stoop below average at 50% of all we do. We’ll relish it, the commonness. Next time we have a question, let’s hold our for as long as we humanly can before googling the answer. It’ll be erotic, like edging before a climax. It’s quite nice, I am learning, just to wonder indefinitely. To never have certain answers. To sit down, be humble, and not even dare to know

It's easy for them to have opinions, and to express them with confidence. They don't worry about appearing ignorant or conceited.

Like so many men, he needed a woman stronger than himself, for behind the harsh cragginess of the Easter Island façade cowered the small boy, uncertain of himself.

Sit at the table: Sheryl admits to feeling “imposter syndrome” but encourages women to “fake it till you make it.” She says that women keep themselves from advancing because they don’t have the self-confidence and drive that men do. “We lower our

As soon as a challenge was overcome, it creased to be a challenge, becoming the expected and ordinary rather than something I had achieved with difficulty, and could, therefore, be justly proud of. I could not own my own triumphs, nor give myself credit for them.

I am becoming a tyrant, threatening in place of convincing. Unstable instead of steadying. I am suited to the shadows, to the art of knives and bloodshed and coups, to poisoned words and poisoned cups. I never expected to rise so high as the throne. And I fear that I am utterly unsuited to the task.

Absolutely everybody wants to be liked (law 1). Everyone feels different inside (less confident, less able, etc.) from how they infer other people to feel (law 2). Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time (law 3). Acceptance of these three 'laws' alone would save an awful lot of people an awful lot of grief!

This idea that you’re undeserving, a fraud—that you’re not as smart or talented or “together” as people might think makes you an “imposter” and therefore unqualified in whatever it is you want to do and someday you’re going to be found out. By whom? The imposter police? You’re not an imposter, you’re a human being.

Yet no matter how great I shone, I was the glitter of a single star amid a galaxy of constellations.

The images had been provided by movies, books and Pathe News, and none included a six-foot tall Black woman hovering either in the back or in the foreground.

There’s no issue with what you’re doing by anyone else’s standards. It’s how you view yourself that is the problem.

Every written word is a war waged against imposter syndrome.

What is better than these two extremes - ego and imposter syndrome - but simple confidence? Earned. Rational. Objective. Still.

Holy imposter syndrome, Batman.

What happens when imposter syndrome has you in its grip?

And here’s the thing that’s really sad: Imposter syndrome doesn’t just make you feel shitty about yourself, it also keeps you broke.

I have no idea what I’m doing. No parent does. We’re all full of imposter syndrome, winging it every minute of the day.

I used to think I had imposter syndrome, but then I realized I was only pretending.

I graduated in 2004 with an English degree and a case of imposter syndrome so intense that I convinced myself I “didn’t have enough ideas” to become a writer of any kind.

But when you harbor an inner script that treats you like the enemy, it doesn't allow you to soar for very long. Doubts nibble at the edges of your thoughts until they're the only voice left. Imposter syndrome secures its triumph and ushers in an era of self-sabotage. Then the carnival shuts down, packs up, moves to another town. And you're alone, hiding in the dark.

Capgras syndrome is a condition in which sufferers become convinced that those they know well are imposters. In Klüver-Bucy syndrome the victim develops urges to eat and fornicate indiscriminately (to the understandable dismay of loved ones).46 Perhaps the most bizarre of all is Cotard delusion, in which the sufferer believes he is dead and cannot be convinced otherwise.47

Do you know the power of your words? When you tell yourself stories that are not true your unconscious mind believes them. Your beliefs also can make you sick. You curse yourself by repeating lies.

Adrienne started teaching a few months ago in Denver and wrote that it leaves you with a constant feeling of deceiving people. That you know nothing they don't, or couldn't learn on their own if they cared to.

Connell initially felt a sense of crushing inferiority to his fellow students, as if her had upgraded himself accidentally to an intellectual level far above his own, where he had to strain to make sense of the most basic premises.

I feel successful 3–4 days a month. The other days I feel like I’m barely accomplishing the minimum or that I’m a loser. I have imposter syndrome so even when I get compliments they are difficult to take and I just feel like I’m a bigger fraud than before. I feel the worst when I get so paralyzed by fear that I end up huddled in bed and fall further and further behind. To make myself feel more successful I spend real time with my daughter every day, even if it’s just huddling under a blanket and watching Doctor Who reruns on TV. I also try to remind myself that people like Dorothy Parker and Hunter S. Thompson struggled as well, and that this struggle might make me stronger, if it doesn’t first destroy me.

There seems to be an unwritten rule, hurtful and at odds with the realities of American culture. It says you aren't supposed to wonder whether as a Black person, a Black woman, you really might be inferior––not quite bright enough, not quite quick enough to do the things you want to do. Though, of course, you do wonder. You're supposed to know you're as good as anyone. And if you don't know, you aren't supposed to admit it. If anyone near you admits it, you're supposed to reassure them quickly so they'll shut up. That sort of talk is embarrassing. Act tough and confident and don't talk about your doubts. If you never deal with them, you may never get rid of them, but no matter. Fake everyone out. Even yourself.

You're afraid that you suck. And - at least if you never try - no one (especially you) will be able to confirm that. Spoiler alert: This kind of thought doesn't come from an underachiever who's not good at anything. This kind of thought comes from a perfectionist. And truthfully? It's lame. There's so much incredible potential in you. But you're going to squander it because trying may or may not confirm that you're not as good as you thought you were. Stop being so hard on yourself!

Yes, you’re an imposter. But you’re an imposter acting in service of generosity, seeking to make things better. When we embrace imposter syndrome instead of working to make it disappear, we choose the productive way forward. The imposter is proof that we’re innovating, leading, and creating.

But Percy didn’t feel powerful. The more heroic stuff he did, the more he realized how limited he was. He felt like a fraud. I’m not as great as you think, he wanted to warn his friends. His failures, like tonight, seemed to prove it. Maybe that’s why he had started to fear suffocation. It wasn’t so much drowning in the earth or the sea, but the feeling that he was sinking into too many expectations, literally getting in over his head.

Most of us who struggle with imposter syndrome worry a lot about what others think of us. You need not concern yourself with a stranger’s negativity. You can spare a moment to feel empathy for the emotional pain that causes their caustic behavior and then move on to create something amazing in your life.

Welcome back our old friend imposter syndrome. The inescapable feeling that you do not belong. You could have worked your hardest, put your blood, sweat and tears into getting where you are today and still feel like at any moment the rug will be pulled from beneath your feet when everyone realises the failure you really are. With anxiety you worry, and even when you've put your most into this world, you will still worry, because anxiety is stupid and hateful. You worry that you're not doing well enough, you worry that your colleagues don't like you, you worry your boss thinks your work is fucking awful, you worry about talking to people, you worry about the commute, you worry and you worry and worrying is fucking exhausting. This all happens before you have even started work that day. This is the pre-game: inescapable fear, irrational dread, complete implosion of self-confidence, and you're only halfway through pouring your first coffee.

Now go Occupy spaces Fill the room Walk in your crown

Thinking Bigger Begin by dreaming. If another human being has done it, there’s a good chance you can do it too. You get what you focus on. If you are continually thinking of all the things that can go wrong, they will.

You’re the person who apologizes for apologizing. Your emails start with “Just wondering if maybe...” and end with “Sorry for bothering you!” Your drafts have drafts, and your backup plans have backup plans. Perfection and hesitation are your second and third names.

Humans are biased machines, and we are especially influenced by negatives. We want to believe the worst about ourselves and will pick those scraps up throughout the day and piece them together until we have something that we can look at and say, 'Look, arent I terrible' even if everyone else says otherwise. Maybe that's just me.

Imposter syndrome grew into self-doubt, and my thoughts snowballed from You aren’t good enough to write this essay to You aren’t good enough to write any essay. I was shame-spiraling, people-pleasing, and, most worrisome, when I wrote, I was performing for the white gaze and consumerism. Thinking of all the ways I would or could be applauded and praised for work I had yet to even complete. True to exactly what I research, fear, doubt, and cynicism were hindering my ability to be present. I had to tune out everything and every voice around me and remind myself that this work, like all my work, was a try. It was, and I am, allowed to be and become without expectation.

It might surprise you to discover that some of the superstars you see on the big screen or those entertaining thousands in stadiums, have moments of sheer terror before they go on stage. They also compare themselves to others in their field and worry that they will not live up to the expectations of those who are supporting and depending on them.

And woe betide the person with the 'double abnormality' of a false self and 'a fine intellect' that they find they can use to escape their pain. 'The world may observe academic success of a high degree, and may find it hard to believe in the very real distress of the individual concerned, who feels 'phoney' the more he or she is successful. [as quoted by Winnicott]

There’s just no owning any success you achieve and stacking it in your win column. The force just won’t let it happen. What happens when imposter syndrome has you in its grip? You become terrified you’ll be found out. Despite all her acclaim and success, this is what Maya Angelou feared. “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.’”1 You might be surprised to find out how many accomplished people think to themselves they’ll be “found out,” then ostracized and ridiculed. However, it’s irrational. It would only happen if you actually did have no skill, no ability, or no knowledge, but that isn’t the case for most people. This is the ultimate fear, isn’t it? Being found out and kicked out of our tribe? By nature, we’re tribal. Humans survived through the millennia because we were part of a tribe that hunted, gathered, sheltered, and protected one another from the elements, from predators, and from other tribes. You couldn’t be out hunting and watching the fire simultaneously. You needed other people if you had any hope of surviving through the night. If your tribe finds out you’re a fraud, it triggers that primordial “Uh-oh, they’re going to kick me out! I’m going to be caught in the wilderness alone!” When plagued by imposter syndrome, people don’t take themselves, their abilities, or their accomplishments seriously. If you don’t take yourself seriously on any Field of Play, you most likely won’t be getting the results you want.

The ultimate act of surrender to God is rebellion against lies: the lies that the enemy has spoken to you, and the lies that you might have told yourself about you.

Put yourself in places where you don't belong, get used to it now because you will get there.

It's funny," Dani continued. "When I was little, I used to be scared of the freezes. Every day I was terrified that time would stop and I'd be all alone again. And now..." She paused to look around at the strange, motionless world that had become so natural to her. "Now I can't wait for them. It's like this is my real life. In normal time, people don't really know me. They don't understand. It's weird feeling like you don't belong in your own life.

This is why high achievers who have had a taste of the vast amount of knowledge out there are likely to suffer from what psychologists call imposter syndrome, the feeling that you are not really up to the job, even though, of all people, they are (Clance and Imes 1978; Brems et al. 1994).

You belong and this space is for you

This kind of IDF information war strategy is now routinely copied by the US military. The CIA launched a social media campaign, Humans of CIA, in 2021 that aimed to recruit from more diverse communities into its ranks. It felt deeply inspired by the IDF’s woke posturing. One of the most discussed (and mocked) campaigns, considering the CIA’s role in destabilizing and overthrowing governments since World War II, was the video of a Latina intelligence officer declaring: “I am a cisgender millennial, who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise. I used to struggle with imposter syndrome, but at 36 I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be.

Fear invites imposter syndrome to the party to stop you from leveling up, and to make you doubt everything, in hopes of stopping you from being the badass you are destined to be.

Signs of the Highly Sensitive Person – A Helpful List How many of the following describe you? 1. A tendency to feel particularly overwhelmed in noisy environments 2. A preference for smaller gatherings of people rather than large crowds 3. A good track record of picking up on other people’s moods and motives 4. An ability to notice little changes in the environment 5. A tendency to be easily moved by music, books, films, and other media 6. Heightened sensitivity to hunger, pain, medication, and caffeine 7. A need to recharge and relax alone on a regular basis 8. An appreciation of good manners and politeness 9. Difficulty in refusing others’ requests for fear of hurting their feelings 10. Difficulty in forgiving yourself for even the smallest mistakes 11. Perfectionism and imposter syndrome 12. Trouble handling conflict and criticism

The knowledge that we’re not alone in taking the easy way is both comforting and a confirmation of my sense of imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is a funny little liar, designed to keep you safe, but terrible at making you strong.

This is why high achievers who have had a taste of the vast amount of knowledge out there are likely to suffer from what psychologists call imposter syndrome, the feeling that you are not really up to the job, even though, of all people, they are

As a woman, you must be brave enough to cause problems. Make no mistake: this is the opposite of Zen—this is war. But it’s the most important thing you will ever do for yourself. A person who never causes any problems is a person who doesn’t trust herself to handle what happens next.

The most important question you need to ask yourself is this: How would I show up if I were already the best in the world?

It's worth mentioning that if you do a shotty job at your last-minute frenzied effort, you might take it as evidence that you really are a fraud. But in the back of your mind you've also got a convenient, built in excuse for your poor performance. It doesn't feel good to do sub-standard work, but on some level you can tell yourself that it's because you left it to the last minute, and not because you gave it your best shot and failed. Which is terrifying - because it's your worst fear becoming reality.

Imposter syndrome is a colossal waste of energy.

Similarly, where our goals and dreams come from will determine whether we feel great about pursuing them or not. Like everything in this world, there is nothing inherently good or bad, only our thinking makes it so. Goals, dreams, and ambitions are not good or bad, so it's not really an either-or situation, but more about where those goals are coming from. There are two sources of goals: goals created out of inspiration and goals created out of desperation. When goals are created out of desperation, we feel a large sense of scarcity and urgency. It feels heavy, like a burden, we may even feel daunted by the colossal task we've just committed ourselves to, imposter syndrome and self-doubt begin to manifest, and we always feel like we never have enough time for anything. We go about our life frantically, desperately searching for answers and ways that we can accomplish our goal faster, always looking externally, never feeling enough or that we can ever get enough. Worst of all, if we happen to accomplish our goal, within a few hours or days afterwards, all of those same feelings of lack begin to resurface. We begin not feeling content with what we have done, unable to savor our accomplishments and because what we did never feels like it’s enough, we feel that same way about ourselves. Not knowing what else to do, we look around for guidance externally to see what others are doing and see they're continuing to do the same thing. Thus, we go ahead and proceed to set another goal out of desperation in an attempt to escape all of the negative feelings gnawing away at our soul. When we dig a little deeper into these types of goals we set, they are all typically “means goals” and not “end goals”. In other words, the goals we set in this state of desperation are all a means to an end. There's always a reason we want to accomplish the goal and it's always for something else. For example, we want to create a multi-million-dollar business because we want financial freedom, or we want to quit our job so that we can escape the stress and anxiety that comes from it. We feel like we HAVE to do these things instead of WANT to. Goals created from desperation are typically "realistic" and created from analyzing our past and what we think to be "plausible" in the moment. It feels very confining and limiting. Although these types of goals and dreams may excite us in the moment, as soon as we begin to try to create it, we feel a lack, and we are desperate to bring the dream to life. Paradoxically, if we do end up achieving a goal created out of desperation, we end up feeling even more empty than we did before it. The next "logical" thing we tend to do is to set an even bigger goal out of even greater desperation to hopefully make us feel whole inside.

But chronic boredom doesn’t come from not having anything to do: it comes from doing the wrong things.

Sometimes acceptance is a euphemism for surrender. And sometimes instead of soldiering on,

I think what I really want is to treat life less like a war. Wouldn't we have less Imposter Syndrome and fewer actual imposters if we just lowered our standards a bit? Modern productivity dogma encourages us to act fast, and milk our exceptionalism for all it's worth. Under that kind of pressure, perhaps the truest rebellion is to embrace our ordinariness. In everyday life, if we could not only tolerate the discomfort, but wholeheartedly embrace our own lack of expertise, then we might have a far better chance of showing others the same grace. Then perhaps life might feel, at the very least, less agitating, at most, we might even find peace. How’s this? Let’s stoop below average at 50% of all we do. We’ll relish it, the commonness. Next time we have a question, let’s hold our for as long as we humanly can before googling the answer. It’ll be erotic, like edging before a climax. It’s quite nice, I am learning, just to wonder indefinitely. To never have certain answers. To sit down, be humble, and not even dare to knowThe hormonal rewards of constantly checking our phones fatigue the mind just as much as the stressors do. Studies of phone addiction have found the little hits of dopamine that keep users jonesing for notifications come with a tragic side effect. They actually inhibit the amount of dopamine we feel when exposed to real-life novelty. Said another way, phone addiction decreases our ability to enjoy new experiences in the physical world. When you’re hooked on novelty in electronic form, new foods and flowers lose their magic.

There are two sources of goals: goals created out of inspiration and goals created out of desperation. When goals are created out of desperation, we feel a large sense of scarcity and urgency. It feels heavy, like a burden, we may even feel daunted by the colossal task we've just committed ourselves to, imposter syndrome and self-doubt begin to manifest, and we always feel like we never have enough time for anything.

I am emptied through shallow breaths. Muscles tighten in my chest. I think I am a fool dressed up in king’s chamber, holding a four-leaf clover.

That’s easy for you to say; you’re a natural at this whole raising-kids thing.” “I just fake it well,” I say. “I have no idea what I’m doing. No parent does. We’re all full of imposter syndrome, winging it every minute of the day.

I told myself that everything was fine, that my life was incredible and I wasn’t sad and I’d just send more emails and swig whiskey in order to fall asleep at two a.m. every night, empty bottles lining the foot of my bed. I wrung my body out like a towel, twisting both ends with red fists and sinking my teeth into it, gritting out, “It’s fine it’s fine it’s fine,” until one day, I woke up and there would be a new accolade on my shelf, a new accomplishment I could never have dreamed of, and then—finally—it would be fine. It’d be perfect. For that day. Or an hour. And then tendrils of the dread started peeking into the corners of my vision. And I had to start all over again.

I told myself that everything was fine, that my life was incredible and I wasn’t sad and I’d just send more emails and swig whiskey in order to fall asleep at two a.m. every night, empty bottles lining the foot of my bed. I wrung my body out like a towel, twisting both ends with red fists and sinking my teeth into it, gritting out, “It’s fine it’s fine it’s fine,” until one day, I woke up and there would be a new accolade on my shelf, a new accomplishment I could never have dreamed of, and then—finally—it would be fine. It’d be perfect. For that day. Or an hour. And then tendrils of the dread started peeking into the corners of my vision. And I had to start all over again.

Like many game creators, Velasco found himself dealing with a heavy dose of postproject depression and imposter syndrome. “I [thought], ‘Oh, who even cares, we just ripped off Mega Man,’” he said. “We fooled people into liking this. I’m not even really good at this.

We all have imposter syndrome sometimes, it's not unique to novelists. No one is immune from trying to prove something to themselves.

To everyone who struggles with imposter syndrome— I dare you to believe in yourself. You. Are. Magic.

My critic, like my parents, always found something flawed in me to contradict the feedback that I was getting. Ninety-nine percent on a test was never a cause for pride. Rather, it was the impetus for a great deal of self-criticism about the missing one percent. Like many other survivors that I have worked with, I developed the imposter’s syndrome. This syndrome contradicted the outside positive feedback that I was receiving. It insisted that if people really knew me, they would see what a loser I was. Eventually, however, I became confident in my intelligence even though my self-esteem was still abysmal.

may you live out your life as a spectacle. may you be true to the you in the mirror

i’ve arrived at a sort of emancipation moment. one that allows me to cultivate joy and pleasure in ways that feel liberatory. one that is radically indulgent and excessive. one that holds space for me in the midst of my fear - fear of my huge presence. fear of my light. fear of my weaknesses. fear of my sexuality. fear of my neurodivergence. fear of my magic. fear of my multiple selves and entities - one that allows me to reinvent myself as many times as this skinsuit is willing to carry me . one that grants me the permission to, in all its glory, make a “spectacle of myself

My father sat cross-legged on my parents’ bed with a loaded gun in his lap and threatened to kill himself if my mother left him. Decades later, as a professional counselor who has spent years studying the human condition, I recognized the Cuckoo Syndrome, a group of symptoms that collectively indicate a predictable yet invisible pattern of unhealthy relationships, toxic thinking, and self-sabotaging behavior that lead to unnecessary suffering. At its core the Cuckoo Syndrome is an imposter that seeks to mimic who you are and what you want.

When you accept mistakes and failure as normal and see them as an opportunity to learn, grow and increase resilience, you will find it much easier to let them go.

much of class culture is about confidence. Confidence that might come easier to the middle and higher classes, while the working classes are constantly riddled with self-doubt and imposter syndrome.

But you’re also dealing with imposter syndrome –the crippling moment you realise the collective knowledge of the group you’re talking to is far greater than your own. And I’ve already mentioned the copycats, the emotional ups and downs, the stress and the haters. After a while you start to feel like too little butter spread across too much bread.

Leaders should be leading, not hunting around in the weeds for land mines.

Why should someone be punished for thinking and acting big?

When an organization is overly worried about small things, it usually can’t do big things.

Leadership means stepping out and taking risks.

People who feel like imposters tend to neglect their own needs.

Ruth still had that nagging twinge of imposter syndrome. Whatever she had achieved in her – not insubstantial – career, Ruth never seemed to build any internal surety of meaningful confidence. She knew she was a good police officer, she always did her job as best she could, but no matter her success rate, she still feared that one day she would be ‘found out’ as a fraud.

I wanted the challenge of creating something from nothing and watching it flourish and grow.

Imposter syndrome is a natural consequence of growth.

imposter syndrome.

The problem with imposter syndrome is that it can hold you back if you don’t get it in check. Self-doubt keeps you firmly in your comfort zone, stops you taking risks, and prevents you from doing things that are good for your business.

while we’re at it, please can Quaker Oats ban Ethan Frome from the curriculum altogether? It’s a snoozefest of repressed, milquetoast characters, all building up to the climax of—no joke—a toboggan ride. We should end on the Whartonian high of The Age of Innocence, which is probably the best novel set in New York City, ever. It’s about rich white people planning hits and takedowns at fancy balls like it’s The Godfather. Even though The Age of Innocence was written a hundred years ago, you just know that Edith Wharton knew what was up.

Psychological Effects of Narcissistic Abuse on the Scapegoat Doubting your own worth. Believing that you are 'bad' or defective. Accepting negative feedback from family. An overwhelming desire for external validation. Constantly feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or confused because you don't know what your family expects of you or how to please them. Believing that you must make the narcissist happy in order to prove that you are lovable and not 'bad' or the problem. Difficulty forming and maintaining relationships. Choosing narcissistic friends or partners. Fear of abandonment and imposter syndrome if others discover how 'flawed' you really are.

I’ve wanted to go there ever since freshperson year,

I sigh, peering out of the window. We’re far out of central London now and I scan the streets, trying to get my bearings. We’re getting nearer to Julian’s resting place. I recognise an old police station, converted into cheap flats. This part of London feels darker than Mayfair. It’s as though the streetlights don’t shine as brightly. Cheaper models, not as many. I like it. Every time I come here, on a certain level, I relax. It almost feels more like home than Mayfair. Mayfair is who I want to be, Hayes is who I am. My veins are the dark streets, pulsing with traffic. There’s wreckage all around: craterous potholes, crumpled railings, abandoned cars, derelict homes. Nothing’s ever repaired. It’s all broken. The poverty’s inescapable. The air perpetually stinks.