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You Are Not Your Impostor Syndrome

Give yourself some credit. You've come a long way since your first job, and still have a long way to go until your last.

As someone who has personally struggled with that subtle, yet all encompassing fear of "being found out" as actually terrible at my job, I can promise that impostor syndrome means three things:

1. You care.

While I've heard it said that "only narcissists don't get impostor syndrome," I don't think that's entirely true. Another group of people who don't get seem to get impostor syndrome are the ones that are wholly indifferent to the job at hand.

You may feel like an impostor, but that at least means that you give a shit.

Better a novice who cares than a genius who doesn't.

2. You're growing.

You can't grow without some level of pain (that's probably why they call them growing pains).

mpostor syndrome is evidence that you are in an uncomfortable situation. You're stretching yourself just beyond your expertise, and that's a good place to be if you want to grow.

The second it stops feeling hard is the second you've stopped growing, and another word for lack of growth is stagnation.

3. You're not as alone as you think you are.

In his book, The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel said, "every job looks easy when you're not the one doing it because the challenges faced by someone in the arena are often invisible to those in the crowd."

If you thought it was going to be easy, then you set yourself up for disappointment. There will always be highs and lows, so when you're questioning your competence, remember that you're not the only one.

Nobody thinks they know what they are doing, and everyone is fighting their own self-doubt. You aren't alone.

The key to impostor syndrome is to embrace the challenge, not hide from it.

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This is post 053 of #100DaysToOffload