Your Own Worst Enemy

Getting Over Impostor Syndrome

Have you ever felt like you are in over your head, that you don’t have nearly the competence to be doing the job you’re doing, and that sooner or later, others will find out you’re faking it? Maybe it will help to know that those other folks sometimes feel the same way. It’s called Impostor Syndrome.

“They used to call it an inferiority complex. You’re convinced you’re not good enough or smart enough to do this. Impostor syndrome. The only thing holding you back is you.”
I wish I could say this call changed everything, but it didn’t. My second Master’s degree was worse than ever. Studying in a profoundly theory-heavy program, I felt hopelessly lost in every class, every day. I was convinced at any moment uniformed thugs would burst into my seminar to unmask me and drag me out. Obviously I did not belong here, as I understood maybe one tenth of what I was reading, and was frequently confused even by the comments of my own classmates. It seemed so easy for them. Surely I had made yet another mistake.
It never occurred to me that I was there to learn, or that other students might be feeling the same way.

Read more about Impostor Syndrome and how to deal with it at xoJane.