“The thing about ‘impostors’ is they have unsustainably high standards for everything they do. The thinking here is, If I don’t know everything, then I know nothing. If it’s not absolutely perfect, it’s woefully deficient. If I’m not operating at the top of my game 24/7, then I’m incompetent.”
Read more about the Impostor Syndrome (and those afflicted by it including Maya Angelou, Meryl Streep and Tina Fey) in this post titled: Crushing the Impostor Syndrome @ CycloneLife.net.
Source: Crushing the Impostor Syndrome @ Cyclonelife.net via 99u.com.
Live & Learn 
Similar to my ‘sham’ theory – but bottom line, so true. Our perceptions of our own abilities shrink as we exaggerate the knowledge and abilities of others. And so we plow own with a sense of contrived (but sincere) competitiveness and determination to merely try to hold our own – when in fact we may be surpassing those around us.
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Yes, and simultaneously driving us into a “not-good-enough” doom loop. “Sham” theory? Would like to hear more about it.
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One day – over a cup of coffee…but it’s related to the ‘not-good-enough’ doom loop.
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Echo David’s comments on your sham theory.
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We’re all waiting for Mimi to enlighten us. And we’re patient.
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Yes, I recognize that creature! I remember hearing DeeDee Myers interviewed about her first week in the White House, surrounded by people like George Stephanopoulus and others. She said that she was absolutely panicked, thought that there had been some horrible mistake when she was hired, and feared being exposed as a sham at any moment. I thought, “OMG, her, too?!” Wonder why it is that we all seem to use a fun house mirror when looking at ourselves?……
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Yes, The Fun House Mirror. That about captures it Lori. 🙂
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I often think I am an imposter when I do my weekly column for the newspaper I work for–I imagine people in their lunchrooms with the paper open to my column saying things like–can you believe she said that–who does she think she is. Then I think I am being an egomaniac for even thinking that people are actually reading my column. Then I just forget all about it and keep writing–been doing it for fifteen years now so I must be doing something right……………
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You certainly are (doing something right) and you certainly are not alone. In fine company LouAnn
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yep
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Not Ms. Confident. No chance.
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just imagining how much I could achieve doing things I’m not confident about
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It would be LARGE!
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I’ll remember that
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This is fascinating!
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I thought so too Julie.
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me too!
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Oh no!
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There’s a lot of role playing in life.
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so true!
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Ordinariness is a simple presence in this moment that allows the mystery of life to show itself. When Thoreau warns us to ‘beware of any activity that requires the purchase of new clothes,’ he reminds us that simplicity is the way we open to everyday wonder. While consciousness can create an infinite variety of forms, ordinariness is interested in what is here and now. This is the ordinary mystery of breathing or of walking, the mystery of trees on our street or of loving someone near to us. It is not based on attaining mystical states or extraordinary powers. The ordinariness of spiritual life comes from a heart that has learned trust, from a gratitude for the gift of human life. When we are just ourselves, without pretense or artifice, we are at rest in the universe.
~ Jack Kornfield (via http://makebelieveboutique.com/2013/08/12/6677/)
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Me too. I am unfortunately a perfectionist and to be honest its not a good thing at all specially when you can’t balance it.
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Yes, that so true. I can appreciate this.
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Reblogged this on Todd Lohenry.
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