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Imposter Syndrome



Imposter syndrome is a popular term used to describe the general feeling that our skills, accomplishments, or acceptance is unearned or undeserved, often with the accompanying fear that the people currently praising us will soon discover we’re a fraud. Those of us who deal with imposter syndrome often ascribe our success to luck or to others overestimating our intelligence or talent. The intensity of this feeling—and its accompanying fear of being “discovered”—can vary, negatively impacting our self-confidence, self-worth, and our ability to trust ourselves and others. There are many methods for constructively challenging this pattern, most notably affirmations and positive self-talk.

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The Impostor Syndrome

What holds us back from being more confident at work is often a sense that we are fundamentally different from those who succeed. We suffer – needlessly – from The Impostor Syndrome.

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The Imposter Cure: Escape the Mind-Trap of Imposter Syndrome

A solution-based self-help book that explores the psychological impact of imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a phenomenon in which people believe they are not worthy of success.

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On Getting Over Imposter Syndrome

Writer Emma Warren discusses the ways in which imposter syndrome affected her work and self-image, and explores how people can let go of their own self-doubt and reclaim their power as creators.

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FindCenterFailure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.

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How Students of Color Confront Impostor Syndrome | Dena Simmons

As a black woman from a tough part of the Bronx who grew up to attain all the markers of academic prestige, Dena Simmons knows that for students of color, success in school sometimes comes at the cost of living authentically.

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The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It

Learn to take ownership of your success, overcome self-doubt, and banish the thought patterns that undermine your ability to feel—and act—as bright and capable as others already know you are with this award-winning book by Valerie Young. It’s only because they like me.

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Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome

“Imposter syndrome,” or doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud at work, is a diagnosis often given to women. But the fact that it’s considered a diagnosis at all is problematic.

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FindCenterIf you try to view yourself through the lenses that others offer you, all you will see are distortions; your own light and beauty will become blurred, awkward, and ugly.

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Michelle Obama Explains Imposter Syndrome

Former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday urged girls to resist the “imposter syndrome” she had felt on the way up and fight men for power, saying plenty of them didn’t deserve it.

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Why Imposter Syndrome Hits Women and Women of Colour Harder

Self-doubt and imposter syndrome permeate the workplace, but women, especially women of colour, are particularly likely to experience it. Why is this—and how can it be changed?

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