Impostor Syndrome

The term "Impostor Syndrome" has become a buzzword, casually tossed around in professional circles and social media alike. It's become almost fashionable to declare, "I suffer from Impostor Syndrome."

In my own classrooms, I've shared with my students that I, too, battle this feeling, confessing that even after years in my field, I still sometimes feel like an impostor.

But what I've been labeling as Impostor Syndrome is something quite different.

To declare oneself an impostor is to misunderstand the term itself. Impostor Syndrome isn't about having self-doubts or feeling out of place. It's about the conviction of being a fraud, of having deceived others into believing you're competent when you're not.

This isn't the case for most of us who claim to have Impostor Syndrome.

We're not deceivers or frauds. We're learners. Professionals who care deeply about our work and strive to improve.

Do we have much left to learn? Yes. But that doesn't mean we don't belong.

There's a profound difference between an impostor and a professional who's on the way to becoming a ​superstar​. An impostor is someone who consciously attempts to deceive others, who tries to skip the hard work and reap the benefits unearned. They have no intention of truly engaging with the discipline or putting in the effort.

In contrast, those of us who feel like impostors are usually doing the exact opposite. We're committed to our craft, we're invested in our growth, and we're doing the work, day in and day out.

The problem arises when we mistake our natural learning process, the inevitable journey of growth that comes with being a novice, for a sign of being an impostor.

The antidote to this mislabeled Impostor Syndrome is not to seek external validation. It’s to simply do the work. Competence is built step by step, experience by experience.

It's time to reframe your understanding of Impostor Syndrome.

It's not a badge of honor.

It's a mislabeling of the natural insecurities that come with growth and learning. The real journey is not about fighting a phantom sense of fraudulence.

It’s about embracing the path to competence.