You can learn to dance with Imposter Syndrome. You can’t make it stop.
Someone I know is at his first ever industry conference. (My first was IAJE in January 1996 in Atlanta.)
He is having maybe his first ever major experience of Imposter Syndrome. The feeling that you don’t really belong to a community, or don’t really deserve received accolades, and that you’ll be found out soon.
It’s good to do some learning right away about Imposter Syndrome, your first time experiencing it. First, because it’s good to understand what’s going on underneath the hood. Second, because it’s going to keep going. Indeed, just hours after advising him about his Imposter Syndrome, I had my own bout – thinking about the success of Shades of Blue’s concert tonight and the obvious community they’ve built together, it was altogether too easy to tell myself I had nothing to do with their success and their rapport. I had to put on the mental brakes and remind myself that my leadership was key to their musical growth, and that the way I lead helps foster the community they enjoy.
Even typing those words are hard – in my head I’m certain that I’m going to be “found out” as a fraud for thinking that.
It’s good to know about Imposter Syndrome, because it’s never going away. But you can dance with it: because feeling Imposter Syndrome is a great way to know you’re doing work of value.