The Empress Has No Clothes

Chapter 6But You Are So Young

The terrible irony of the impostor syndrome is that it shows up most intensely to make us question whether we are worthy of our accomplishments at the very moment we succeed. And since it is a form of social anxiety, it forces us to compare ourselves to our new peer group—to people who have succeeded in a similar sphere—and to worry about the ways in which we do and don’t fit in. Most often, we focus on the nonnegotiable aspects of ourselves, those things we cannot change.

Analyze your success. Our impostor fears tell us that our success is, at worst, a fluke and, at best, the result of extraordinarily hard work. Develop a written inventory of your skills, accomplishments, and experiences to build an understanding ...