Day 8 of my writing challenge

I’ve not written for a whole week because nothing I was writing felt good enough. I struggle with many things but this is one that affects me the most because it triggers other underlying insecurities like a lack of self-confidence and a fear of failure. There’s not much to be said about it other than it can be quite paralysing. Sometimes, all it takes is to think less and go with my gut. Other times, it just lingers in the background until it doesn’t.

It’s that feeling of guilt when you’re given praise – do I really deserve this? When are they going to find out that I’m not actually smart? It’s that feeling when even though you’ve worked hard, you feel like your achievements are not as remarkable as people might think. It’s when you feel like you’re somewhat of a fraud, an impostor.  

It was a slight relief when I came across the term used for this haunting feeling and discovered that it had a name and was an actual concept that had been identified and studied.

“Impostor syndrome”. Whoever coined the term couldn’t have come up with a more accurate one to describe the feeling.