Nearly everyone I know suffers from some form of impostor syndrome, or feeling like they're some form of fraud just waiting for the shoe to drop -- that they'll be discovered as underqualified or as some kind of malicious idiot in hiding. That they either haven't done the work, or are surrounded by people more qualified than them. That sheer luck and circumstance got them to where they're at and at some point, people will wake up and realize that they've been duped?
What if we could dismiss this as a perverse form of arrogance? After all, if we think that we're impostors, in hiding doesn't that also imply that we're so smart and clever that we've duped all our colleagues or friends into thinking that we're of value? That we're surrounded by clueless fools who have so easily succombed to the brilliance of our long con?
What if we believed in the universality of impostor syndrome. That every single person we encountered -- from the meek and to the bullies we encounter -- that absolutely everyone around us is afraid to be exposed as not belonging? Could that transform our fear into compassion?
