Imposter Syndrome

shirt - jeans (sold out, eddie bauer) - bag - shoes (sold out, DSW)

A little weekend casual outfit. I actually wore this Friday on a rare 68 degree day in April. It was very warm for Chicago yesterday, but we're right back to where we belong at a balmy 55 degrees or so today. So I broke out the light wash cropped jeans that I mentioned in my Summer Wardrobe Thoughts post. Really simple outfit that I didn't think was worth posting, but this is what I wear. I think the light blue and the camel-ish color of the flats go quite well together!

I start my new job tomorrow at the start-up. I'll be starting up their analytics as a manager there. I'm excited, but also a little bit nervous as well. I get this way before any new job that I start. Sometimes, I feel a little bit as though I'm a fraud and that I've tricked everyone into thinking I was capable. It's formally called Imposter Syndrome, as I've learned. My boyfriend, who is a PhD student, used to get it too when he started his program. Apparently it's common among graduate students as well! Basically, it's described as an inability to internalize ones' own achievements and feeling like a fake. Lots of well known people have felt this way.

I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out. -- Maya Angelou

The exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler. -- Albert Einstein 

 It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, ‘Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved’ -- Emma Watson

Anyway, whenever I feel this way, I usually tell myself to come off it - they wouldn't hire me if they didn't think I could do the job well. I think of what I read from Lean In, the book by Sheryl Sandberg - flip through it to the chapters where she talks about this feeling. And then finally, I watch this TEDtalk by Amy Cuddy. Have you ever felt this way? I hope these resources help!