high-achievers suffering from 'imposter syndrome' _ news.com

8/13/2019 High-Achievers Suffering From 'Imposter Syndrome' _ News.com

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Finance

news.com.au | finance

High-achievers suffering from 'ImposterSyndrome'

DO you doubt you deserve your promotion and fear it's just a matter of time before you're found out as a

talentless fraud? Congratulations. You're among the most successful people on the planet.

If you're outwardly confident and accomplished but suspect you're constantly on the verge of being unmasked, you might

be suffering from "Imposter Syndrome".

It's not a recognised medical condition, but the affliction - in which you experience deep self doubt - plagues many highachievers, from CEOs to university students to celebrities.

This constant worry about being found out affects more women than men and often those who work in creative fields.

These people (falsely) believe others have over-estimated their talents and that their superiors will, at any moment,

realise they'd been fooled.

The dizzier the heights, the greater the expectations and the worse the syndrome becomes.

Valerie Young, author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, says countless millions of high-achieving people

don't experience an inner sense of competence or success.

"Despite often overwhelming evidence of their abilities, impostors dismiss them as merely a matter of luck, timing,

outside help, charm - even computer error. Because people who have the impostor syndrome feel that they've somehow

managed to slip through the system undetected, in their mind it's just a matter of time before they're found out."

If you feel like a fraud, you're not alone.

Even someone who appears as confident and certain as 7.30host Leigh Sales suffers from self doubt. A few years ago

the respected ABC journalist penned a personal essay, Doubt, arguing in favour of a doubtful mind.

Sales confessed during an interview on Conversations with Richard Fidler, that she frequently questions her own

abilities.

Susan Pinker's book The Sexual Paradox: Troubled Boys, Gifted Girls and the Real Difference Between the Sexes

delves deeper into the issue.

In 2006, the world's highest-ranked female Scrabble player Robin Pollock Daniel confessed her fears to Pinker.

"I care alot about winning ... That's what distinguishes me from a lot of women. I hate to lose ... Still, I go into every

game and there's a small female voice that says, You don't belong here. You're fraudulent. It's the female thing."

You might be surprised to learn the high-achievers below also disaply signs of "Imposter Syndrome".

Tina Fey

"The beauty of the impostor syndrome is you vacillate between extreme egomania and a complete feeling of: 'I'm a fraud!

Oh God, they're on to me! I'm a fraud!', the American actor, comedian, writer and producer told author Valerie Young.

So you just try to ride the egomania when it comes and enjoy it, and then slide through the idea of fraud."
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/06/30/2612546.htmhttp://www.news.com.au/financehttp://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/06/30/2612546.htmhttp://www.news.com.au/finance


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"I thought it was a fluke," she said in the interview.

"[It was] the same way when I walked on the campus at Yale. I thought everybody would find out, and they'd take the

Oscar back. They'd come to my house, knocking on the door, 'Excuse me, we meant to give that to someone else. That

was going to Meryl Streep.'"

Don Cheadle

American actor, producer and Oscar nominee Don Cheadle told the Los Angeles Timesthat he's super self-critical of hisown work.

"All I can see is everything I'm doing wrong that is a sham and a fraud," he said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/nov/14/entertainment/ca-cheadle14


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Kate Winslet

Academy award winning actor Kate Winslet says fame doesn't give you confidence.

"Sometimes I wake up in the morning before going off to a shoot, and I think, I can't do this. I'm a fraud," she told author

Susan Pinker.

Michael Uslan

The producer of the Batman movies still has occasional bouts of impostor syndrome, according to The Huffington Post.

When he's on the set Uslan says, "I still have this background feeling that one of the security guards might come and

throw me out."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-valerie-young/impostor-syndrome_b_2760878.html


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Denzel Washington

Impostor syndrome expert Dr Valerie Youngsays Oscar winner Denzel Washington never took his starring role in the

Broadway hit Fencesfor granted.

"That last five minutes before you go on that first [Broadway] preview, if you don't have that 'what the hell am I doing here

[feeling]' if you don't have that then they say it's time to quit," he said.

Chuck Lorre

The writer and creator of hits such as Two and Half Menand The Big Bang Theory told National Public Radio that he

needs to "go and hide".

"When you go and watch a rehearsal of something you've written and it stinks, the natural feeling is 'I stink.' I'm a fraud. I

need to go and hide,'" he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-valerie-young/impostor-syndrome_b_2760878.html


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Rene Zellweger

The Oscar winner says luck has played a starring role in her success and that at times she used to wake up at night

and think, "Oh, damn! Here we go again! What were they thinking? They gave me this role; don't they know I'm faking

it?"

Meryl Streep

The most Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated actor in history told Ken Burns in an interview, "You think, 'Why

would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don't know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?"


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Dr. Margaret Chan

The Chief of the World Health Organisation attributes her achievements to luck.

"There are an awful lot of people out there who think I'm an expert. How do these people believe all this about me? I'm so

much aware of all the things I don't know," she has reportedly said.

Michelle Pfeiffer

The actor described her self-doubts in a 2002 interview.

"I still think people will find out that I'm really not very talented. I'm really not very good. It's all been a big sham."


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SOURCE: http://www.news.com.au/finance/highachievers-suffering-from-imposter-syndrome/story-e6frfm1i-1226779707766
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high-achievers suffering from 'imposter syndrome' _ news.com

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