Impostor syndrome is the belief that your accomplishments are a sham — and your success puts you at risk of being found out.

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Watch! My Impostor Syndrome Rant: Goddess Temple Sundays

“Comparison is an act of violence against the self.” –Iyanla Vanzant

​Hey Goddess,

Let’s talk about impostor syndrome.

Impostor syndrome is the (usually erroneous) belief that although you can talk a good game, or may look like stuff is working, you are a total fraud. So if you show up more to play a bigger game in life, you will be FOUND OUT!!

This was the topic of yesterday’s “Goddess Temple Sunday.”

As a result of impostor syndrome, we self-sabotage, we shrink and play small, and we stop showing up to create the magic we were born to create.

I am intimately family with impostor syndrome — and if you are too, this video (aka RANT) is for you.

I also include below some quotes from women we admire — about how they deal with impostor syndrome so that you know you are not alone.

Impostor Syndrome Quotes

“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

“She said she never raised her hand her first year because—and this is a quote—she was too embarrassed and too intimidated to ask questions. So, despite all her success at Princeton, then she went on to Yale Law School where she was at the top of her class in both schools—and despite all of her professional accomplishments, Judge Sotomayor says she still looks over her shoulder and wonders if she measures up. And when I read her story, I understood exactly how she feels.” -FLOTUS Michelle Obama on Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor

“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!’ So you just try to ride the egomania when it comes and enjoy it, and then slide through the idea of fraud.” – Tina Fey

“Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the ‘I’m a Fraud’ phase. You go through the ‘I’ll Never Finish’ phase.” -Lin-Manuel Miranda

“I feel every time I’m making a movie, I feel like [it’s] my first movie. Every time I have the same fear that I’m gonna be fired. And I’m not joking. Every movie, the first week, I always feel that they could fire me!” —Lupita Nyong’o

“I think winning an Oscar may in fact have made it worse. Now I’ve achieved this, what am I going to do next? What do I strive for? Then I remember that I didn’t get into acting for the accolades, I got into it for the joy of telling stories.” —Penélope Cruz

“Every time I was called on in class, I was sure that I was about to embarrass myself. Every time I took a test, I was sure that it had gone badly. And every time I didn’t embarrass myself — or even excelled — I believed that I had fooled everyone yet again. One day soon, the jig would be up … This phenomenon of capable people being plagued by self-doubt has a name — the impostor syndrome. Both men and women are susceptible to the impostor syndrome, but women tend to experience it more intensely and be more limited by it.” —Sheryl Sandberg

“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.” – Kate Winslett

‘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?”‘ -Meryl Streep

Impostor Syndrome Cheat Sheet