So repeat after me in your most confident voice: I’m a STUDENT. I’m here to LEARN. I’m SUPPOSED to feel stupid!

Men “always seem to go for the biggest brownie on the plate,” says Myers, adding, “What’s more, they expect the other guys (and sometimes the gals) to do the same.”

Holding Back As a protecting device, holding back can take many forms. For example, if you’re not a fan of hard work, then you may try to skirt detection by doing precisely the opposite. Low-effort syndrome, as psychologists refer to it, is commonly seen among bright teenagers who steadfastly refuse to apply themselves. But adults use it too. You k

It’s also easy to misconstrue the impostor syndrome as just a fancy name for low self-esteem. It’s not.

Whether you eventually decipher it or not, the fact that you had to struggle in the first place can set off your impostor alarm.

if you are unable to claim your accomplishments on a gut, visceral level, then when you are confronted with actual evidence of your abilities, it’s unclear to you how you got there. Even though your achievements clearly emanate from you, you feel oddly disconnected from them. And without this connection between yourself and your accomplishments, th

The fraudulent feelings we’re talking about here have to do with insecurities related to your knowledge or skills and as such occur primarily in academic and professional arenas.

Holding back can also take the form of what Clance and Imes refer to as “intellectual inauthenticity.” You remain silent in the face of opposing opinions.

When you have an “impostor moment,” it’s tremendously helpful to understand the possible reasons behind it. That’s because when you shift away from the personal it allows you to put your responses into perspective more quickly. It’s the difference between thinking Yikes, what an incompetent fraud I am! and knowing It makes perfect sense that I’d fe