UPDATE: wow, never thought this post would take off this much! thanks
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Imagine working your entire life towards a goal. Something basic for example, let’s say you want to be good at free throws. You practice tirelessly, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for years you have thousands of hours put into getting good at shooting free throws. You can make on average not 9 out of 10, but 99 out of 100 without missing. Then one day you are with a bunch of people who know how to play basketball, you don’t know how good they are, maybe some only ever played in elementary school decades ago, maybe some play every weekend a t the rec center, maybe among them is someone in the NBA, but it doesn’t matter, because even though you are either of equal skill, maybe even better, even after you have sunk Dozens of free throws in front of them you begin to doubt yourself. Even though you have just made your 50th consecutive free throw now you are uncertain, am I bending me knee strangely when I do this? ten more shots, 60 in a row no misses, you start to wonder if you look silly. 75 consecutive free throws made and you havn’t missed a single shot but now you’re wondering if they’re judging you for not shooting the ball high enough, 90 baskets made no misses and maybe you think you are throwing it too high now. Finally after your 100th basket made, no misses, absolute perfection, the self doubt becomes so intense that you cannot bring your arms up for a 101st shot. You are so absolutely certain that the people around you, are better than you, and deserve to be there at the court more than you despite not knowing anything about their skill level or background, that you cannot bring yourself to shoot even one more shot. THAT, is what it feels like to have Imposter Syndrome, even if you were to somehow achieve absolute inhuman perfection in your field, you would still be CERTAIN that you either aren’t good enough, or don’t deserve to be there as much as your peers.
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