I recently completed a course on LinkedIn Learning called Understanding Imposter Syndrome. Sounds like something you’d hear on a television crime drama, doesn’t it? But in reality, it’s a disorder felt by millions of people around the globe. According to the Harvard Business Review, “imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. Many question whether they’re deserving of accolades.” According to a review article published in the International Journal of Behavioral Science, an estimated 70% of individuals experience imposter syndrome at some point in their lives. If you think you’re alone in these feelings, well, you’re in good company. Maya Angelou, Tom Hanks, Sheryl Sandberg, are just a few. Oh, and…
There are souls many of us have been blessed to share time with here on Earth. Their presence will never be filled again; their void will always feel apparent; their memory we’ll use to judge all other occasions. Sadly, after these souls left this earthly place, nothing feels quite the same anymore. Holidays and birthdays still come and go with the same regularity, only now they no longer have the same magic. We try to recapture some of it by recreating traditions, recipes, even looking at old pictures, but by the end, we’re reminded of their absence and grieve once again. I realize that not everyone struggles with this sense of loss. Perhaps some are better able to compartmentalize their feelings and find ways to keep moving forward. Though I…
The word “facade” is defined as “a false, superficial or artificial appearance or effect”. While often used to describe a building’s exterior, it’s also used to define people’s obsessive desire to create, and sadly, support a myth about their life. We use heavy cosmetics, altering surgeries, hair dye, fad diets and clothing to help conceal from the world our real earthly age. We burden ourselves with credit card debt, auto loans and home loans with the misguided notion that material possessions will convey to others that we’re wealthier and more successful than we really are. We exude an air of over confidence, dominance and conceit at home and at work in an attempt to hide the demons of insecurity which plague our everyday life. Where’s the danger in all this…
Many organizations today have adopted a notion that employees should assume positive intent when dealing with other teammates and superiors during meetings or while engaging in conversation (both oral and electronic). I’m a firm believer that yes, it is far more powerful and productive to think positively in life rather than focus on the negative conspiracy theories we often fabricate in our own heads due to a lack of legitimate data. But at the end of the day, the practice to assume positive intent does in fact have a downside. In reality, what organizations are doing is minimizing people’s feelings, thus allowing the offender to walk away with no blame or shame for their disrespect. We call that bullying. We’ve all heard the adage check your emotions at the door…
As we usher in another calendar year, many of us will resolve to change the current trajectory of our lives. From health and wellness, to prioritizing our to-do-lists (both personally and professionally). I’m not exempt in such attempts, though I’ve repeatedly resolved to do the same thing year after year and somehow always manage to fail. My resolution? To set low expectations. Douglas Adams, an English author and screenwriter, one remarked that, “A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment.” I can attest to the accuracy of that statement as I’ve spent much of my life setting high expectations for relationships, situations and occasions, which oftentimes resulted in nothing more than loneliness, and as Adams stated above, disappointment. For instance, how…