Father Sez

A while ago, I read Mrs. M’s post on the Impostor Syndrome.

She defined it as:-

“Feeling like you’ve never made significant accomplishments and that you’re actually a fraud waiting to be found out and humiliated or punished or exposed.” 

I think this is a feeling that perhaps, many of us go through. The feeling that we have never ever really made “true” progress and it was just plain dumb luck that took us to where we are now.  When we read this definition of the Impostor Syndrome, together with Peter’s Principle of being promoted to our level of incompetence, it feels like a real solid knock on our heads. 

Well, this is a feeling that I have been going through for a little while now.  When I first started out in working life, I had a truly wonderful supervisor, Angie. She was supportive, guided me tirelessly, was a great mentor and set me off on a blazing start to my career. She would be the single person I should attribute my “fearless and can-do attitude” to.  

Along the way, I have now run into some not so inspiring situations, hence the present feelings. My usual motivator is my wife, as I have mentioned before.

This time, however, I wanted another confirmation. Unlike Mrs. M, who works in a library and found reassurances from a series of career books called the “Career Coward” books, I did not have these books to fall back on.

This is how I found the reassurance I wanted.

I read about “The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers” via a web site while researching something. To quote them:-

“The 5 patterns reveal the subtle yet powerful factors that determine career success.  Based on three years of extensive research, including an in-depth survey of more than 2,000 of the top executives in business, we now know the patterns of thought and action most correlated with extraordinary careers.”

And to check whether we would have an extraordinary career, they provide an online quiz, which I took. 

It appears that I am a person with great potential. So I am writing this post with a feeling of “not too little” reassurance.  

If any of you are feeling even a little of the impostor syndrome now, go on and take the quiz. At least you will learn a little more about yourself.