that makes you judge yourself harshly. While these two conditions have a lot of similarities, they’re not identical. The term “imposter syndrome” comes from the term “imposter phenomenon,” which originated with psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. Clance and Imes used the term to describe high-achieving women who felt fraudulent or inadequate like they had fooled people into believing they were successful.
Nowadays, imposter syndrome is used to describe consistent feelings of self-doubt, even in areas where you’ve performed well. A few common signs of imposter syndrome are:
- Doubting your competence and skills
- Negative self-talk
- Getting upset when you fail to meet challenging goals
- Overachieving or over-preparing
- Sabotaging your own hard work
- Attributing your success to something other than yourself
If you have imposter syndrome, you might feel like a fraud or tell yourself you don’t deserve the things you’ve achieved. Imposter syndrome can create anxiety that other people will find out you’re a fake and that you’ll fail to live up to expectations.
Low self-esteem means you judge yourself harshly, think negative thoughts about yourself, and focus more on your flaws than your successes. Unlike imposter syndrome, low self-esteem usually does not make you feel like a fraud, but you may still live in fear of failing or letting others down.
Some signs of low self-esteem include:
- Lack of confidence
- Thinking or saying negative things about yourself
- Ignoring your achievements in favor of focusing on your failures
- Sensitivity to criticism
- Withdrawing from social activities
Sometimes, low self-esteem can cause or worsen mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.
Imposter syndrome and low self-esteem share similar signs, and the conditions can overlap. Having low self-esteem may make you more likely to experience imposter syndrome. Sometimes, having imposter syndrome and the anxiety that comes with it can lower your self-esteem.
A person with imposter syndrome has generally achieved some level of success in an area of their life, yet they struggle to attribute that success to their own ability.
A person with low self-confidence, on the other hand, may be too worried about failing to start working toward their goals in the first place. Low self-confidence generally impacts multiple areas of your life, while imposter syndrome is often limited to specific areas.
“Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should take the Children of Yisrael out of Egypt?”
Hashem answered Moshe’s two questions in order. “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” said Moshe. Hashem told him that he need not fear Pharaoh, because He would be with him. And, as for the merit of the Jewish People, Hashem replied they are destined to receive the Torah on Mount Sinai. They deserved redemption on the basis of their future loyalty to Hashem. This teaches us that we can be judged and even rewarded on the basis of our potential alone. The fact that Jewish People would, in the future, listen to and obey Hashem, was sufficient to merit their redemption.
If Hashem rewards us even for our future achievements, how much more should we not denigrate our past achievements and think we are in some way imposters.
