Feeling like a fake who’s about to get caught is almost a job requirement for creative people. Make the thing anyway.

RESILIENCE

WHAT THIS MEANS

That feeling tends to arrive most strongly in people who can see the gap between what they made and what they wanted to make, which is to say in people who are paying attention. It is not evidence of fraud. It is what having standards feels like from the inside while you are still working your way toward them.

Stop treating the feeling as a report on your legitimacy. Notice it, name it as familiar, and continue with whatever you were doing. It tends not to go away with experience, so waiting for it to lift before you make the next thing means waiting indefinitely.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

When does the fear of being found out hit you?

MORE IN ADVERSITY, PRESSURE & RESILIENCE

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.