Melissa Doman

And if someone brings it up, now oftentimes the way people do that isn't always helpful or constructive and may shock them or make them feel like they need to hide even more.

uh but also if you think about um imposter syndrome there are endless leaders endless leaders who struggle with imposter syndrome michelle obama used to struggle with it the former health world health organization leader um forgetting her name uh she used to struggle with it michael myers used to struggle with it the famous uh actor and producer and director it

It doesn't know any limitations of identity.

It can hit anybody.

So they get so focused on, quote, not getting found out that it's less about putting on a mask and more just about making sure that they're proactively overdoing it so people don't realize that they can't do the job.

So lots of folks on autopilot and lots of people who are doing it out of a sense of panic so they don't get seen for who they quote really are, even though who they are is more than fine.

Oh, that is a very fine line.

I think that I think I, I would definitely identify as a high achiever, not an over performer, because when I start moving that needle past high achieving into overperforming, my body and my brain will not let me, it will literally start shutting me down and changing my behavior, you know, influence my thought patterns differently, starting to give me

physical symptoms.

So I think that one of those key ways is, you know, it's, it's good to be a high achiever.

You have goals you want to set.

You want, have milestones you want to hit.

You know, it's good to have things to work towards, but there's a difference between working towards something versus working yourself into the ground at infinitum.

And, uh, I saw, um, rain Wilson who played Dwight on, um, the office and,

And so he's big into mindfulness and he talks a lot about, you know, his struggles with anxiety and depression.

And I saw him do a fireside chat at a conference and he talked about something called the hungry ghost, a principle of, I believe in Buddhism.

And basically it's something very difficult to struggle with because it doesn't matter how many achievements you get.

It doesn't matter how high you keep going.

It's never enough.

Yeah.