{"id":8081,"date":"2026-05-04T05:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=8081"},"modified":"2026-05-04T05:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:58:44","slug":"happiness-expert-explains-why-imposter-syndrome-is-a-good-thing-and-how-to-lean-into-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=8081","title":{"rendered":"Happiness expert explains why \u2018imposter syndrome\u2019 is a good thing and how to lean into it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIf you feel imposter syndrome, that\u2019s great,\u201d says Dr. Arthur C. Brooks. \u201cThat means all kinds of good things about you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever created something<\/a>, or been asked to give a presentation<\/a>, or gotten an opportunity at work and felt like you weren\u2019t good enough for it? Have you ever thought to yourself, \u201cI\u2019m not as capable as they think I am,\u201d and had a deep fear that you were going to be outed as a fraud (despite the fact that you do actually have at least some level of skill and competence)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chances are, you have. This wave of self-doubt and fear is called \u201cimposter syndrome,\u201d and it\u2019s quite common. Not only that, but as much as the feeling sucks, it\u2019s actually not a bad thing, according to Harvard behavioral social scientist Arthur C. Brooks.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why having imposter syndrome is a good sign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a specialist in happiness <\/a>and author of The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life<\/em>, Brooks says he works a lot with \u201cstrivers\u201d in his research, people who are ambitious and want to do great things with their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat all strivers I\u2019ve ever met have in common is that the higher they climb, and the more success that they have, the more insecure they feel in their own success because they\u2019re not quite sure that they\u2019ve earned it or deserve it,\u201d Brooks shares. \u201cThat\u2019s called impostor syndrome. It\u2019s completely natural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Brooks says, there\u2019s only one group of people that imposter syndrome doesn\u2019t really affect, and that\u2019s the people who actually are <\/em>imposters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the great ironies I\u2019ve found is that people who deserve success through hard work and merit and personal responsibility are not quite sure they deserve it. And the people who don\u2019t deserve it are often the people who actually are most sure that they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"strengths,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People who don\u2019t experience imposter syndrome trigger Brooks\u2019 \u201cspider sense,\u201d putting him on alert, because it is often a sign of what\u2019s known as the \u201cdark triad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark triads, in business or in personal life, are people who are above average in three characteristics: Narcissism (It\u2019s all about me). Machiavellianism (I\u2019m willing to do what it takes, including hurting you to get my way.) And psychopathy (to be psychopathic, which is to say, I\u2019m going to hurt you and feel no remorse.) You might think that that\u2019s super rare. It\u2019s not. One in 14 people in the population is above average on those three characteristics. Dark triads are 7% of the population. You know them. They\u2019ve broken your heart. They\u2019ve been disloyal to you. They\u2019ve taken credit for your work. They\u2019ve made life miserable, and you try to avoid them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks says that \u201cgood, normal, healthy\u201d people will almost assuredly experience imposter syndrome from time to time, wondering if they have really earned and deserve their success and if they\u2019re really up to the task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re doing here, as a healthy person, is that you know what you\u2019re good at, and you know what you\u2019re not good at,\u201d he says. But other people only see what you\u2019re good at. You see your full internal landscape, and you can see what you\u2019re still trying to get better at. But that\u2019s not what the world sees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re looking at the ways that you\u2019re creating value,\u201d Brooks says. \u201cYou\u2019re looking at the ways that you can\u2019t create value yet. And you tend to focus, because of what psychologists call negativity bias, on what you don\u2019t have as opposed to what you have. When you focus as a striving, hard-working, ambitious, and upwardly mobile person on what you don\u2019t have, you\u2019re going to feel like an imposter. That\u2019s just the way it is, unless you\u2019re a dark triad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one wants to be a dark triad, so having imposter syndrome is actually a positive sign. But that doesn\u2019t make it easier to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to make imposter syndrome work in your favor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brooks says understanding your impostor syndrome and trying to get better at the things you see you\u2019re not good at yet is the key to using it as an opportunity for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you feel imposter syndrome, that\u2019s great,\u201d he says. \u201cThat means all kinds of good things about you. But don\u2019t miss the opportunity. Don\u2019t miss the opportunity to focus on the ways that you actually can get better and keep striving more for it. Lean into the imposter syndrome without giving in to it. Lean in without giving in. When you\u2019re an accomplished professional, and you\u2019re upwardly mobile, and you\u2019re being successful, what that means is that people are focusing more on your strengths than your weaknesses. And it also says you have more manifest strengths than you do weaknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a helpful reminder. If things are going in the opposite direction, your weaknesses may be taking center stage, but Brooks also reminds us that we\u2019re not all weaknesses and not all strengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"strengths,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the problem: If you\u2019re a well-adjusted person with a modicum of humility, you\u2019re going to feel like a loser when everybody else sees you as a winner, \u201d he says. \u201cBut rest assured that when things are going well for you, that means that people are more focused on your strengths than they are on your weaknesses. Don\u2019t focus more on your weaknesses than your strengths, but recognize them, because that\u2019s your opportunity for growth and change and improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-doubt is evidence of a healthy sense of humility, which is good. If we can reframe imposter syndrome, seeing it as a positive sign and an opportunity to determine which areas we can focus on to improve, perhaps it will feel less scary and more like a catalyst for growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you feel imposter syndrome, that\u2019s great,\u201d says Dr. Arthur C. Brooks. \u201cThat means all kinds of good things about you.\u201d Have you ever created something,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/687039911_1445979360896384_13839466153380076_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8083,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8081\/revisions\/8083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}