You are skilled to do something great, as you can advance your career or own a successful business, and you are ready to sharpen your skillset. You enroll in a course that will help you grow and improve your inner gifts, and you like the course. However, along the way, you question whether or not you are worthy of taking it. You wonder if anyone will take you seriously once you complete your course and take the following steps. You don’t think you are worthy of becoming an expert in something you are already good at because who would take you seriously anyway? Doesn’t that sound like a bad case of Imposter Syndrome?

What Is Imposter Syndrome?

According to VeryWellMind, Imposter Syndrome characterizes you not feeling nearly as competent as the way others perceive you. The source states that it falls into the realm of anxiety disorders. Imposter Syndrome does not only apply to intelligence and any accomplishments that someone obtained. It has a lot to do with perfectionism and how someone fits in socially. You may have the skills, but you don’t believe that you are that good at what you do. You think you are a fake, a phony, and a fraud. You are waiting for the shoe to drop that will expose you as a fraud. Some of those who suffer from it may think they fell into a prestigious role because of good luck or nepotism. They won’t take the credit for working hard for their achievement. That, unfortunately, can prevent you from attaining more skills and moving higher in your career or business. What does this have to do with the tarot? Let’s look at the tarot card combination that represents Imposter Syndrome.

Eight Of Pentacles And Seven Of Swords Tarot Card Combination: Imposter Syndrome Can Be A Struggle

A two tarot card combination represents Imposter Syndrome, the Eight of Pentacles, and Seven of Swords. The Seven of Swords alone can indicate Imposter Syndrome, upright or reversed, depending on the spread’s surrounding cards. That is the card that represents trickery, deception, and sneakiness. The Eight of Pentacles means mastering a skill, learning new skills, or representing assembly line or repetitive work.

You may see that there may be other interpretations to those tarot card combinations, which may also indicate someone sneaking around at work. Or, maybe you are finding new and deceptive ways to acquire skills; I mean, think about it. Snagging a course for free in a deceptive way can match this combination. However, since I mostly write about mental health, I will stick to the Imposter Syndrome Interpretation.

Who Is The Most Likely To Suffer From Imposter Syndrome?

As I mentioned, Imposter Syndrome is an anxiety disorder. Anyone can struggle with Imposter Syndrome struggles with low self-esteem, even if they don’t have a diagnosed mental illness. However, you can expect those who suffer from anxiety or depression disorder to be more likely to struggle with Imposter Syndrome.

According to the same source, VeryWellMind, those who struggle with the condition tend to feel plenty of self-doubts, are known to be overachievers, cannot correctly assess their skills and competence, and are terrified that they won’t live up to their expectations. By the way, they set the bar very high. When they don’t meet their demands, they berate themselves for failure. They will also be more likely to sabotage their success as well. Let’s look into examples of Imposter Syndrome, and you may even find that it hits home.

What Is An Example Of Imposter Syndrome?

The examples of Imposter Syndrome are endless. However, I will share one that I can relate to as a writer. Think about someone who is just getting their feet wet in freelance writing. They take some freelance writing courses and enjoy what they learn about how to become a good writer. As they complete their exercises and they see that there is potential to make six figures a year with freelance writing, at least – they begin to doubt that they can ever make that kind of money.

The writer knows they are good at what they do, and they can become even better. However, the idea of them becoming exceptional writers scares them because they feel like they could never get to that point. They think that they can offer writing services on platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork (not that there is anything wrong with doing that as Fiverr had been a great tool to help me with that for years) at a low price. The writers that have Imposter Syndrome don’t believe they can move beyond charging clients for low prices. Even though these writers can be amazing, even if they are already amazing, they don’t feel right charging for more than what they charge clients.

If the writer is told that they should charge four times the amount they do for their writing, they won’t listen and will not even think of going there. If the writer were to increase their prices down the road, they would maybe increase the price slightly, or at most may double their price. However, they won’t want to go much higher than that. If they do, that means they would be the best professional writer around, and they cannot wrap their head around that. That is due to Imposter Syndrome.

Once someone is in an industry for a long time and become more confident in what they do, they tend to allow the Imposter Syndrome way of thinking to dissolve. However, that may never happen if someone struggles with anxiety and depression.