Don't let imposter syndrome keep you from going places

Bridges
Gouache painting on antique paper from a vintage book.
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Building bridges over Imposter syndrome

Bridges are a good metaphor for imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome prevents us from getting from here to there. It crumbles catwalks before we lay the first span. It skews our measurements, warps our materials, and rusts our dreams. It’s an engineering problem for the soul.

In the cityscape of dreams, infinite possibilities lead to infinite coffee shops, art stores, bars, and yes, galleries. Bridges can be bright and shining, but impossible to cross. Bridges can be crowded—hello Instagram! Bridges can be rickety and infested with trolls—hello Twitter! Bridges can take you to the stars or lead to nowhere.

But even nowhere is a place, right?

Maybe what we need to understand is that we can make our own bridges. Or maybe we don’t need bridges. Maybe we can hop, fly, dance, or leap across distances where we can’t see bridges. And sometimes our dreams are built with unexpected materials. This painting told me that my bridges are paved with words!

Or maybe we create our own bridges that go to destinations we’ve imagined incompletely, destinations no one else knows exist.

Nowhere is somewhere once you’ve arrived. The next destination is just across the next span of the universe.

Tell me, how do you build a bridge over imposter syndrome?