This Is Your Brain on Mushrooms | One-Shot #6

Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo

I used to think I somehow escaped the clutches of imposter syndrome. Oh, the ego in that statement. Surprise, surprise, I was wrong.

My imposter syndrome grips me as a writer, a podcaster, a speaker, and a creator-of-things-that-people-are-supposed-to-enjoyer. It's the worst when I face gatekeepers -- people like editors or publishers who decide whether or not someone is worthy of coming onto their platform or working with their service.

Most of us face some flavor of imposter syndrome, and it can feel impossible to beat. Recently, I heard the story of a friend's brother obsessed with searching for mushrooms in the woods behind his house. That led me to a realization that can help us change the way we view or work and our relationship to it, which can in turn help us beat imposter syndrome.

In the end, we aren't experts. We're explorers. We're not creators. We're foragers.

What might happen if we thought about our work in those terms?

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-Jay