So it's come to my attention recently that I've got a right big case of Impostor Syndrome. I don't know exactly why I have it, what the cause is, but I'm incredibly hard on myself. I often think I don't know enough, haven't done enough, and don't measure up to a standard.
This isn't an all-the-time-every-moment-of-the-day thing. But it does happen a lot.
I'll think I need to have a certain level of proficiency at my job, or be at a certain place in my writing, or fitness in order to make the grade, to measure up to other folks I admire who do the things I want to do.
Wow, it's toxic bullshit. It's also a lie. People are just people. Everyone's got stuff they are great at. Everyone's got stuff they are still learning. That process, of always being in the state of learning things, there's even a word for it: living.
Which I sometimes know. I have this Lao-tzu quote on a digital sticky on my work computer, and on my home computer too.
Pretty smart guy, that Lao-tzu.