As we progress in our careers in architecture, we can sometimes come to a crossroads where we feel like we're pretending. Maybe it's that first time on a construction site by yourself, and the fear of looking foolish or not knowing what to say begins to creep up. Perhaps, you've just completed your ARE Exams and are now officially "an architect," but owning that identity seems strange, almost like you're acting. And even then, there are those who finally make it into a leadership role, as a design principal or partner of a firm, and, in the beginning, the status feels uneasy. 

Designer, Megan Crabtree recounts this feeling from her early career. "[I] spent the first few years of my professional life trying to be a good pretender, trying to ignore this voice in my head that takes over and says I don’t belong," she writes. Looking back at her younger self, she offers some pointers for those struggling with "imposter syndrome:"

1. Never Stop Asking For Feedback. Megan remembers how she used to subscribe to the maxim: fake it til you make it, but soon learned how ineffective that was. "What I didn’t realize was how empowering it is to openly admit the things you are afraid of, and the empathy and advice you get from others when you do," she writes. 
2. Get Out of Your World of Expertise. We all spend so many years working to become great architects and designers, but it's not what makes us unique amongst our colleagues. "It's what we know beyond design that allows us to come up with solutions out peers have not considered." Megan explains early on, how the designers she admires most "were experts in some other area — neuroscience, climbing, magic, baking."
3. Measure Yourself By Your Own Yardstick. It's easy to compare ourselves to the talents and abilities of those around us. Instead, we should "try competing with ourselves," by looking at the progress we've made in the last six months or year. When we measure our own improvement over a period of time we are able to focus on our personal pursuit to get better.