What If the Syndrome Is the Symptom?

0:01 This is Ray Gage and welcome to another episode of Me Unsupervised. This is where I have conversations, mostly with myself, but maybe they'll spark something within you that will challenge the way you think, but more importantly, challenge the place from which your thinking comes. The last episode, we spent some time looking deeper into the impostor syndrome. The focus on that episode was primarily the word syndrome and its meaning, going back to the Latin and then further back to the origins in Greek.

0:55 We called some things into question.

1:02 It brings up the primary question for this episode, which is what if the syndrome is just another symptom. What if the disease, what if the condition, what if the chronic illness? What if the diagnosis isn't the root cause but just another symptom. I used, probably pretty poorly, the analogy or of the wagon wheel and how we tend to think of convergence. So everything is coming from outside in so all roads lead to rome, but the language also allows for all roads lead from rome. So using the wagon wheel, or if you aren't unfamiliar with a wagon wheel, you could use any wheel that has spokes as an example.

2:33 There's a hub in the center, and the spokes radiate outward and support the wheel. So many of us think that we are on a journey and that's okay. There's nothing right or wrong about it. We passed right and wrong a long time ago. This is perspective. How do we look at something a little differently that maybe makes a little bit more sense and it's harder for our logical brain to argue with because it feels true in our hearts. So the wheel, what I see is all of these things that we're talking about.

3:38 Impostor syndrome was the original thing because it came up in a conversation with a group. But basically, imposter syndrome is just the feeling that whatever I'm doing isn't good enough, and that could be anything, so like I'm not fast enough, I'm not strong enough. I I'm not a good enough photographer, I'm not good enough at public speaking, I can't do presentations. Whatever those things are right that I could be really good at those things, but my perception of myself is that I'm not. So I see myself as the impostor in the situation because I think someone else is better at it than me, and I don't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence or talked about in the same room as that other person.

4:35 That is a syndrome, that is a symptom of a single belief in I'm not enough as an example. So I'm on this journey where most most of us end up being without realizing it. We're not at the hub. We've gone outward from the hub. Most of us have come to the end of the spoke, and now we're on the circle. Do you ever get up and think about how much your life today is the same as your life yesterday. At the end of the day, we're all trying to achieve the same thing, regardless of what we think of as our individual goals, what we want for ourselves or our family for tomorrow or next week, or next month or next year.

5:50 Some of us will set goals that are three, five, and ten years out. When you come back to today, isn't it just me trying to get through today without losing anything or anyone who I perceive as important to me.

6:19 That doesn't change based on my age, my social status, my wealth, my position in society. That is descriptive of everyone. That is the definition of insanity. We're all doing the same thing and expecting a different result. What I don't realize until it dawns on me is that I'm on a circle. I'm on the outside of those spokes. There's some people that would say, hey, you should just turn around and go the other way. Well, what happens if I go the opposite way on a circle? Aren't I still on a circle?

7:30 If I stop the hamster wheel and turn around and run the other way, I'm still on a hamster wheel. So what if? What I really need to think about is how to get back to the hub, How to get back to the origin this thought came up. Many of us are familiar with the story of the prodigal Son, the parable of the prodigal Son. The part that is interesting here to me is the son that went away and realized that he had it so much better in his father's house and decided it's time for me to go back. But his father saw him coming from far off.

8:28 How did his father know which direction to look? He didn't need to know which direction from which his son would come, because the father is in the hub. No matter which spoke, no matter which path the son came back down, the father would see him because he was no longer on the wheel in the circle. This is the thought for this episode. We will talk more as time goes on about the symptoms that come up for us in our everyday lives. I'm keeping these short for a reason, trying to keep them under ten to twelve minutes.

9:33 We succeeded here. Thanks for listening. I'm not saying I'm right. I'm not saying you're wrong. My name is Ray Gage, and I'm here to challenge assumptions.