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The TED Talk That Changed the Trajectory of My Career
In the fight against imposter syndrome and self-doubt, I still rely on this twenty-minute video to help me project confidence.
I was in the final semester of my Master’s program and working at a job I felt I had lucked my way into. During my last annual review, my female boss had told me I needed to dress more professionally if I had any hope of moving up in my career. I felt out of my depth, uncertain about the future, and like an imposter in professional settings.
And then I saw Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk called Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are. Her research was fascinating, but what really resonated was her final anecdote and the advice she gave to a grad student who worried, “I’m not supposed to be here.”
Don’t fake it until you make it.
Fake it until you become it.
Her talk from 2012 has over 62 million views, and the transcript has been translated to 52 languages. The message is simple: What we do with our bodies can change how we show up in the world.
The Science
Cuddy, a Harvard professor at the time of her TED Talk, reviewed the study she published with her partner out of Berkeley, Dana Carney. The takeaway:
