Held on June 11, 2026.

Speaker: Stan Berger, private psychologist.

The meetup opened with Stan Berger describing impostor syndrome and perfectionism as two sides of the same exhausting coin. He explained how high achievers often attribute success to luck or fraud, while setting standards so high that no result feels satisfying.

Berger traced the roots of these patterns to early environments where love or approval was conditional on achievement. He showed how perfectionism leads not to excellence but to procrastination, anxiety, and burnout.

The practical part focused on cognitive reframing: identifying automatic thoughts like “I must be flawless” and replacing them with “good enough is a valid standard.” Berger also introduced a simple achievement log to counter the brain’s negativity bias.

He concluded that the goal is not to lower ambition but to decouple self-worth from performance — a shift that protects both mental health and long-term productivity.