Nothing Fake In “Fake It Till You Make It”
Fake it till you make it.
What‘s your take on it? Have you ever tried it? Do you even believe in it?
There is nothing fake about “fake it till you make it.” In fact, there is a huge learning process involved if we pay close attention to what’s happening.
When we fake something, we still need to gather our courage to “fake/make it happen.” The initial result may not be as good as what we have in mind. Nonetheless, we are taking steps towards the outcome we desire or is required.
There are two sides to “fake it till we make it.” Either side leads to a great outcome and realization.
How? Read on.
Usually, when we need to “fake it till we make it,” it is usually because we have to do something which we have never done before but is now required quickly. They may be things that we think we don’t want or like to do, things we think we are not good at even though we have never tried or simply random things we have never thought of trying.
Regardless, it often leads us in two directions and some realizations. It may lead us to discover that we actually enjoy doing that thing. Some may even develop interest if not passion for it. This is so because we “are pushed” to take the step to do it, whether we think we like it or not or are good at it or not.
The other way it could lead to is we realize how much we dislike it, at times to the point that we can’t even fake it anymore as it gets so fake. After all, when our hearts aren’t in it, we can only fake it for so long.
Many people don’t even like the thought of public speaking, for instance, let alone doing it. They don’t like it even though they have never done it. Or they don’t want to do it because they think they aren’t good at it even though they have never tried.
No matter, these are simply the stories we tell ourselves; and yet, they aren’t necessarily true. They become true when we tell ourselves those stories often enough.
The self-created reality in our mind turns into the reality in our life.
Some people indeed may start off with public speaking with the “fake it till you make it” approach, for whatever reason. Each time, we deliver a talk, no matter how fake it may be, we still need to muster up our courage and deliver that speech in front of a group of people.
As we walk away from our speech, we may think to ourselves, “That wasn’t so bad even though I wasn’t great at it.” Little do we realize that we have just gone through a DIY process of learning to be (appearing) confident and be a great speaker.
The next time we “fake it,” we take and talk ourselves through that DIY process again. Yet again, we walk away with more experience, learning and confidence.
As the process continues, we fine-tune it each time as we “fake it till we make it.” Eventually, either we make it and become comfortable or good at it or we realize that we dislike or hate it so much to the point that we can’t fake it anymore.
Either outcome is a great outcome as we gain experiences and realization in reality in life, not in the stories we feed ourselves in our minds.
Next time when you find yourself in a position to “fake it till you make it,” just know that no matter what the outcome is, you are taking and talking yourself into a great DIY process in learning more about yourself accompanied by significant experience and self-realization.
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Kitty Yeung Downer is an Int’l Speaker and mentor, working with C-suites executives in Self Realization and building people-centric corporate culture and authentic leadership team.
