Here is why we have it and how we use it.
When you are tired, when you are not sure you can carry on, fake it. We say it to each other during our team workouts when we want to quit, we say during our long days, and we say during our individual sweat sessions. Here is what it does for us. It provides us with a positive, although at times false sense, of being able to accomplish the task ahead.
See just as when you constantly tell yourself you can’t do it you start to believe it, when you tell yourself you can, you start to believe that too. Faking it until you make really can make a difference. It helps you focus on the possible positive outcome of the situation, rather than the possible failure. It provides the opportunity for the good “what if” to sneak into you brain, leaving less room for that nasty doubt to creep in.
Rather than saying “I’m not going to try this because I know I will fail”; try saying “I’ve got this”. “Let me try”. Feel the difference here? Why defeat yourself before you even try? That whole try it you never know what you can do, thing really works.
When I am running when I want to quit, give into to my desire, I say to myself “I was born to run”. Thinking it is only natural to feel the pain, that my body can do it is my mind that doesn’t want to. Same goes for a hard training session, 100 push ups “no problem, all day everyday”. Making more about the positive possibility of my success rather then dwelling on the work, and thinking I might fail. I was not born to run, but I fake it. Every time I do I get a little closer to becoming an actual runner. BUT if I shutdown my first run and thought about how I can’t possible run a 1/2 marathon, “I’m not a runner”, then I never would become one. Trust me when I say most of parenting is this way too. 😉
Faking it sets me on the path to becoming the person I want to be. A runner, a writer, a person who trains hard. Faking it gives me the opportunity to become it. I’m not waiting till I know I’m ready, I’m doing it, going for it….. shouldn’t you too?
Faking it is better than not trying, giving up before you really know what you are capable of. Put yourself out there in uncomfortable situations and fake it till you make it. Because the more you “fake it” the more practice you get to really do it, and eventually you won’t have to fake it anymore, you will be come it.
