I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before “fake it ’til you make it.”
That’s the typical advice people give you when you’re first starting out in something, especially if you want to find success. They tell you to fake it ’til you make it.
Here’s why that rates as the worst advice you could ever follow.
If you’re faking it, you’re literally telling yourself inside your mind, “I am going to fake this.”
“I am a fake.”
“I am inauthentic.”
“I am not real.”
You can never be authentic when you’re being fake. So what do you do instead?
Simple. “Act as if.”
“Act as if” instructs your mind to look for the source of what you want inside of you. It assumes what you want is already there, you just have to find and develop it.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to be really good at sales.
If you choose to fake it ’til you make it, that makes you a fake salesperson. You will act fake and behave in inauthentic ways.
But if I’m going to act as if, then I want to act as if I were the greatest salesperson in the world. That leads you to a series of very powerful questions.
What would I do?
What would I say?
How would I act?
How would I behave?
How would I dress?
How would I approach people?
All of a sudden that changes your entire perspective.
It puts the power inside of you because it brings the action out of you, not looking for the source outside of you.
So here’s the second part of this “act as if” equation. It’s the question “What would / how would _____?”
If I am going to act as if I were the greatest copywriter in the world, what would the greatest copywriter in the world do in this situation? How would they behave?
If I am going to act as if I were the greatest funnel hacker in the world, what would the greatest funnel hacker in the world do?
If I am going to act as if I am a successful author, what would a successful author or marketer or whoever do in this situation?
See how it makes no sense to ask yourself the question “I need to sell some books, and I need to fake it till I make it; how would I fake it as far as being an author?”
Yet the “fake it ’til you make it” advice gets handed out like candy on Halloween.
It’s BS, don’t listen to it! Replace that with “act as if.”
When you act as if you’re the biggest, baddest SOB on the block in any situation (not cocky / not a jerk), then that will bring about the behaviors, the attitude, the actions – everything you need to be successful.
So do not fake it ’til you make it.
Act as if and always ask the question, what would the world’s greatest _____ do in this situation?
That’s what you do.
That’s how you behave.
That’s how you act.