I faked it…till I made it.
I still do it today. I look at where I want to be and become, before I am there. It has been one of the most powerful ways of progressing quickly and intentionally to my next goal.
Faking it resets your mindset from where you are to where you want to be. You no longer have the same perspective. Your mind shifts to a different gear.
When I decided I wanted to own and manage my own dental practice, I had to become more intentional with my thoughts. There is a wonderful book by top US leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, and, even though this book was published many years later, the title explains where my awareness was.
Every morning as I drove to my dental receptionist job (which I loved) I set my agenda. I imagined myself as a dental practice owner in that moment. What would I be thinking about? How would I be preparing for my day? What challenges would be before me?
Facing every day in this way changed my thinking. It was in these months preceding the purchase of my own practice that I developed the vision for my business. I defined the culture and character of the staff I would employ. I considered the systems I would adopt, decided how I would promote the services and articulated the type of leader I wanted to be.
The universal law of attraction seemed to be in action because when I would go out socially, everyone I came across was a small business owner talking about their journey and I kept coming across practices for sale.
Two processes get in to action when you ‘fake it till you make it’.
- You adopt the beliefs, thoughts and actions that you need to be doing
- You reject the beliefs, thoughts and actions that are holding you back
If you want to follow a different path to what you are on, then faking it may be your first best step to achieving your goal. After all, we become what we think about most of the time.
“You must be the person you have never had the courage to be. Gradually, you will discover that you are that person, but until you can see this clearly, you must pretend and invent.”
Paulo Coelho