What is “faking it until you make it?”
And how can ONE word turn you from confident and in your zone of genius to a self-conscious puddle of anxiety in a heartbeat?
First, you need to know why ONE word can disempower you.
Words carry layers of meaning that automatically trigger associated states of mind.
Example: Fake it triggers the neurochemistry that says: I’m not enough. I don’t have what it takes.
The result? The tendency to defer your power outside of you instead of claiming your own.
And I’ve not seen anything that screams of this more than the addiction many entrepreneurs and companies have slipped into…
Buying many programs but not being able to take consistent, focused action on any of them.
They come to me to address their worth & power issues after hitting the wall and sliding down…
Deeper in debt.
Fearful and anxious thoughts invade dinner time and all the “moments” that matter.
Trying to GET TO…the next level of success. And telling themselves: “THEN I can relax and enjoy life.”
As I responded to the Facebook Post below, I was flashing back to the initial moments in my 20s when I first learned the power of language.
Having grown up on a rural farm and “raised by wolves,” as I like to say about my family — nobody was worried about language. And there was ONLY one reality. Ugh.
They were fixated on things, while I fell deeply in love with the miracles that seemed to emerge from the mystery of life — the secret powers that we are wired with but don’t always use to our advantage.
Why Language Matters
“Language not only describes reality, but it creates it.” When I first heard these words by Desmond Tutu, I felt the whole truth of them.
As sensitive beings (no matter how conscious of it you are or aren’t), we pick up on whole worlds of meaning and energy that get “stored” in our individual minds and in the collective consciousness.
While many think our eyes see, it’s really our brains doing the “seeing.”
So when you try to “fake it till you make it,” your brain is “seeing, responding, and interpreting” through these two lenses:
- You have to fake it because you are “lacking or not enough”
- Once you have succeeded, then you get to be real
No wonder the executives and entrepreneurs I work with feel as if they will never “get there” no matter how hard they work.
Because if your subconscious mind doesn’t believe you already possess your goal, you will never get there.
Ever heard: The mind doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined?
Like my clients, you might have been fed this Pop-Psychology nonsense and are spinning the wheel instead of moving forward because of it.
Or mistakenly trying to apply mindset/affirmations on top of underlying programming that won’t let them sink deep roots into your life and ripple out into results in the external world.
What we speak into the world and the voices in our minds CREATE reality.
It doesn’t matter that it’s happening in the invisible realm.
After all, we pray to an invisible God and know He responds to us.
So, of course, the Universe does too.
Get intentional about how you choose to “make it” in the world
Go ahead and read between the lines and compare this to your experience as my colleague and fellow mastermind member in Pittsburgh, PA, Cori Nicole Smith Wamsley, have a Facebook chat.
I want to thank Cori, because she inspired today’s post.
By the way, Cori is not only teaching good medicine for our modern-day souls, but if you have been cooking up a book…
She might be the magician to help you make short work of getting your book out of your head and onto bookshelves.
You can find her at coriwamsley.com
Here’s my response:
Cori brings out a critical LEARNING POINT HERE…
“Faking it until you make it” leads to imitating others in the industry instead of discovering and unleashing your own magic.
As I mentioned in my response, this was a real problem; it seemed innocent enough.
But when you fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others, it triggers all that “old stuff” about not being good enough, smart enough, or worthy enough…
A whole flood of neurochemicals that suck up your focus, productivity, and ability to make things happen like the superhero I know you are.
What can you do to turn off the “NOT ENOUGH” NEUROCHEMISTRY?
- I dare you to say “STOP!” out loud — if you catch yourself comparing yourself to ANYONE ELSE.
- Go on a Comparison Diet — at the first sign of a “she’s prettier,” “he’s more successful” judgment – break into song. No kidding – the fastest way to shift neurochemicals is to SING. So go pick out your favorite song or one that will make you laugh at the silly habit you have of “comparing yourself.” Because when you lighten the energy around this, life will feel a lot easier and more fun. That’s good medicine in and of itself.
- Do a Listening Circle in the Morning and in the evening for 3 minutes. In the morning, ask yourself what wonderful adventures you will have this day. I wonder how I will handle the unexpected. How will God, the Universe, show up for me today? Will it be in a co-worker or an unexpected problem that is really a blessing in disguise? In the evening. Write down the answers in a Listening journal. When you listen to your own good ideas and write them down, you’ll be laying new pathways to support your belief in what God already knows that you are beautiful. And perfect.
You were SET APART.
No one like you in the whole wide world.
Have Faith in this truth.
And as Will Smith said in the quote Cori shared above: You’re already an “A-list” Superstar. It’s just a matter of COMING FROM that level of you.