I heard this statement twice last year- both through the television. The first time I heard it, Marilu Henner said it on her celebrity talk show. The second time I heard it was on the show The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.
Marilu’s show applauded the statement Fake it until you make it, guiding people to improve their mood and outcomes by self-cheerleading and feeling your way to success. On the other hand, when the applicant on Martha Stewart’s show said it, it was a major contributor to that person being fired. Of course, faking it until you make it- to feel better rather than perform better may be easier to understand. Plenty of studies claim miracles happen when people told by their doctors they have only days or hours to live- survive. No doubt, miracles happen. Changing your thought patterns and feelings about a situation contributes to the change in the patient’s health- a true miracle, as we all know how hard it is to change our impressions, thoughts and feelings about situations. Changing your internal impressions and reactions is difficult, if not impossible for many, maybe one reason psychiatric medications seems to be a quick fix for moodiness. But, saying fake it until you make it in the business world may not be translated in the same way. You can fake certain things, I guess most of us do that anyway to appear professional, but certain things, like skills, and experience are more difficult or impossible to fake.
However, maybe it’s not so crazy to believe that in your working world either. Jim Carrey is an actor I never particularly understood, and avoided his appearance anywhere. However, a few months ago, I changed my impression of him 100%. He told this story about how before he filmed one of his hit movies some years ago; he thought in his mind that he’d make more than a million dollars on that movie. Though no one told him he would, he was determined that he would. So, he did an experiment. He wrote himself a fake check for $1,000,000 made out to him from his employer (whoever that is!) and sent it to himself. When he received it and opened it, he acted as if it were real! And, what happened when the paycheck came from that movie? He earned his first $1,000,000 paycheck!
A few books that may be of interest that discuss these topics are Lynn Grabhorn’s Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting
and Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret (as seen on Oprah). I have read Lynn’s book. I have yet to read Rhonda’s book, though I have heard about it, and it has changed a lot of people’s lives!
So, fake it until you make it, can mean simply acting out things- faking it from the outside. But faking it from the inside is the true key to happiness, health and wealth!