thathungrymind my brain food

Fake It Until You Make It?

I think the phrase “fake it till you make it” has a deeper meaning than what most people would think.

The common interpretation is that you have to pretend to be something that you’re not until people start believing you, in order to get somewhere. It’s seen as a strategy for tricking people.

What I think it means is that we all have the potential, but never trust ourselves to actually let this potential come through. By allowing ourselves to give ourselves more credit, we begin to see that we in fact do have more potential than we once thought.

This leads to more trust in ourselves, and more confidence to tackle challenges. We start to see that many of the fears that we had about inadequacy are unfounded. We do things that we wouldn’t have otherwise, because we thought we couldn’t, but then realize that we actually could.

The more we leave our comfort zone, the more we grow. It’s a process that builds on itself.

That being said, what I am talking about is different from lying, and pretending. You shouldn’t be tricking people into thinking that you are something that you are not, and hiding behind a persona built on lies and falsifications.

If you would like to read more, please follow my blog on Quora at Hungry Minds. You can also follow me on Twitter if you would like to continue the conversation there!

Originally published on Quora