“Fake It ‘Til You Make It” is not Faking It

For some reason, I remember the first time I was given this age-old advice. In an interview with the headmaster of a school that my parents wanted me to attend. Maybe it was Grade 8. That was the headmaster’s response to something I had said. “Marvin, you are doing the right thing, ‘Fake it ‘til you make it.’” That made sense. Keep going until you make it. My grandfather had a different way of putting it, success is like eating a lemon:

If at first, you don’t suck seed,

Keep on sucking until you do 

Succeed. 

(Maybe if I had gone to that school where I was being interviewed I would know if that was a haiku.)

Years later, after I started Coaching others, I came to the realization that time-worn advice was not quite correct. If you are going through the steps towards success then you are not faking it. You definitely do not suck. Though at first, you might suck at it. 

Take learning to play the piano as an example. If you want to become a pianist you are only faking it if you play a recording of Beethoven instead of practicing chords. When you practice regularly then you are not faking it, though you may not yet be a virtuoso. You are putting in real effort to hit the dream. Practicing and playing makes the expert. 

Putting in the reps, putting practice toward the effort, is real. Not fake.

You probably could fake a healthy lifestyle. A declared vegan could eat too much sugar, drink too much booze, and down lots of processed foods that are only made from plants and stamped ‘vegan’ on the box. They would technically only be eating plant-based foods, but if they are improving their health would be questionable. (For the record I am pro-plant-based.)

Yet, if you are taking the small but honest steps towards the version of healthy that you want to be then you are not faking it. You are heading towards your healthy goal one step at a time. 

Taking one small step towards each healthy change is real.