Let’s get real honest – no one knows what the hell they’re doing. I don’t trust anyone who says they have it all figured out. For a long time I let my own self-confidence be bridled by the perception that others knew what they were doing to a much greater degree than I; that I had no business attempting anything meaningful.
Acting as if…
I love radio call in shows. It’s a total guilty pleasure. Guy calls in with a problem, host delivers a single piece of advice, and hangs up. It all seems so simple. It helps me imagine that the caller took that 1 sentence from the host and turned a complete 180 – it’s total B.S. though.
Until I heard this one piece of advice – act as if. Guy called in after a nasty high school break-up. The host simply said: “Act as if you’re fine. Go on walks. Listen to music you like. Do cool stuff. You’ll wake up one day and actually be just fine.”
We are creatures of habit. We really enjoy the perception of complete free will, but we will always fall into habits. The great thing about habit is we can create new ones. Make them fake habits at first – I don’t really care. But ask yourself: “What would be best version of me do in this situation.”
One day you’ll wake up and be that much closer to that version of yourself.