If you run around your kitchen in your boxers, screaming, ‘I’m a millionaire, I’m a millionaire,’ the odds are high that, eventually, someone will ring your doorbell. To ask you to tune the volume down. A million in a box might probably not follow.
Think about it for a moment. If you were a millionaire — would you do that? Affirmations, utilised correctly, are an enormously powerful tool. Yet, to work, they need to be backed by actions — that’s called manifestations. Two common traits of successful people are common sense and a rational brain.
That’s where act as if, the foundation of the famous Fake it till you make it takes its roots. To become a millionaire act as one. More importantly, think as one. Yet, before you get there — copy one.
Everything begins with Acting AS IF…
If you walk like a confident person, act like a confident person, and speak like a confident person, one day, you might become a confident person. Look at kids. Initially, they don’t know how to walk and talk. They persist. Eventually, they succeed.
Imagine you’ve achieved everything in life you could wildly dream of. What does your life look like? Who are the people around you? What do they look like, what are they saying? Where are you? What do you see around? Go to the nearest mirror in your imagination and describe your look, posture, and gestures. Is there anything else that catches your attention? Notice, what you’re feeling.
New Results take a New Approach
After vividly imagining accomplishing the goal, we might get a strange sensation as if we’re different people. And that’s exactly what we need to leverage. Being the same and acting the same as we are now, we’ll remain the same.
With the same input, we can’t expect a different output. The moment we adjust our habits, environment, friendship circles, activities we get involved in, and our thinking patterns, then everything changes.
New Perspective
Seeing things through a prism of your projected future, you might notice how you come up with new choices. Positive outcomes lead to new beliefs reinforcing our achievements further. Increased efficiency leads to more energy. This boosts the courage to gain new skills. And before you notice, ‘I’m _____, whatever your new belief is, becomes a reality.
A transformation might not occur overnight. And it might be the case, that you don’t have all the required skills when you start. However, if you commit to only one extra push-up every day, pretending you’re good at it, soon you’ll be able to ‘fake’ 100 of them in a go.
Taking it to the next level
However, it’s important to remember, that unless we change our wire there’s a limit to how far faking alone can take us. It doesn’t matter how strongly you believe in heading to New York if you’re on a London-Berlin route. You’ll need to board another plane. That’s where modelling comes in place.
The mindset that brought us to where we currently are, will only take us as far. That’s why it’s important to replicate the success of those who’ve climbed the highs we attain.
It’s not only they have a different experience to ours, but also, for the next-level leap, we need to upgrade our belief system. The quickest way to do that is to adopt it from someone who’s already been there.
Getting into the skin of someone far superior to you will help you to adopt their patterns.
The question is how do you do that?
Unconscious Assimilation
That’s where the concept of Unconscious Assimilation comes in handy. Akin to kids adopting new behaviours and skills by imitating adults.
Our experience drives our projections and expectations of what’s achievable. If we don’t have an internal point of reference of being extremely successful and wealthy, we’ll need to start with modelling people who achieved the desired level of success. That’ll help us adopt their patterns of behaviour to evolve ours.
The good news is that we don’t have to be consciously aware of someone’s attitude or patterns, we can adopt those by simply copying someone’s behaviour. And, if done correctly, eventually we’ll adopt their success formula on the unconscious level and that surpasses by far in speed and effort our conscious learning.
Experiment with different Approaches
If you make it a daily practice to act as someone, whose success you’d like to replicate, you’ll eventually start asking yourself, ‘What would I do in this situation if I were them?’ If you persist in mimicking them, adopting their way of breathing, and micro-muscle mirroring them through copying their gestures, you’ll start noticing new patterns in your behaviour. The big changes here start from very subtle movements.
Gradually, you’ll notice that you start making different choices.
To test this one, pick any sport you like, but aren’t very proficient at. Whether it’s riding, skiing, dancing or anything else. Make sure, you’re staying within your comfort zone.
Then watch kids for a day doing that activity. It might strike you how natural everything comes to them, where the skis are practically extensions of their little legs, and falling isn’t a big deal. Or horses, merely cushions. After that imagine yourself being that little kid before stepping on a ski or climbing a house — you’ll notice how your sensations and approach would be different from when you tried the same activity from your perspective.
Another way to practice this is to watch a muted video of a top performer. Let’s say you’re interested in improving your swing in golf or a particular swimming stroke. Watch one short video of someone extremely proficient, again and again, for a few hours on double speed and on mute. Before you realise it, your unconscious will pick up key points. The following day watch that same short video muted again but at a normal speed, repeating the person’s gestures this time. On a third day, go to the golf range or a pool, accordingly, yet before doing anything, close your eyes and imagine vividly you’re that person from the screen. After that, plunge into practising and notice the difference.
Equally, if you have a vision of what you’d like to achieve — keep replaying it in your head every morning. And when puzzled making a decision, ask yourself how future you, who’s accomplished that goal would act in that situation?
READ also on how to feel high when you’re feeling low utilising the magic of Acting As If: FROM LIMITATION TO EMPOWERMENT. HOW TO MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONAL STATES
