Don’t “Fake It Till You Make It”. Do This Instead!

The quickest way to perform to your best abilities and reach for your potential is to create an alter ego. And the best news is that it has also been scientifically proven to work.

Photo by ActionVance on Unsplash

“Fake it till you make it” is the worst phrasing of a good idea. To begin, the saying starts with the word ‘fake’ which already rings alarm bells in your brain. You want to succeed because you are able to on your own merit and authentically. The notion is uncomfortable to someone with integrity and unfair because it undermines their qualities.

The whole idea, however, was a good one. Embody those qualities while you are still doubting yourself until you succeed and most of your insecurities fade away.

My point is that if you have those qualities in the first place, you don’t have to pretend anything, but instead find a way to bring them forth.

The Best Version of You: Personas and Alter Egos

Talking about writers, Rebecca Solnit sees the task as making a self who can make the work you are meant to make. She writes,

“It formalizes the process everyone goes through, of making the self who will speak, of settling on what values and interests and priorities will shape your path and persona.”

— Rebecca Solnit, Recollections of My Non-Existence

The idea becomes more specific. You make your Self by deciding on your values, interests and priorities so that you are shaping your path and the version of you that you want to incarnate. There isn’t any false pretence, rather, it is a choice and you are choosing what is already within.

We make these choices, often unconsciously, of who we are at work, who we are with our friends and who we are at home. We are not being disingenuous; we are ourselves but we are choosing different inherent qualities in different situations.

An exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London of Frida Khalo’s wardrobe and artefacts was entitled “Making Her Self Up” and the idea of making one’s self up by choosing how we show up in the world. She wasn’t faking or pretending to be someone else, instead, she decided to be more of herself. She dug deep within to summon the best she…