“All that is needed to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: act as if failure is impossible. That is the talisman, the formula, the domain of radical change that leads us from failure to success.”
-Dorthea Bragg
Returning to last week’s discussion about ceasing to live in your past, this week we will talk about the power of “pretending.”
I must warn you that “pretending” can be a double-edged sword. For example, “keeping up with Jones syndrome” is a classic case of faking it to a detrimental effect. Trying to look better than you are can get you into a lot of debt!
With that point established, we can now move on to the positive side of faking it. Often times, you can turn the tide of fate yourself by simply denying reality a bit. If you feel depressed, try to force yourself to smile. I’m serious, really force yourself to maintain a smile for several minutes and take note of the fact that it actually makes you feel a little better.
I really didn’t think success was such a mental equation until very recently. I’ve studied goal setting and affirmations alongside a ton of other inspirational and “new age” techniques for years, but secretly, I always felt like a lot of them were really nonsense!
Wow, I was so wrong about that. You see, if you really start paying attention to your inner thoughts, you will notice pretty quickly that much of what we think tends to be negative. You will be surprised how many times you tell yourself that you cannot do something or that you cannot bear something. You will have internal discussions with your spouse, your co-worker, your boss. You will justify everything you do or fail to do and most of these thoughts are happening completely under your fully conscious radar.
Once you begin to master your thoughts and control what you think more directly, you will begin to see rapid changes in your life.
You will think like a successful person before becoming one. You will think like a happily fulfilled person before being in the “perfect” relationship. You will think like a millionaire before you are a millionaire. It’s funny to me how obvious this has become to me now and yet how determined I was that it wasn’t for so long.
Start looking at the people who have the things you want in life and start modeling them. Try to think like them, act like them, speak like them. As you start living with a successful mindset, the whole world will start to get a little brighter!