Our only limit is our mind.
Our only limit is our mind. We tend to limit ourselves and our actions through our thoughts, and hence underestimate our potential. We can achieve anything we set our mind to do, we just need to believe we can.
It’s possible you feel strongly about the phrase “Fake it till you make it” on either end of the spectrum. You might hate it along with everything else that the self-help category brings, or the phrase is probably your life's mantra. I’m on the other end of the spectrum where I truly appreciate the phrase.
I read about it during university, and decided I wanted to give it a try. I figured I’m procrastinating all my tasks and assignments anyway, might as well give this a shot. It worked surprisingly well for me. And I won’t go so far as to say it’s a ‘hack’, because it isn’t. It just helped me get in the right frame of mind. Really, it helped me build stepping stones that would guide my mindset and philosophies for the rest of my life. I’ve nowhere closed to made it yet, but this method has definitely helped me with the smaller wins. And because it worked so well for me, I never questioned it.
I didn’t dwell so much on the technicalities. All I knew is, if I woke up feeling low or unmotivated, by just giving my reflection in the mirror a sweet smile or an uplifting talk my mood took a 180° turn. This, in turn, set the mood for the rest of the day. And I realized if I spoke confidently enough, it would help me open up new avenues in life. Which, in turn, helped my introverted self be more outspoken. And so on.
But it’s only lately during my ‘Pandemic Musings’ that I’ve realized what the method does and how it helps you. You see when they said “fake it”, they didn’t actually mean lying through your teeth. They didn’t mean doing something just for appearances. What they meant is that you should actively push yourself outside of your comfort zone. They meant put yourself in a situation where you have to learn to be what you want to be.
For instance, if I force myself to smile when I’m not feeling like it, I’m sending signals to my brain that I’m actively making an effort to be happy. I’m actively trying to feel motivated and productive. Or if I’m speaking to a potential client and speaking in a knowledgeable way about work that I may not have done yet, I’m putting myself in a situation where I first research about the kind of work I want to do, I envision myself actually doing it, and I think about the various scenarios and consequences. I emulate the situation and try to think things through, so that if I were thrown into the situation I’d more or less have a task list of what needs to be done.
Of course, the method doesn’t guarantee success. It is just a method to help one change perspective. It’s a method that helps you look beyond feeling like an imposter. It’s a method that has worked for me, that may not work for everyone.
