Should You "Fake It Until You Make It"?

Should we (or can we even) ‘fake it until we make it’? 🤔

This is a question I’m asked a lot - and the answer is really important if you want to be perceived as someone with more confidence, presence or gravitas at work. 

Watch the video for my full breakdown, but here are the key takeaways: 

✅ there can be value in faking confidence if it drives action and progression. I’m sure lots of you are already doing things to build your experience and expertise despite a lack of confidence in the moment. 

✅ there’s a clear connection between brain and body, so if faking confidence looks like adjusting your body language to be more relaxed, open or powerful, research suggests that that can influence the way you feel. 

Where ‘faking it’ as a strategy can be unhelpful, is where we never address the underlying cause of our lack of confidence - the limiting beliefs or self critical voice in our head. 

Without addressing the cause, ‘faking it’ creates a few problems: 

1️⃣ We’re generally not very good at it 😀 - especially when the stakes are high. Confidence and presence are communicated through so many non-verbal cues, tone of voice, gestures, posture etc. It’s very difficult to control all of that when your brain is distracted with self-doubt or fear. 

2️⃣ It’s exhausting! Too many things to focus on at one time - plucking up the courage to do the thing, while trying to ignore the stream of negative thoughts, while also trying to figure out where to put all of your limbs to project the most confidence…. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. 😀

3️⃣ It can give more weight to any existing impostor syndrome thoughts about being a fraud. 

So look, faking confidence can be a professional necessity and a great place to start, but not a good long-term strategy. 

Much better to work on building REAL self-confidence from the inside out and developing a genuine and naturally confident presence.  

If you’d like some help with that, let’s chat! 🔥