When I started my first job out of college, my “real” job as my dad used to say, I was thrown into a ton of situations that I’d never been in before. It was overwhelming and frankly, a little scary.
I was 22 years old and someone deemed I was responsible enough to be an investigator with a gun and a badge. Even with the extensive training I went through, everything was new. I was constantly put into new situations time and again.
My mom, who had been an investigator for years and been in all these same situations, used to tell me to “Fake it til you make it.”
I took this to mean “Act as if…” I’d been through the training, I graduated, and even if I didn’t feel like it, I knew what I was doing. I just had to act as if I knew it and more importantly, believed it.
Because yes, every situation was new. That’s literally how everything in this world works. The first time we do anything is literally the first time we do it. Nobody knows how to do something well the first time. It takes experience and learning and actually doing it.
I’ve taken this advice through every situation in my life. With new jobs, with CrossFit, with being a business owner, with being a parent. Literally with everything I’ve done. I’ve been a beginner in so many situations in my life.
And over the years, I’ve heard lots of people say this is garbage advice. That you should “Face it til you make it.” But to me, it means the same thing. I didn’t go into my situations faking anything, per se. I faced it all. I did the hard work of being a beginner. And then I became it. I faked it til I became it.
I think we can all take different sayings and twist them around to what we believe them to mean, or what we want them to mean.
Me? I took this one and used it to better myself. I felt the fear of new situations and I went into them anyway. I did the hard work of faking it and facing it until I became it.
Have a beautiful week. And take this saying however you need to. Fake it til you make it. Face it til you make it. Fake it til you become it. The best advice I can give is to just do it. Do it scared. Just do it.
Whitney
