Fake It As You Make It (Up)
How do you fake it until you become authentic?
There’s a saying that goes something like “Fake it until you make it.” While there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s also a cultural movement toward authenticity — and thus the conundrum that to fake something is not authentic, and yet it seems that that is how we become authentical. First we fake it, then we make it. But is that actually so?
You might have noticed that I made up a word up there. You might have also just assumed it was a word you hadn’t heard of. To clarify, I made up a word there, for no other reason than that I made a typo and then decided to leave it, and then discovered that it inspired this whole second paragraph. The point is thus — That was faking it, and now I have a second paragraph! Yay me!
To the point:
Faking it is not actually faking it if you genuinely wish to become it. I’m a digital content creator. What qualifies that? I’m writing content. Maybe the most horrible content ever — irregularly posted, without cover images, hardly any bother with promoting other than posting to Facebook and informing Mom. But it’s digital content. I’m not a digital content creator because of the qualifications of actually producing digital content — simply because I claim to be such. The actual content is just a bonus which makes others more likely to agree with me.
And Flip!
It’s also possible, and indeed beautiful to be bestowed a title because of something that you just do. To be recognised for something in the eyes of someone, which you may or may not have been doing intentionally in the first place. And this is how I learned to accept compliments rather than ping-ponging them back. “Thank you!” goes farther than “That’s nice of you!” which goes farther than looking around the room trying to find someone else who could possibly be the object of such grace.
Authenticla.
Going deep — we are all reflections of each other. Therefore whatever you fake as you create something, you are reflecting someone who wants to do the thing you’re faking doing — also someone inside you, or you wouldn’t be doing it. You are making yourself in your own image. Quick- everyone think about pink elephants! … Ok — this could be the lighting, but…
So you want to be a Writer? Actor? Shaman? Human? Alien? Cat? Be it. The game of pretend is the start of a new habit through preparing a tendency for yourself. Go yowl at the moon if you feel like it! Because reality is what we agree that it is. And you are the first person who gets say about what you agree [preposition]!
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom.”
— Mahatma Ghandi
