Faking Confidence: Fake it ‘til you make it
Wouldn't it be great if we could just be 1000% confident in the decisions we make, in the way we come across to others, or in our abilities? We would never feel insecure, vulnerable, or even uncomfortable... like ever. Unfortunately, that is not our reality. There will be times where we don't feel confident .. but that doesn't mean that we can't fake it.
I'm sure you have heard of the phrase, "Fake it 'til you make it". I'll be the first to admit that I wholeheartedly believe it. Why? Because I believe in the self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy is a concept in social psychology that explains that it is within our nature to act in a way that confirms our beliefs, thus maintaining that belief.
Allow me to illustrate:
If your belief is that you are a terrible public speaker, you will probably bomb your next presentation. How do I know this? According to the self-fulfilling prophecy, the idea that you are a horrible public speaker will invoke nervousness (remember CBT?). The excessive nervousness will cause you to perform terribly. When you recognize that you are not doing a good job, you confirm your initial belief that you are a terrible public speaker. Since you have not seen evidence to suggest otherwise, you will probably avoid it all together in the future.
This is where "fake it 'til you make it" can help you out. If we override our initial belief that "I'm a terrible public speaker" to "I have nothing to worry about because I'm a great speaker", it does wonders to your confidence. If following the logic of the self-fullfilling prophecy, this "fake confidence" in our ability can actually enhance our performance. With enhanced performance, you further develop confidence in your skills, thus encouraging you to continue with public speaking in the future. When you continue with more public speaking, you are actually perfecting your skills, thus further enhancing our confidence in our ability. You have faked it enough to make it.
So you see, when we fake our confidence initially, the domino effect that comes afterwards can be life-changing. What was once fake confidence has actually become real confidence.