To Act As If
At the end of every year, we find ourselves making resolutions for the coming year. It is usually a resolution to either change the way we think, feel or behave. As strange as it may seem, the fact is, what we consistently think determines how we feel, which usually initiates how we behave. As a New Year’s resolution, most of us try to change our behavior by telling friends of our intentions, psyching ourselves up, reciting affirmations or thinking positively. While this may be the first step to execute change, it does not serve us as well as when we "act as if" we’ve already changed.
When we see actors on a movie screen, they can move us to tears, make us scream with fear and even make us stand up and cheer just by acting in a way that is so believable that it causes us to accept their behavior as part of our reality. The power of acting is so incredible that our culture has designed a reward system where the ultimate prize is an Academy Award. This power, which we can all attest to, encapsulates and merges the thinking, feeling and behaving of the character being portrayed. We all can and should use this power in our every day lives to bring about the changes that we seek.
Can we act as if something is true in spite of how we think and feel? Absolutely! We all have behaved in ways that have completely contradicted what we may have thought and felt at a particular time. Try to remember a time when you acted in spite of the thoughts and imaginations that invaded your head and the seemingly overwhelming fear that saturated your body. You have pushed beyond the contradictions to a place inside yourself that has propelled you forward. How many times have you gotten up for work and didn’t feel like it? You may have been tired, did not feel well, or have come up with several reasons as to why you shouldn’t go. Nonetheless, you’ve moved your body to get up and did it any anyway. As a firefighter for over 26 years, I’ve learned to move beyond the negative thoughts and feelings that I encounter during emergencies. I’ve walked into many burning buildings, moving my body into action, and going over and beyond any apprehension, self-doubt or nervousness.
Act the way you want to think, feel and behave, instead of just trying to change the way you think and feel before you begin to act. Do the behavior anyway. In other words, act as if! Adopt the behavior that you desire on every level. Act as if you think the way you desire to think. Act as if you feel the way you desire to feel. Act as if you behave the way you desire to behave. Acting as if something is true inherently encompasses behaving, feeling and thinking. Acting in spite of how you think, feel or normally behave is the gateway to immediate change, because to act, immediately puts you into the desired behavior. It is the behavior that changes how you feel. It is how you behave and feel that will change how you think. And how you behave, feel and think gets wired into your nervous system, which programs you for more of the same thinking, feeling and behaving. Thoughts cascade into more of the same thoughts. Feelings cascade into more of the same feelings. One’s behavior cascades into more of the same behavior.
To act, to move your body, to take on the physiology of a desired behavior, creates the feelings and thinking that is associated with that physiology. When you are at work, you act like a professional. When at home you put on the persona of a family member and when among friends you are someone altogether different.
My point is that you can use this same ability to act your way out of any undesirable situation in your life. What usually stops us is our motives. Is what we desire worth the energy and effort necessary to obtain it? If I promised you ten million dollars, a year from today, if you could make the necessary changes to make your resolutions a reality, could you do it? I rest my case. Make what you desire worth it, and then make it a reality in your behavior.
Visualize the person that you want to be five years from now. Now immediately begin to imitate that person, and fully realize that person as a human being, taking on the mannerisms and habits of that person. An example would be the persona of a millionaire. If you begin to imitate the mannerisms of a millionaire, as a rule, those mannerisms will translate into actions, and having not even realized it, you will have translated those actions into productivity. The key to productivity is action, and to execute any action, you must first ACT AS IF… Hence, in your efforts to maintain your New Year’s resolutions beyond the first week and throughout the coming year, remember to ACT AS IF!
- Dr Romeo Brooks
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Email Dr Romeo Brooks:
doc@rootsnutrition.com
