Fake it till you make it

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}

{{Short description|English aphorism}}

{{Redirect|Act as if |the band|Act As If (band)}}

{{More citations needed|date=June 2017}}

"Fake it till you make it" (or "Fake it until you make it") is an aphorism that suggests that by imitating confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset, a person can realize those qualities in their real life and achieve the results they seek.{{Cite journal|last=Powell-Brown|first=Ann|date=2003|title=Can You Be a Teacher of Literacy If You Don't Love to Read?|jstor=40014774|journal=Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy|volume=47|issue=4|pages=284–288}}{{Cite journal|last=Nielsen|first=Kelly|s2cid=55139502|date=2015|title="Fake It 'til You Make It": Why Community College Students' Aspirations "Hold Steady"|url=http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/journals/soe/Oct15SOEFeature.pdf|journal=American Sociological Association|volume=88|issue=4|pages=265–283|doi=10.1177/0038040715601889}}{{Cite web |last=Ibnat |first=Afia |date=31 March 2022 |title=Why "fake it till you make it" works |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/news/why-fake-it-till-you-make-it-works-2994511 |access-date=3 April 2022 |website=The Daily Star |language=en}}

The phrase is first attested some time before 1973.Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 93,748. Securities and Exchange Commission, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc., et al., Defendants-appellants, 474 F.2d 476 (9th Cir. 1973) ([https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/474/476/124744/ full text]) The earliest reference to a similar phrase occurs in the Simon & Garfunkel song "Fakin' It", released in 1968 as a single and also on their Bookends album. Simon sings, "And I know I'm fakin' it, I'm not really makin' it."{{cite web |title=Origin |url=https://www.theidioms.com/fake-it-till-you-make-it/ |website=Theidioms.com |publisher=The Idioms Dictionary |access-date=29 November 2021}}

Similar advice has been offered by a number of writers over time:

{{Blockquote

|text=Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. If such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on that occasion can. So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear.

|author=William James |title=The Gospel of Relaxation |source=On Vital Reserves (1922){{cite book |last1=James |first1=William |title=On Vital Reserves: The Energies of Men; The Gospel of Relaxation |date=1922 |publisher=H. Holt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpQ4AAAAYAAJ |pages=45–46 |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/onvitalreservese0000jame |archive-date=September 29, 2022 |oclc=557746629 |access-date=31 July 2024 |language=en}}

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In the pseudoscientific law of attraction movement, "act as if you already have it", or simply "act as if", is a central concept:

{{Blockquote

|text=

How do you get yourself to a point of believing? Start make-believing. Be like a child, and make-believe. Act as if you have it already. As you make-believe, you will begin to believe you have received.

|author=Rhonda Byrne |source=(2006) {{cite book |last1=Byrne |first1=Rhonda |title=The Secret |date=2006 |publisher=Atria Books ; Beyond Words Pub |location=New York : Hillsboro, Or |isbn=978-1582701707 |page=50 |edition=1st Atria Books/Beyond Words hardcover}}

|title=The Secret}}