The Habit Of Faking It

Most days, I’m faking it here on the blog. My mission statement is simple—show up every day and put the most interesting insight I have into the world—but at least half the time I show up searching for something to be interested in or something useful to say.

Some days, I’m less interested and more anxious or completely fucking batty or so burnt out it’s crazy. The blog is a mask I wear for a while, a better version of myself that exists for public consumption, discarded the moment I hit post.

Some days, the act of posting lets me step into that better version of myself and stay there for the next eight hours. A bad day turns good by the simple virtue of roleplaying a different version of myself. My own personal magic trick, pushing me to get out of my head and engage with the world, after which I’m ready to do more.

The value of faking it until you make it isn’t in the persona you project, but the habits you build up in order to become a convincing facsimile of success. Writing a blog post becomes a foundational habit upon which I can stack other habits. “Start writing after you finish a blog post” is far easier to do than “kick off the crappy mood and write something.”

Habits build upon habits, and doing the simple stuff first opens the spaces for more complex work.