I read an article yesterday that suggested that Rishi Sunak was ‘behaving like he thought a Prime Minister should’ rather than being himself. Regardless of Politics it had me thinking about the fine line between ‘acting as if’ and being untrue to one’s own essence.
The great power of ‘acting as if’ is that it can help us overcome our fears and resistance to change. When we identify a new mind-set, quality or skill that we need we can use ‘as if’ to help us to step into the space even though we may not yet be fully confident or resourced. The process of trying it on for size can usually enable us to realise that it’s not so scary and that we can make a half decent if not complete success of it – thereby building our confidence.
On the other hand, if we are basing our acting as if on something that is some sort of empty carcass of a role then we may risk being untrue. There’s no value in holding ourselves to some sort of caricature of a role because we think that’s how everyone else expects it to be done. In doing this we leave behind our true value and risk becoming identified with the caricature and less with our own truth.
For example – having a clear sense of the true qualities of leadership as our foundation, and then deciding we need to step more into our assertiveness is one thing – here we can genuinely start acting as if. Believing that a particular role requires us to be domineering and overly directive to be respected feels empty and lacking in heart and could move us more into caricature.
Acting as if is a powerful tool but let’s be sure it’s always anchored to a sound foundation of thinking, qualities and aspiration.