Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Faking being rich when you’re poor can be detrimental. Going into debt, living above your means, stressing yourself out to keep up with the Joneses. Not a good idea. This is one case where faking it until you make it is silly.

In addition, faking confidence when you are nervous or faking courage when you experience fear can also be detrimental. This is because both confidence and courage are emotions. An article on Forbes titled Don’t Try To ‘Fake’ Confidence makes this case citing research from Stanford University:

The problem is that attempting to suppress genuine emotions requires so much conscious effort that it is rarely successful. Whenever you attempt to conceal any strong feeling and fake another, your body almost always “leaks” nonverbal cues that are picked up consciously or subconsciously by your audience.

So if you shouldn’t fake financial status and you shouldn’t fake emotions, then what should you fake? Well, it’s not just the what it’s also the when.

Here’s the perfect scenario to fake it until you make it:

1. You’re fighting against fatigue to keep going
2. You’re either training your body to compete or you are competing against an opponent.

If both 1 and 2 are true, it’s in your best interest to trick both your mind and your opponent into believing you have an abundance of energy left.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Fighting Fatigue

When you are fighting physical fatigue, do not:

• Bend over and put your hands on your knees
• Show signs of distress or discomfort on your face
• Put your hands on your head to catch your breath
• Use negative self-talk to constantly remind yourself that you’re tired

Instead, fight fatigue by faking the signs of being energized by:

• Continuing to hustle at all times, even during breaks in action
• Maintaining a “poker face” at all times
• Using positive or neutral self-talk to tell yourself things like you love the challenge or that this challenge will not break you

By doing these little things, you gain two main advantages. First, you can fake out your opponent. It’s likely your opponent is facing the same physical fatigue as you. If your opponent is fighting fatigue and believes you are not, it will provide you with an edge. Second, research shows that positive body language and self-talk improves performance. In other words, your mind is stronger than your body and in doing this you can use the strength of your mind to help your body persevere.

In short, when you’re fighting physical fatigue when training or competing, even slight improvements in performance and tiny mental edges here and there can have a significant impact to the ultimate outcome. It is in your best interest to fake it until you make it in this scenario to gain this advantage.