Faking a Smile

Sometimes we hold in our mind pictures of failure and the dire consequences of our bad behavior.

It’s kind of like wearing a frown on our face. It’s a sign that we’re feeling bad and we project that feeling, even into ourselves. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We can put on a pretend smile. Faking it in the beginning doesn’t matter. When we do it, we project happiness outwards and inwards. Do this enough and we’ll feel better.

In the same way, we can imagine we’re successful over our addiction. “Try it on” to see how it feels, even if it feels fake. Do this enough and we create a different self-fulfilling prophecy. At first it won’t feel real, but repeatedly doing it will make it feel so over time.

We don’t have to be stuck in failure. By imagining success, we may line up our actions. A change of perspective causes the difference.