I recently did a presentation and questioned this theory and my position on it standing there, before the group.  There were many ah-ha’s during the presentation, but this one has been nudging my mind since.

My position is, I’m not a big fan of the phrase ‘ fake it until you make it ‘.  It’s never landed well with me.  When I decided to live a sober life many years ago, this was a common phrase in the community of sober living.  I always understood the concept but I didn’t want to fake anything.

I definitely didn’t want to “fake” my sobriety and the freedom to explore life completely aware without anything numbing my life experience.

So, there I was standing in front of this group of women and verbally expressed my opposition, but telling them to fall in love with themselves and their life by living the way they WANT to live.  Live your life as if.  I admitted I was crazy and accepted that although there doesn’t seem to be a difference – there is to me.  I just wasn’t sure what that was until last night.

I’m curious what you think?

Here we go…

The word “fake” indicates deception.  Integrity is one of my driving forces.  It’s innate in me.  I am that wife that strolls her $300.00 grocery cart out to the car in the pouring Oregon rain to discover a packet of seasoning didn’t get rung up and I’m going back into the store, standing in the line, to pay for it.  While hubby is tired, wet, and shaking his head, saying “it’s only .50”.  To me it’s not a matter of the value of the deception it’s that integrity could be questioned at all.  And not that anybody would know, but I would.  Yep, that’s me.  My hubby just LOVES me for those moments.

Living as if – is completely in integrity because you are living your life now.  You are not waiting for something to happen to be amazing, chase your dreams, experiment with something new.   You are doing YOU!  You are taking massive action and living life now!  No faking about it.

Some may say semantics – I say it’s my story, my truth, and I’m sticking to it.

At the end of the day, my hope for you, is that you choose to live life now.

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach