I used to love tanning beds, though I never use them anymore. My fake-and-bake journey began when I lived in Perigueux, France in 2005. With too much free time on my hands in between my teaching job and self-imposed vocation of cafe sitting, my friends and I had plenty of time to pay weekly visits to the “UV salon.” Paying for “des UVs” in France enabled me to build more relationships with my French neighbors and was a conversation starter for me as the then over-tanned American teacher. Moreover, when I started in the Fitness Industry at a Gold’s Gym, I made sure to keep my skin an orangish tint, for I thought that it would make me look more like a “real” trainer. I can still recall how nervous I was when I started as a personal trainer. I wasn’t confident, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I wasn’t sure that I was even fit enough to be an example to others. Then someone told me my golden line: fake it till you make it.
While I no longer fake-and-bake out of concern for cancer and taking care of my now aging skin (the looming 30 year old mark is coming quickly upon me), I love the idea of fake it till you make it. I never faked any credentials or qualifications for personal training (nor am I recommending that anyone do so), rather, I faked confidence. Coming off of the tailwind of final years of my eating disorder, I had no confidence.
Fake it till you make it works. If you fake confidence, you will grow confidence. Believe me, it worked for me. Within only a few months after I started my personal training career I had transformed into a completely different, confident person.
Be the person you want to be and be it today. If you don’t feel like you can yet, then fake it. Over time you will transform into exactly what you’ve been faking to be, because, remember, the mind and body hears and listens to the words you speak to yourself.