The Success Principles ~ Principle #12

Jack Canfield's Success Principle #12 is "act as if" (if anyone is a student of Stanislavski, you will recognize this phrase from his system of acting as well). In other words, act as if your dreams have already come true and you are living the life you imagine for yourself. In fact, Canfield invites you to throw a "Come as you will be" party at which you and your guests dress, behave, share and celebrate as though all the dream of is their current reality.

Canfield's explanation for the power of this principle is the impact that acting as if has on your brain function. To me, the explanation is even simpler. When you are acting "as if," in that moment there is a way in which the dream is in fact realized. Because I have theatre as my context, I'll use that as an example. When you see an actor playing King Lear weeping over the loss of his devoted daughter, he is in fact crying (I acknowledge that sometimes he is "presenting" crying rather than crying, but often it is his own true tears coursing down his face). He is playing King Lear. He is in an imaginary situation. Yet, he is crying. His body's physiology is impacted just as though he were crying for his own deep personal loss. In fact, he is likely using some very real experience of his own to evoke the honest reaction in an imagined situation.

So, when I walk into a party dressed to the nines and sharing my (as-yet-to-be-realized) successes with confidence. I am embodying confidence. I am experiencing that success. The "doing" of my goal may not have happened yet, but the "being" of my goal has. I'm like that glorious peony pictured above. The full bloom already exists. It simply takes some time for it to share itself with the world.

I'm definitely going to take on the task of 'acting as if" this week. Will you do the same? How will you dress? Interact with others? Sign your name? Walk down the street? Eat your lunch? I'd love to hear how this plays out for you!