One of the few mottos I live by, is one of the most popular among memes:
Fake it ‘till you make it.
.
Before thinking of me as yet another bombshell: it’s not about being fake; It’s not about being someone you’re not (well, at least that's not how I think of it),
it’s about putting yourself outside your comfort zone.
I think (and HOPE) everyone already experienced some of those moments you really felt out of place. Those moments you really, really wanted to just go home, where there would be no unfamiliar faces or situations. You recognise this? If you don’t, you are really missing out my friend.
Everybody probably felt uncomfortable for at least once in their life (again, if you didn’t: you are missing out. Or have an extreme level of self-confidence from the first day you were born , which is not bad I guess).
And I don’t mean like ‘I went out without knowing anybody, so I was kinda stressed, but everybody was so NICE to me!’. No, I mean those moments you are really sitting it through from start to end, while you feel so out of place you'd rather go clean the bathrooms instead…
During those moments, I think about that one quote ‘Fake it ’till you make it’.
Again, not to push myself to be someone I’m not, but just to get myself over myself.
Pushing yourself into situations that feel like miles outside your comfort-zone, is often the start of a beautiful new chapter (or at least something you’ll remember better than another night at home ‘cause you were too scared to go). And once you realise you only feel like an outcast because you yourself let yourself feel that way -and not because others think that about you (you can’t mind-read,can you?)-, it helps to ‘fake it ’till you make it’.
Fake the feeling of fitting in. Don’t fool others, fool yourself. Fake it until you feel foolish for having to fake that feeling in the first place. ‘Cause when you reached that moment and feel at home within the new situation, you expanded your comfort-zone.
I say: go and fool yourself until you feel foolishly comfortable among all us other fools.
Spoiler: I'm born on April Fool's day.