Acting As If

Life is a series of moments. To Live each one is to succeed. - Cortia Kent

The technique has its origins in the 1911 paper Philosophie des Als Ob (‘Philosophy of As If’) by Hans Vaihinger.
The theory is: we can never really know the underlying reality of the world. Because of this we construct various systems of thought and then we assume that these match reality. We then behave behave “as if” the world matches our models of the world.

The ‘Acting As If’ technique presupposes that the result has been or will be realized.

The intent is to make it easier to explore possibilities and ideas internally. Such possibilities would not usually be available to us because of the limiting beliefs we usually hold about ourselves and others. The goal of the technique is to allow the limiting beliefs to be set aside by reducing or avoiding internal resistances. The purpose of doing this is to explore alternate possibilities, without having to threaten or challenge our existing world-view. The limiting belief can be kept if it is useful.

For example instead of saying “I don’t know how to be confident in around people I’ve never met before” you can act as if you have done it before. Doing this puts you in the stage of conscious incompetence, but you behave as though you have conscious or even unconscious competence.

This technique allows you to acquire competence rapidly, efficiently and effectively compared to just acknowledging your incompetence.

Using this technique requires you to focus and mobilize your personal resources. ‘Acting’ means that you have to overcome inertia and passivity and become a doer. ‘As if’ implies empowering beliefs that the result is a possibility, if not a reality.

You need to have a vision or a mental model of yourself successfully performing the skill you want. The model may be informed by images and memories of real-life people you’ve seen being confident among strangers. Even if you are learning by trial and error, or by “trial and succeed” there is always a reference point.

You can internally reinforce ‘As if’ behavior by using positive affirmations (Meeting new people is easy for me) and visualization.

The ‘acting as if’ technique can be used to develop skills and roles you require. You can also use it to be the kind of person you want to be. It can be an effective approach to interpersonal communications. When you act as if someone else has a positive intent, you can ‘encourage’ them to express that intent by ’showing’ them a preferred possibility for their behavior. This is a form of personal power.

Examples
I can’t tell my partner how I feel.
But if you could, what would you want them to know?
By acting as if you could you can move away from “I can’t”, towards discussing the the problem or identify what you would like to say. You then spontaneously start to consider ways you could say what you feel. Either move would be a positive step towards learning to solve the problem.

I don’t know anyone who could memorize this poem.
But if they could, how do you think they might do it?
Well, I suppose they would…..
Again you must move away from the flat denial of your capabilities and knowledge. You can then engage in a creative approach to consider how to achieve the goal. This is often called a generative approach. It encourages you to brainstorm and generate new ideas without reference to prior assumptions of inability.

Alternatives for When You Get Stuck
If you continue to feel unable to identify new ideas you could try the following:

• Address the presupposition “What stops you?” [presuposes something specific is stopping you and this can be identified and considered],

• Look for role models “Who else might know?”,

• Test whether there is a generalized belief of impossibility “Could there be anyone who could do it?”,

• Look for a secondary problem or problems (things that mean it cannot safely be considered) “So what would happen if you did?”,

• Search for counter-examples “Has there ever been a time you could…?”,

• Search for potential internal conflicts “Is there a part of you that would have a problem doing that?”

• Look for more positive motivational leverage “What else would you get if you could?”

• Allow yourself to consider broader kinds of solutions from other perceptual positions such as third parties “If your wife was here, what might she say you weren’t seeing?”

• Reorientate yourself to see the problem from a future perspective, such as the double question “How would it feel if you could find a way?” followed by “And how might you get that?”

• Consider smaller steps “And if you could find a way to get there anyway, what might you have to do first?”