Episode 275: Fake It ‘Til You Make It?

Anyone who has any experience with AA has heard the saying, “fake it ’til you make it.” Often, the statement is made to someone who isn’t buying the concept of needing a higher power to stay sober. They are told to just pretend and sooner or later, they will come along. But is there another way to think about this saying? In this livestream, Angela and John attempt to answer that question with help from comments in the live chat and calls from listeners.

This was recorded live in March of 2021. If you are interested in joining one of our livestreams, we stream every Saturday at 11:00 am Central and you can always find the stream on our YouTube Channel.

What we talked about

  • Importance of establishing a habit of calling people and attending meetings.
  • Value of writing a gratitude list.
  • ‘”Acting As If” used as behavior modification.
  • Confident people often achieve more than those with less confidence.
  • Scheduling dopamine hits rather than allowing them to be hijacked.
  • Call from Bob K. who talked about the theory of cognitive dissonance.
  • The power of the placebo effect.
  • How body language impacts you emotionally.
  • Developing good habits.
  • Hesitancy about ending social distancing.
  • We need to be agitated by making slight changes.
  • Call from Steve K. who talked about William James thoughts on this topic.
  • Call from Al from Vero Beach who talked about the importance of language. The word “fake” is negative and should be avoided.
  • Call from Tyler who agreed with Al about why he developed a resentment toward this saying due to its negative language.

Resources

Jack Cornfield’s Forgiveness Meditation

Huberman Podcast

Atomic Habits, by James Clear 

Chase Hughes

Sick Souls Healthy Minds


Our sponsor

Many thanks to Soberlink for sponsoring this episode of Beyond Belief Sobriety. Visit https://soberlink.com/bbs for more information.