Saturday at dusk I was enjoying a drink at an outdoor cafe in Hong Kong. This place was on Lantau island, a good distance from the huddled buildings and teeth-rattling trucks on Hong Kong island. It was quiet, mostly, with birds chirping as the sun set. Then I heard my name loudly called across a large granite park. “Scott!” someone was clearly yelling. I craned my neck to see who was calling me. There was no one there.
I asked my girlfriend if she heard my name called. She heard something completely different. What she heard did not resemble my name. We quickly concluded that no one was calling me. I had heard my name among relatively little noise. My mind’s audio pattern recognition had what is called a “false positive”. This is when we wrong identify a pattern that does not exist. In my case I heard my name because the repetition of years has conditioned me to hear it.
It occurred to me in later reflection how our expectations influence our perspective of the world around us. A good mood turns a reckless taxi ride into an amusement park thrill. A bad mood makes the same trip terrifying. In fact fate rarely presents us with events purely good or bad. Life is messy and surprises come in some part sad, some part frustrating, some part uplifting, and often funny. Our attitude at the moment amplifies some of those feelings and causes us to miss others. The world is painted with our expectations.
Last year Amy Cuddy delivered a TED talk that described the physiological benefits of confidence manifested. She explained in her talk that successful, confident people have higher levels of testosterone. Powerless, challenged people have lower testosterone but higher levels of cortisol. The presence of these chemicals creates feedback in humans, for good or bad. When you succeed your testosterone goes up. When your testosterone goes up your confidence increases, which raises your chances of success.
But the amazing part of her presentation showed that acting powerful and successful–changing posture to mimic dominance and fearlessness–actually increased testosterone and decreased cortisol like actual success does. In other words, if you fake your confidence you will naturally release the chemicals that give you confidence.
Detail on the research Cuddy popularized is available online. But her video is more compelling. She ultimately counsels us not just to “fake it ’til you make it”, but “fake it ’til you become it”. Faking it will give us biochemical confidence. Confidence will help us start. Starting will begin the journey that makes us an expert. Fake it ’til you become it.
I want to build a life where my positive expectations shape my perception of the world. When my mind’s false positive is not just my name in a noisy environment but meaningful success and accomplishment. I want to triumph and so surely building that image in my mind will make help form the view of success among ambiguous outcomes. Every day on this sabbatical I can bite my nails and worry over my weaknesses and failures. But I will have to learn the mental discipline to paint my mind with success. And then I can fake it until I become it.