The Act As If You Are The Person You Want To Be Approach

This approach involves aiming to act as if you are the kind of person you want to be. My first contact with this approach was during the late 1960s. This was just before I opened a therapeutic community for drug addicts.

As part of my education, I visited an addiction treatment centre in Portsmouth. During the days there I became one of the community members, often being on the receiving end of the therapeutic programme.

Part of the programme was the act as if approach. This involved giving the recovering addicts the following messages.

You got into trouble because you developed irresponsible ways of satisfying your needs. This often involved hurting other people.

You say that you want to take responsibility and be more caring towards other people. This will initially be difficult because you have not learned how to do this in your life – nor has it been rewarded.

You can develop these new habits by acting as if you are responsible and caring. This may seem unnatural at first. But continuing to behave in this way will develop a new script and patterns.

You can put these into practice every day and may find that these bring positive benefits. If you wish, can then continue to develop healthier ways of satisfying your needs and living a fulfilling life.

This approach focused on developing new behaviours that would bring greater rewards than the old behaviours. William James, the American philosopher and psychologist, described this in the following way.

This approach became a guiding principle for many people who wanted to make changes in their lives. It also became the basis for many therapy programmes.

William believed that doing things differently – rather than just talking – leads to changes in feelings. He described this in the following way.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start. Action may not bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

The Act As If Approach Is
Similar To Going Into Role

Some people may have reservations about this approach. They may express some of the following feelings.

“What about authenticity? Shouldn’t you be honest and true to your feelings? Acting as if sounds like you are doing something that isn’t honest.”

Certainly there can be drawbacks to the act as if approach. Initially there may be a yawning chasm between who you feel you are and who you are aiming to become. But we act as if every day of our professional lives.

A person may go into role when working as a nurse, doctor, trusted advisors or in another person. Pursuing that role properly – and following certain principles – can produce success for everybody. 

Let’s return to your own life. Can you think of a situation where you may want to apply elements of the act as if approach? This could be in your own life or when helping another person to develop positive habits.

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.