Act as if

In 1911 the German philosopher Hans Vaihinger published The Philosophy of "As If". His argument was that people live by useful fictions: ideas we can't prove, but act on as if they were true, because they help us find our way.

Alfred Adler was struck by it. He came to see each of us as moving towards an imagined goal, a picture of who we're trying to become. In his practice he would ask patients a simple question, which Adlerians still call "the question": what would you do if you were well? The answer often showed what the problem was keeping them from, and where to begin.

We often wait to feel different before we act differently: confident before we speak up, calm before we go out, motivated before we start. But it frequently works the other way round. Acting changes how we feel.

Acting as if means choosing one small behaviour that the less worried version of you would do, and doing it for a short time, as an experiment. You don't have to believe it, or feel it. You just try it and see what happens.

It isn't pretending everything is fine, or hiding how you feel. It's a way of trying on a different way of living, a bit at a time.

• Behavioural activation

  In treatment for depression, action often comes before motivation: you do the thing first, and the feeling tends to follow.

• CBT

  Behavioural experiments test a worried prediction by acting against it and seeing what really happens.

Think of a worry or problem that's been shaping how you live.

Your answers stay in this page and aren't saved or sent anywhere.

You'd like to speak up more in meetings, but you don't feel confident. What would acting as if suggest?