Are you Delusional? You Should Be

Folks, entrepreneurship is rough stuff. I’ve written about it, my contributors have written about it and you live it like we do. How you get through it and persevere and believe in your vision is up to you, but there’s a great piece floating around the LinkedIns that a lot of my colleagues have been liking so I’m betting you will, as well.

The gist is this: Because things can be so tough, your best course of action is to not stew in it but to act like things are going better than they really are.

From the post:

This is not pseudo-scientific blather spouted bunkum-filled books like The Secret. The idea that your actions alter your thoughts is one of the foundations of cognitive-behavioral psychology and has been studied since the 19 century (both William James and Charles Darwin wrote about it).

Force your face into a smile, you will be happier. Sounds creepy, but it works.

A raft of studies have backed this up, including a recent one in the Journal of Psychological Science that showed fake smiles (or even holding a chopstick in your mouth to mimic the shape of a smile) lowered your heart rate in stressful situations. The book The As If Principle by psychologist Richard Wiseman cites plenty of other research, including how your posture affects confidence and risk-taking (a powerful, chest-out stance boosts esteem).

Bear in mind, this probably won’t be something at which you always succeed. But you should be kind to yourself, be patient and trust that you will be able to return to that well. It doesn’t do you any good to worry about your worrying, so, work at it and trust things will happen as they should. You can help steer that with your attitude, and your attitude will follow your actions.

Good luck!

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as IFC’s comedy, film, and TV blogger, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

Contact Us