Dangers of Faking Progress

Faking (anything really) usually stems from some insecurity or feeling of not being good, likable, loveable, and valuable enough. And this is usually because of a distorted and undervaluing perception one has of himself/herself.

Faking starts when you start pretending that you’re better, wealthier, etc. than you are, and others buy into it, you create this illusion of yourself that others may like but you know you’re not.

You can be involved in faking your progress if you have low self-esteem and lack confidence. Therefore, to compensate for low self-esteem and low confidence, one can decide to fake their progress for the following reasons:

1. To prove or feel a sense of self-worth.

2. Be liked or validated by others.

3. Feel good about yourself in front of others.

4. Appear to be smarter, important, or know all the answers.

While there’s nothing wrong with applying strategies to feel better about yourself, you also have to consider the potential dangers which include:

You won’t build long-term relationships

Faking progress can become a way we do things. This means we won’t build long-term relationships because we’ll be in the habit of not being sincere with people. Having a habit of always faking things, including what’s going on for us, isn’t a recipe for lasting happiness.

You can lose trust in yourself

Every time we tell ourselves we have to fake something, we are not authentic.

We must protect the relationship we have with ourselves because that dictates our level of self-confidence and self-worth.

You will lose trust in others

Once we lose trust with others, it’s challenging to gain that trust back. We never want to come across as a fake to others because people can see through someone who is a fake. People will connect well with us if we’re sincere, genuine, and true to ourselves.

You are looking to take shortcuts

When we convince ourselves to fake something, this becomes a mindset by which we operate. It means we don’t want to put in the effort to learn and develop ourselves in that area. Taking shortcuts isn’t the way to long-term, sustainable success.

You can falsely believe you are better than you are

We’re all on a journey of self-discovery and learning. This means there will always be things we don’t know or haven’t done previously. We cannot pretend our way to being our best selves.

We develop confidence and competence through commitment, discipline, and practice in something we want to get good at.

It can lead to depression

Faking progress is deception and deceiving people increases stress, and anxiety, and hurts self-worth and confidence because now you have to worry about whether people find out the real you.

It can lead to aggression in the workplace

Faking progress can do damage to the organizations you are trying so hard to please. It can also affect your work ethic which can lead to you being impatient and abrasive. You are extremely tough on yourselves and thus not predisposed to spare others. As an employer, you drive your employees too hard and create a gulag-like atmosphere in your organization, which inevitably translates into high employee turnover rates, absenteeism, and other complications that can affect the bottom line.

You don’t have to fake your progress in life. Instead, you want to “be” a confident person and do what’s required to have more self-confidence. You shouldn’t have to force yourself to fake anything if you are confident. The biggest problem with faking something is that it’s focused on what others think, their validation and approval of you and that’s a dangerous game to play. Anything you haven’t truly earned won’t make you feel better about yourself. And if we rely on the concept of “fake it till you make it” to generate confidence, we’ll struggle to be the person we know we can be.