Re: Fake it till you make it

EDITOR, I work with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and I read the article above with great interest. For what it’s worth, I wanted to add a few comments to the article.

You see, I agree that “fake it till you make it” has become a popular mantra. But it doesn’t pop out of nowhere. In NLP (developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler in the 1970s ), we say “do as if”. Yet, doing as if is not just about mimicking behaviours. The invitation is to delve into our personal stock of memories and experiences to find a time when we experienced a particular emotion and bring that “film” to the fore. Meaning by that, that every experience is stored in our unconscious mind (unconscious because we are unaware of it all the time - it would be impossible to live in a brain that has all the information present at the same time. Can you imagine the mess?)

So, something happens. This experience is filtered by the sensory organs by deleting, distorting and generalizing. This is stored as a film (an internal representation), a composition of images, sounds, words, feelings, thoughts, posture, breathing. We can see how a baby, a young child, receives so much stimuli with no way of verbalizing the experience. But the experience and the memory of it, is there. Hence the impact on future behaviour and why we are so easily triggered, not knowing why!

The point here being that when we access a happy memory, this will trigger a feeling and a set of bodily responses. When we reconnect to that representation, we use that information in the present moment and apply it to the situation that is likely or possible. It is an actual technique, not just a mantra. When we recreate the desired state, we access different behaviours and potentially ignite desired changes in our thinking and actions.

Also, we learn through repetition. When we learn and experience the new (successful) behaviour, and practice it many times - preferably in imagination first - we then apply it to the X situation or desired thought. This in turn will give us feedback that we can use to adjust the information and experience. In NLP it is said “there is no failure only feedback”. By updating and adjusting the information - the think, feel, do model popularised by Anthony Robbins - at some point, we end up installing and embodying the new desired behaviour.

So, to answer the question framed in the article “The Costs of Faking it” I do not believe that we are faking. The brain has the ability to conjure up possible futures or realities . I see it as learning a new skill - to ride a bike, drive a car, swim, learn a new language, etc. Clumsy at first, successful in the end. A child never gives up when they are learning to walk or talk or write the first words. They want so much to do and be like the grown-ups… they fall and start over and over again until they end up running.

The only cost I can envisage is that of giving up an old belief, an old pattern. We feel very secure in our little habits. I am sure you are familiar with the saying “better the devil I know than the devil I don’t”. It can be hard to risk a new unknown situation (even if we say we want it) than to let go of the familiar, comfortable, predictable known…

The beauty of “doing as if” or “faking it until we make it” is that it is safe and easy to practice. We use imagination, fantasy, dreams… where we can fly, pilot an airplane, where everything is possible even though it is not (yet) real. One day we wake up and realise, “hey, I made it”.

We have gone through the four stages of competence: ´I don’t know that I don’t know”, “now I know that I don’t know”; “now I know that I know” and finally I am so used to the new way that “I don’t know that I know”.

And here I state my case.

by Teresa Mesquita, By email

Re Cataracts

Editor, Concerning the letters from Ray Scott and myself on CATARACTS. Is it a co-incidence that The Portugal News of 2nd August now contain a glossy full page article on Glaucoma and a full page advertisement for HPA on the treatment for Glaucoma? I fully endorse the comments in Ray Scott’s 2nd letter; Unfortunately, there is no legal come-back. As anybody who has received Hospital treatment will know one has to sign documents relieving the Hospital of any responsibility. With all the lawyers on their side, what hope have patients like myself and Ray Scott? To answer Roy Carpenter’s letter, yes I did get a 2nd opinion on my eyes from my optician here and my optician in the UK. Removing the cataract I expected my vision to be clear and although I haven’t recently tested it from the top of Monchique, my sight looking from one end of the Auchon Super Market to the other is fuzzy! If the Surgeon had explained these possible consequences, I might have declined. It is the sorry lack of clarity between Surgeon to patient that appears to be the problem. Once one has signed the documents of consent, why should Doctor, Surgeon or Hospital have any concern? I find Roy Carpenter’s suggestion that perhaps Ray Scott has macular degeneration is rather unfair. Macular degeneration is surely a slow process and does not happen the day following surgery. On this years’ check-up my Surgeon confirmed my eyes were healthy and my sight perfect

by Gerry Atkins, Portimão. By email

Litter in the Algarve

EDITOR, Littering has become a serious and increasingly visible problem across the Algarve, particularly outside the main tourist resorts. While local councils have made some effort to cut back roadside vegetation, they appear to have entirely neglected the removal of accumulated litter. In many areas, the situation is beginning to resemble that of countries with far fewer resources, and it is deeply disappointing to witness in a region as naturally beautiful as the Algarve.

Of particular concern is the state of areas near popular beaches, such as Praia de Loulé Velho, where human waste and discarded wet wipes are frequently found in the surrounding bushes. This is not only unsightly but also poses public health and environmental risks.

To address this growing problem, urgent action is required. Councils should implement and strictly enforce littering fines, introduce deposit-return schemes for plastic bottles, and, most importantly, organise large-scale and regular cleanup initiatives.

Protecting the Algarve’s natural landscape is not only an environmental imperative but also essential to preserving its appeal as a world-class destination.

by Ed O’ Flaherty, Loulé. By email