I admit it. I fake it.

I fake it at home. I fake it at pubs and at cafes. I fake it at shopping centres. And I totally faked it on a wine tour last month.

I fake it when I’m alone. I fake it when I’m in a crowd.

I fake it with my boss. I fake it with my father in law. Sometimes I even fake it with my husband.

I’m a huge believer in faking it til you make it.

Here’s why. It works.

The greatest regret I have in life is that in my 20’s I didn’t back myself in.

I spent a long time in my old job, which I truly loved, unhappy at how slowly I was progressing.

I worked hard. I amassed a huge personal network. I gained over a decade of experience in my field. I was good at what I did.

So why did I stall at a mid-level promotion?

On reflection, I was thrown p lenty of opportunities to get in amongst it. My biggest problem was that I couldn’t find the courage to take them on.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it. It was that I didn’t believe I could do it.

That’s why, you gotta fake it til you make it.

It is mental Dutch courage, which is ironic, since urban legend suggests it’s the secret first step at Alcoholics Anonymous.

It’s also the advice I offer my colleagues most regularly.

The thing is, you’re not actually faking it. If you really were faking it you’d have been fired long ago. Faking it til you make it is not about pretending you have expertise or skills you don’t.

When you back yourself and back your ideas, your confidence in yourself builds the confidence of others in you.

Easier said than done, right?

Or is it?

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy says it’s possible to fake it til you make it. She asks the question, can our body language govern how we think and feel about ourselves?

She conducted a series of experiments asking people to adopt ‘high power’ or ‘low power’ poses and then sending them into job interviews. The video tapes of the job interviews were shown in a blind sample to hirers. Not only were the high power posers more likely to be hired, they rated higher in evaluations.

Not only has Cuddy done the science, it’s something she herself has lived.

You can watch the entire Ted Talk here. Post continues after video.

Adopting a ‘high power’ pose changes the way your mind works. It increases your testosterone, the hormone associated with power, and decreases your cortisol, the hormone associated with stress. In other words, using your body language to fake confidence actually gives you confidence.

It is literally possible to fake it til you make it.

So. The next time you have a presentation or a job interview or a pitch, you know what to do.

Fake it.

Do you believe in the old saying, “fake it til you make it”?