About this quote

Fear of looking foolish often stops people before they even take the first step. When you remove the option of backing out, your brain stops looking for escape hatches and starts finding solutions. What would you build today if you knew your effort would definitely pay off? You have to trick your own hesitation by adopting a mindset of absolute certainty. It is a practical mental hack to bypass the paralyzing anxiety of risk.

When to use it

• You are about to walk into a high-stakes pitch meeting with skeletal notes. You tell yourself to pitch with the absolute confidence of someone who has already signed the contract.
• Before trying to lift a new personal record on the bench press, you clear your head of all doubt. You grip the bar assuming the weight is already moving up.
• You sit down to write your first novel, ignoring the inner critic that says it will get rejected. You write the opening chapter as if a publisher has already paid you a massive advance for it.
• When launching your small bakery, instead of buying cheap ingredients to save money in case of failure, you stock up on premium goods because you expect crowds from day one.