Many years ago I read in one of the books by Carlos Castenada this advice:

“Know that you do not have any power at all, but act as if you have absolute power.” The words ‘as if’ are the foundation stones for a great edifice of courageous and confident living. When, like an actor on the stage, but more so, we throw ourselves into the river of life as if we can swim like a champion we find that an unseen power now flows through us. Later we can but wonder at the majesty and mystery of that infusion of energy and creativity.

This behaving ‘as if’ brings boldness, courage, faith, humility and a steadily growing confidence. The faculty of imagination was not given to us to indulge in fantasy but rather to tap into our greatness waiting quietly within. There could be a feeling at first of artificiality, of being a shallow pretender, but such feelings can be safely ignored. What we are engaged in here is the time-honoured process for discovering ‘the giant within’. First the mind, then the heart follows. First we consciously structure our thinking so that our words and actions are those of the ‘King’. With diligent practice it is not long before we are automatically behaving like a King – the inner King speaks and acts through us more and more.

This uncovering of our inner greatness proceeds in the same way as the hour hand on a watch follows the more extensive movement of the minute hand. Without a doubt the more often we rehearse and act as if we are great, beautiful and noble, the more these innate qualities manifest themselves without any effort at all.