Evan Renaerts

Act As If

February 22, 2008

This morning’s sky is washed gray; the trees stand out in sharp relief; the birds are awake and singing. The first of the crocuses are in flower, an official sign of spring in Vancouver.

I believe that all of us are capable of making a positive difference in our own lives, in the lives of our families, organizations, communities and in the world. That can seem like an outrageous statement if we focus on the massive threats and challenges at the global level and still, I believe it is true.

We have the possibility of making a positive difference because every thought and action at the individual level ripples out and affects dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of people we way never meet. One smile given to a stranger in traffic; one act of kindness or consideration, they have the power to brighten the day for many, many others.

Initially what stops most people from acting as though their lives make a difference is a belief that they are powerless in comparison to the vastness and complexity of the issues at the organizational or global level – how can I influence how this corporation behaves or stop global warming or war or hatred, and the list goes on.

Even when we do come to understand that our smallest actions can and do make a difference we can get stopped because we are uncertain how to begin living life as though we really do have an impact. We are so used to feeling and believing that we are powerless that we don’t know how to begin acting differently.

Years ago I came a cross a wonderful expression that describes a way of moving yourself into new behaviours; especially behaviours that seem beyond us – “Act as if.” The idea is that if you’re not sure what it would be like to be kinder or happier, in a good relationship or successful in business, you begin by acting as if you already are.

To do the acting we have to first observe the characteristics of whatever behaviour we are moving toward and this can be the beginning of changing how we see everything. With a willingness to learn we start to notice that others are positively affecting their lives, positively affecting the world. We will also see that those others are no different than we are – pants go on one leg at a time, they eat, sleep, laugh and cry just as we do.

There is a breakthrough in this behavioural shift when we realize, “My God, we are all in this together.” When we really see that we have played our part in creating all the situations and behaviours that we find intolerable and that we could just as easily be a part of creating a liveable world.

What a wonderful and powerful thing it is to realize that we do make a difference; that we are creating the world we live in. It’s at this point that we stop, “acting as if,” and begin to be the change we want to see.

Evan Renaerts
604 314 0835
evan@evanrenaerts.com