Lewis Timberlake says that ‘Faith is acting like it is so when it is not so in order for it to be so’.
To act as if it is true is to assume, behave-like, imagine, make-believe or pretend with your strong belief and conviction that you have already mentally achieved what you have chosen to achieve before you actually achieve it physically in your life.
What you now repeatedly act with your strong belief and conviction to become you will ultimately become in your life.
You must first see in your mind what you want to achieve before you can see it in your life.
Then as your subconscious mind or inner mind transforms thoughts into reality it will accept that particular thought and start to transform it into its equivalent physical reality whether that thought is positive or negative.
It works like this because your subconscious mind does not differentiate between what is real and what is imagined.
It accepts whatever is repeatedly given to it with belief and conviction real or imagined.
One single woman who chose to get married acted with her strong belief and conviction as if she was already married and living with her husband.
She created space on her bed, in her wardrobe and in her car park and bought an extra pillow for him to use when he arrives.
She specifically wanted a loving husband who was monogamous, prosperously-minded and driving.
Every night before going to sleep and every morning before waking up she would play out this picture vividly in her mind with her strong belief or knowing and conviction or feeling.
After a while with her continued expectancy and self-confidence her husband appeared in her life with all the qualities that she had specified.
Shakespeare in Act three of Amlet was right when he said ‘Assume a virtue if you have it not’.
For many centuries, some societies have believed that a rhino horn has medicinal and aphrodisiac properties.
However, modern scientific and pharmaceutical research studies including those conducted by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffman La Roche and the Zoological Society of London all have found that a rhino horn has no medicinal and aphrodisiac properties.
Instead a rhino horn mostly contains protein keratin also found in human hair, finger nails and animal hooves.
Therefore, the use of a rhino horn as a medicine and an aphrodisiac comes largely from its suggestive shape and the conviction of those societies that a rhino horn has medicinal and aphrodisiac properties.
Remember that your subconscious mind does not differentiate between what is real and what is imagined or suggested as long as it is mixed with your strong belief and conviction.
A Chinese proverb is right to say that ‘Habits are cobwebs at first; cables at last’. It also applies to animals.
For instance, an eagle’s egg was placed in the nest of a chicken and hatched.
The little eagle grew up thinking that it was a chicken and acted with its strong belief and conviction as a chicken.
It scratched in the dirt for seeds and it never flew more than few metres because that is what the chickens did.
But one day the young chicken eagle saw an adult eagle flying majestically in the open sky.
It asked the chickens, ‘What is that beautiful bird’?
The chickens said, ‘That is an eagle it is an outstanding bird but you cannot fly like it because you are a chicken’.
The young chicken eagle believed that to be true and became conditioned through repetition to live the life of a chicken and died a chicken.
It deprived itself of its rich eagle heritage.
The young chicken eagle was born to win but conditioned to fail by its strong belief and conviction that it was a chicken.
There are some people in life today who are like that chicken eagle.
Although they were born to win,  they are conditioned to fail by their strong negative beliefs and convictions.
The mind accepts whatever it is repeatedly given regardless of whether it is true or imagined.
At a certain farm a pregnant pig was accidentally hit by a car and later she became lame and started to limp.
When she gave birth her piglets found her limping.
Although they were all born normal but after few weeks they also started limping like their mother.
A veterinary officer was called in and diagnosed that all the piglets were normal but they were limping just because their mother was limping.
Therefore, it was decided that the piglets should be taken to a foster mother who was not limping when walking.
After being with the foster mother for some time,  all the piglets stopped limping and began to walk properly.
This proves one important point that the mind of either a person or an animal is highly sensitive to suggestion whether or not that suggestion is positive or negative and whether or not that suggestion is real or imagined.
The father of positive thinking Norman Vincent Peale says that ‘It is a proven law of human nature that as you imagine yourself to be and as you act on the assumption that you are what you see yourself as being, you will in time strongly tend to become, provided you persevere in the process.
So, act as you want to be and you will be as you act’.
In acting as if it is already true it is important that you see the thing that you want as already yours. Focus intently on the end result.
Aminu Isa Waziri observes that ‘Although in the beginning you may be pretending but since the mind cannot distinguish between reality and pretence as you continue to act with positive belief  that you have those qualities, overtime you will begin to exhibit them.
If you want to earn a certain amount of money or acquire a particular property, you must also talk and act in exactly the same way people with those things do’.
Jack Canfield explains that ‘It is the feeling that really creates the attraction not just the picture or the thought.
A lot of people think, “If I think positive thoughts or if I visualise having what I want that will be enough”.
But if you are doing that and still not feeling abundant or feeling loving or joyful then it does not create the power of the attraction’.
Feeling is the language of your subconscious mind and it is a thought that becomes a thing.What you always feel you become.
The feeling of happiness produces happiness, the feeling of health produces health, the feeling of wealth produces wealth and the feeling of poverty produces poverty.
Therefore, it is not necessary for you to actually be rich in reality in order to attract riches to you; but it is necessary for you to feel rich.
It is not necessary for you to actually be well in reality in order to attract wellness to you; but it is necessary for you to feel well.
It is not necessary for you to actually be happy in reality to attract happiness to you; but it is necessary for you to feel happy.
It is not necessary for you to actually have money in reality in order to attract money to you; but it is necessary for you to feel prosperous.
Michael Beckwith says that ‘You can begin right now to feel healthy.
You can begin to feel prosperous.
You can begin to feel the love that is surrounding you even if it is not there.
What will happen is that the Universe will correspond to the nature of that inner feeling and manifest because that is the way you feel’.
To act as if you already have is to behave as if getting is only a foregone conclusion and a mere formality.
The Gospel in Mark 11: 24 puts it this way, ‘When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it already, and you will be given whatever you ask for’.
You should pay careful attention to the change in the tenses in this divine and revelation statement.
If you want a quality which you now do not have always act with your strong belief and conviction as if you already have it and you will ultimately have it.
•Author is a Motivational Mentor and Consultant in Positive Mind-Set Change. Email: Positivemindpower1511@yahoo.com