I’m all for the ideas behind this but the reality is, just because you go to the gym, you aren’t an athlete. People who are, won’t recognize you as such and you calling yourself one before you are usually alienates you from that group you are trying to become.
Call yourself one internally. Don’t be public about it until someone else acknowledges it. You can convince yourself and that’s all that is required to have the OP effects outlined in the article. Just don’t go to the gym and tell the front desk you’re there to “train” like you compete in athletic competitions (origin of athlete) when you brought in your 40lb weight in your stomach.
I highly encourage anyone to try things. If you want to become an athlete or an artist. Call yourself one inside, internally, or write it down, post it’s or journals, just don’t go around in public with this “emperor’s new clothes” mentality.
I had a pastor who would ask the congregation, "If it were illegal to be a Christian and you were on trial, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Very thought provoking. Now replace that with a job title:
"If it were illegal to be a <DevOps Engineer> and you were on trial, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"
It's thought provoking, but I don't think it stands up to scrutiny. In jurisdictions where it is illegal to be a Christian, the standard of proof is usually around the trappings of religion: you attended this service, you gave money to this church, you celebrated on this day. Nobody gets sent to the gulag for showing forgiveness or having faith in the Resurrection or whatever your pastor might actually have wanted to instil.
It's interesting though; the three things you mention are known as "Precepts of the Church" and they are modern commandments that we all must obey.
Yes, they are outward and superficial, but also, they are the sorts of things which lead to having faith, hope, and love.
Don't tell me that someone who does nothing else but attend a particular church service every week for 30 years will not be changed in some noticeable way.
And I'm a follower, so that is who "we all" refers to. I wasn't intending to include you. "We" means "me and them" in this case. Have a dictionary sometime.
Yeah, I’m all against gatekeeping too. If I called myself a scientist and I didn’t have a degree (yet) would I still be recognized as a scientist? That’s all I’m saying. So long as you identify as one and pursue it, you’ll become one. If you do the courses and earn it then welcome to the fold. I am not about to call myself an astrophysicist simply because I have an affinity for space and know the classifications of stars. That’s my point.
I think there's a lot of fuzziness about all of this.
Calling yourself a surgeon without all the medical degrees and certifications is ... alarming.
Calling yourself a scientist -- while it does imply a stereotype academic type in a white coat -- to me means you have an inquiring mind about the natural and physical world, that you observe carefully, that you experimentally test things, and you are prepared to change your mind based on evidence. Anyone can be a scientist: even a 10 year old.
It impressed me that on radio station Triple J in Australia, every Thursday they'd do a phone-in show with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki who would answer science questions. He would dignify everyone with a question by calling them "Doctor" in a kind of tounge-in-cheek way, and would give a prize if they'd done an experiment to test aspects about the question they had, and would use the phrase "you've done an experiment".
He really did a lot to bring the idea that science was not some far-away esoteric thing you need a degree for, but something that was in every-day life and anyone could do.
Call yourself one internally. Don’t be public about it until someone else acknowledges it. You can convince yourself and that’s all that is required to have the OP effects outlined in the article. Just don’t go to the gym and tell the front desk you’re there to “train” like you compete in athletic competitions (origin of athlete) when you brought in your 40lb weight in your stomach.
I highly encourage anyone to try things. If you want to become an athlete or an artist. Call yourself one inside, internally, or write it down, post it’s or journals, just don’t go around in public with this “emperor’s new clothes” mentality.