Act As If...

Execupundit.com: Quote of the Day. There have been many variations of the wisdom of being yourself. This Vonnegut quote echoes centuries of thinking:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. 

- Kurt Vonnegut

If you want to improve, however, you have to be whom you wish to be seen to be. I can't find an older version than Socrates:

"The nearest way to glory -- a shortcut, as it were -- is to strive to
be what you wish to be thought to be" - quoted in Cicero, 44 BC.

-- Socrates (469-399 BC) Greek Philosopher

However it is said, there is wisdom in these words.