Driving luxury cars that are leased? Or wearing branded goods to show one is rich? Does it truly works?
Pretend or act as if - are we talking about the real physical act in this context to realising one's dreams? With powerful quotes like this
If it is merely the physical pretending to be rich that makes one rich, then wouldn't many actors and actresses be rich since they are in the profession of pretending - playing roles that they may not be in real life?
There are 3 parts to this questions that I would address.
For one to be rich (or any other goals), one need to be conscious of it. By consciousness, I mean awareness or perception of something. One must be aware that he is rich. Our conscious minds can generate ideas of being rich and impress upon our subconscious mind to act on it. What is subconsciousness? It is defined as the part of your mind that notices and remembers information when you are not actively trying to do so, and influences your behaviour even though you do not realise it.
So, in this context, if your definition of being rich is owning a luxury car, then the moment you are out of the house, you should be heading to where your car is parked and perhaps not to the bus station/train station (NOTE : this is not an argument that one can't take public transport when he is rich)
Lastly and most importantly is the power of choice that we humans have. To have choice means there are more than one possibilities that we can choose from. Unlike animals, they are not endowed with this freedom to choose. Their mind is program to do the same thing again and again. A tiger in the wild needs to hunt for food to survive in the jungle. It does not wake up one day thinking someone would deliver fresh meat to his tables and as such, take a longer nap. He might be eaten alive! That is the the law of survival in the jungle.
We humans have this ability to choose our thoughts and thus influence our action. We can choose thoughts that make us feel rich or thoughts that stop us from being rich (convincing oneself why we do not deserve it - no background, no connection, no looks, no this nor that).
So in essence, when one make the right choice - wanting be rich , then we can control our subconscious mind through the control of our ideas and feelings (consciousness). It is said that our mind cannot tell the difference between what's real and what's vividly imagined (feelings).
I remained convinced that when we can control our feelings to be what we want to be, ( disciplined and practice helps)then we can be in any state that we desired (including being rich). Our mind is not a binary system but a complex one that switches between good, bad and evil thoughts round the clock. It is our job to tame it like a wild animal on the loose, to steer clear of unwanted, unhealthy thoughts that stop us from becoming what we want to be. Once we give in, it will expands and grow and grow till it takes over and we start to believe what it says as true. That's what we want to avoid and must not at all costs allow ourselves to be in.
If the physical act of hoarding large stacks of cash, driving a luxury car or staying in a leased car and the feelings of being rich is aligned, perhaps the person can attain his goal like in this article. Often, the one who acts the part does not feel the part - that's not congruency - the thinking mind and the feeling heart as one.
Our subconscious mind will accept whatever as true what we declared as true. It simply cannot tells the difference. Knowing the latter, it is then to our advantage to feel the way we want to be (of being rich) until our reality is objectified.
If becoming a millionaire does not feel real or possible to you (your consciousness) then our subconsciousness will accept that as true and conjure up ideas of failure, impossible and all other negative thoughts that follows. When a business opportunity appears, you would approach it with more skepticism than usual.
One can hold on to his vision/dream in him mind, rehearsing it mentally and seeing in his mind (as if )it has already happened, that it is a reality. For example, I can feel the joy and peace I get tendering to my large garden in my new house, with lots of fruits that our family likes - papaya, edible vegetables like lettuce, spinach, bitter gourd,etc and many cactuses variety that I had recently fallen in love with. Being close to Nature, seeing the butterflies and the birds singing and humming their melody makes me happy. It's a feeling that one has to experience it to know what it is like.
Since it has already happened, I am living the way I like to be and that makes me truly happy and satisfied. The more feelings I put into the future act, the more the conscious I am of this new life style and embrace it. It is part of my present lifestyle,expanding its horizon day by day, in a very unique and mysterious way. At its appointed time, like the caterpillar ready to meet the world in its cocoon, it will turn into a butterfly. Instead of controlling the time which creates the anxiety and one gets impatient and tried to meddle with the means of reaching the goals, I simply bask myself in living the dreams of my life.