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It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking, than think your way into a new way of acting.

What is the meaning of the sentence especially "act"? Is it a transitive verb?

Barmar
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Sam
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    Details please. Surely you aren't asking us to draw out a full syntax tree! The basic syntax is a comparison, with rhetorical device of repetition of the words "think" and "act" but in the reverse order – James K Mar 24 '24 at 15:27
  • @JamesK I want to know the sense of "act" in this context?Is is used as a transitive verb ?Why a noun is there after it? – Sam Mar 24 '24 at 15:29
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    It's the pop psychology of behavior modification. Your mindset will follow your actions (although you'd expect the opposite). It's like "Act your age." – Yosef Baskin Mar 24 '24 at 15:54
  • @sam, can you clarify the question. You'll need to change both the title and the body too. – James K Mar 24 '24 at 16:11
  • The question is clear. – BadZen Mar 24 '24 at 20:58
  • It's also somewhat like "fake it 'till you make it". – SoronelHaetir Mar 24 '24 at 23:03

3 Answers3

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"It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking, than think your way into a new way of acting."

The speaker means:

"It's easier to start acting as if your thinking had changed - your thinking will follow your actions. It's harder to try and change your thinking first, and expect your actions to follow."

You can decide for yourself if you think the speaker is correct or very foolish.

"Act" here is intransitive - "act your way into" indicating that a person will pretend to do something until it is done or accomplished or true. Other intransitive uses include "act on " - to indicate action was taken because of , or "act for" - to indicate that one is acting on behalf of another.

BadZen
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This sense of "act" is transitive and is related to the notion of "to play a role" or "pretend to be something".

Grammatically it is analogous to expressions like "He worked his way up the company ladder" or "He made his way through the crowd". In these sentences with "ones way" as the direct object the meaning is that one created a (figurative) path by work or in some other way.

So we get the idea that it is easier to "play a role" or "pretend to be something", and that is a route to a "new way of thinking".

The second "act" is a difference sense, meaning "a way of behaving", and so the whole construction is a play on words, using two different meanings of the word "act".

James K
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    Actually, I read the first half as using the same sense of "act": not "fake it until it becomes sincere," but rather "It's easier for actions to alter ideas than vice versa." @Sam This answer makes mine unnecessary: I don't think it's "act" that confused you, but the idiom "[verb] your way into [something]", which can be stretched to take just about any verb, including intransitive ones, e.g. "He talked his way into the party." – Andy Bonner Mar 24 '24 at 19:20
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    Well perhaps, either way, it's word play. And "your way" is the direct object of "act" (but it's semantic role is not that of "patient") – James K Mar 24 '24 at 20:13
  • The questions are clear. However, there should be one question per post. – BadZen Mar 24 '24 at 20:59
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Consider the following analogue : to bluff one's way into something.

He bluffed his way into a high-paying sales position by faking his resume and turning on the charm.

That could be paraphrased as "He managed to create for himself an entry to a high-paying sales position by faking his resume and acting the part".

One could understand the psychological advice in your original quote in light of the above construction: if you wish to change a habitual way of thought, you can manage to do so by tricking your mind; you would do so by acting contrary to that habitual thinking, and your mind will follow along. Your mind will have been duped out of the habit.

As for whether it is transitive in the sense of having a direct object, it's an idiom, so all bets are off when it comes to whether the verb would be considered to have a direct object in "his way" or "your way", but I think way could be regarded as the d.o. of the verb.

TimR
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