To me, life is all about telling yourself pretty little lies so many times that you believe them. You can even make up a fake past for yourself, which I have somewhat done. If part of your life seems failed or lame, just say it didn’t happen or substitute a fake successful history for that and tell yourself that this is what really happened. If you are relatively healthy, you will realize on some level that of course this is a lie, but you tell yourself in a covert way that you are going to pretend that this is what really happened.
Nevertheless, convincing yourself that a made-up past is what really happened and what really happened never happened doesn’t sound real healthy to me.