The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life

a man picked up an imaginary phone and ran through his an entire “call script” perfectly while wearing the army uniform. When we unpacked the experience, he said, “It was like I could suspend all my worries about rejection, because there’s no damn way a Navy SEAL is going to care about it.”

“Self-expansive activation,”

Purpose and emotion are intimately entwined.

Don’t be afraid to make changes if you need to.

A Totem or Artifact is something you strongly associate with your Alter Ego, like a stethoscope and a doctor, Thor and his hammer, Wonder Woman and her golden lasso.

Agreeable

Who we are, specifically the person we bring to our various Fields of Play and how we perform, is heavily influenced by external and internal factors.

Researchers have found that “self-suppressive activation” and “self-expansive activation” are keys to opening the vault to more confidence and courage.9 10 In the research and work we’ve done, we refer to it as the Ow Mindset and the Wow Mindset.

This idea of space and distance between our identities is something that researchers are starting to validate.