Leverage Your Alter Ego.
For anyone who has done anything outside of their comfort zones, you may be familiar with that little friend that follows you around. In my case, he constantly reminds me how “not good enough” I am or says things like “Who are you anyway?” or “why even bother, man!”
Negative self talk can paralyze anyone, if we let it. It makes our stomachs turn when we’re about to do something new, or if we’re about to talk in front of a new group of people. One technique to rid yourself of the antagonist within is to use mindfulness to pay attention to the thoughts as they arise. Mindfulness practice is all the rage right now and personally, I’m a big fan of Sam Harris and his Waking Up app with which I try to practice as much as I can. It’s difficult practice which is why it’s called a ‘practice’. Once you learn to pay attention to these thoughts however, they tend to dissolve and eventually fade away, at least until the next thought bubbles up from the depths of your consciousness, at which point you have to do it all over again. Watch, rinse, repeat. It takes practice, but once you start paying attention, you realize all the bull shit stories this little voice is fabricating to crush you. There is another way to mitigate the monkey mind and that is, the alter ego. Invent a new side of yourself that will take the focus away from that negative voice.
Last summer I decided I was going to attempt an ITT (individual time trial) of a local bikepacking race here in the Kootenays called the Lost Elephant Ultra Race. An individual time trial is when you start outside of the general grand depart. You’re still timed and tracked but you go it alone. One of the upsides of starting with the Grand Depart, is camaraderie. Unless you’re at the pointy end of the stick, you’ll be more or less surrounded by people. Even if you’re riding alone, you can be sure to catch someone or be overtaken at some point in the race. This bikepacking race is a tough one covering over 500km and 10,000m of climbing, To say that the climbs were punchy would be an understatement. That, combined with the remoteness of the area makes it especially daunting.
A couple of days before the race I expressed to my wife that I was nervous. Honestly, I was terrified. I’m a confident cyclist, and feel as though I have my bike packing craft somewhat refined, although we are always learning on these journeys. Even still, I’d consider myself a rookie and was tentative about my ride. Chris, who has been very supportive of my Type 2 fun antics and is always a good source of positive reinforcement, reminded me of the experience I already had, and that I’d be fine and I’d probably have a lot of fun.
Feeling much better, I began to think more about my ride by looking over my cue sheets and visualizing the route. It was at that point that I remembered a book I read a few months earlier called, The Alter Ego Effect by Todd Herman. In this book he describes his methodology for developing and using alter egos as a tool for increased performance. This method can be used in business, sports and even life. The book is a little “self help-ie” and a little repetitive but provides a comprehensive manual on how to create and harness your new personality. This is a tactic that is used by professional athletes, performers and entrepreneurs alike and is filled with examples of such people.
There are a lot of layers to the onion of creating an Alter Ego, which can be very time consuming and involve a high level of integration but, on the surface, you’re simply pretending to be someone who possess the traits that you want to carry into your scenario. In my case, I wanted to boost my confidence, let go of my fear and hesitation, forget about life’s obligations and focus on the primary task at hand, riding my bike 500km through the remote Rocky and Purcell mountains as quickly as I could. I would become, <insert name here>. You must have a name for your Alter Ego, but it’s best to keep it secret, Kind of like Superman’s Clark Kent. My alter ego is confident, boisterous and tough as nails. He doesn’t stop, whether he’s riding or walking, he keeps moving forward. He remains stoic and calm in challenging situations and becomes one with his surrounding environment. He’s a master of his craft, and eagerly accepts whatever challenges he’s faced with. The other part of the alter ego is figuring out a trigger. Like Superman putting on his glasses to become Clark Kent, my trigger was stepping onto the the pedals the moment I started my ride. I saddled up and became my alter ego.
After finishing that race in 2 days and 15 hours and after reflecting back at my journey, I can honestly say that, by harnessing my alter ego, I was able to travel with the stoic confidence I was hoping for. I kept moving forward, I stayed calm, focused and I had an unbelievably good time, despite the lack of sleep and boring food.
Some of you might be saying, "I’m an adult! I have no time for these games!” but the beautiful part of all this is that no one needs to know what you’re up to. Besides, life is a game and being an adult does kind of suck sometimes, so if you’re going to play the game of life, why not pick the character who is most suited to the job? Also, there’s no limit on how many alter egos you can have. Not only can you create one for sport, you could also create one for home life too. There could be the husband/wife identity or father/mother persona. The important part is that your core values stay intact and since these values tend to be deeply intrinsic, they’re easy to work around.
So have fun with it! Be the best person you can be no matter what the situation is. So, who will your alter ego be?
