What’s My Alter Ego? (how to find your alter ego in 5 steps)
We all play different roles and wear personas for different situations. And sometimes, who we wish we were (or who we know we are deep down) doesn’t match our current character.
Maybe it’s a personality thing. Or maybe it has to do with creativity and self expression.
Whatever the case, learning how to create an alter ego is an awesome way to close the gap and embrace whoever you want to be.
So welcome to my quick guide.
Let’s get to it!
Table of Contents Show
What Is An Alter Ego?
An alter ego is an alternate version of yourself, who embodies a unique set of characteristics, quirks or even goals.
It’s the Batman effect, whereby you use an alter ego in difficult, new or stressful situations to improve confidence and resilience.
For me, it’s a positive brain/life hack. It’s a way to take on (or try out) different traits, which may be better suited for pursuing and reaching personal goals.
And it’s especially helpful if you struggle with imposter syndrome (like me).
Having an alter ego is like playing a role as an actor in your own movie.
It’s fun.
I use mine in creative projects and for making music. And I’m not alone.
Major artists like Beyoncé and authors or bloggers who write under anonymous pen names have been using this strategy forever.
So trust me, it’s not that strange.
Who Uses Alter Egos?
Artists
Musicians
Writers and bloggers
Creatives in general
Athletes
Entrepreneurs and business leaders
Teachers
Students (for example, to boost confidence with presentations)
Anyone wanting to develop their own (or a new) persona
Why Should I? (the benefits)
Adopt more desirable personality traits
Boost your sense of personal empowerment
More room to explore your authenticity
Better realize your potential
Become more self aware
It’s a form of mental rehearsal and visualization
Improve your objectivity and external self awareness
Create your artist identity
It’s fun
How to Create An Alter Ego (5 steps)
Ready to create your alter ego? Epic.
Let’s start with goal setting.
1. Define Your Goals
Knowing what you want and why is a solid starting point.
So that’s where we’ll begin.
Defining your goals comes down to asking the right questions. For example:
Why do you want an alter ego?
What are your core values?
Is this a personal or a professional endeavor?
Will your creativity be different with an alter ego?
What are your expectations for creating an alter ego?
How effective do you believe it will be?
These are all important quandaries to ponder. They’ll help get you through the slower, more difficult parts of creating and embodying an alter ego.
2. Identify Your Current Persona
To get where you want to go, it helps to know where you’re starting from.
So what’s your current persona? What are your characteristics and which ones do you want to keep or lose?
It’s hard to be totally honest with ourselves, but more self awareness will help you create a stronger, clearer alter ego.
So who are you, right now?
List out your traits, habits, personality quirks and goals. Craft your current persona as a starting point.
3. List Out Ideal Characteristics
Once you know why you’re creating an alter ego and where you’re starting from, it’s time to get creative.
So this next step is to brainstorm ideal traits and characteristics that you want your alter ego to embody.
There’s no right or wrong answers, but here are some tips for finding clarity:
Meditate on it and do some self reflection
Test out a few characteristics (like test driving a car)
Let things marinate and have patience
Try visualizing your future alter ego
Borrow ideas from personal idols
Research people who embody character traits you want
Once you’ve got a list of characteristics and ego nuances, pick the top ones that best embody your alter ego goals.
4. Create Your Alter Ego’s Profile
After dialing in on character traits, it’s time to expand things further by creating a full persona profile.
At this point, we’re bringing your alter ego into full vision. It’s like we’re writing a character into existence based on our imagination.
Your alter ego persona can have:
A unique backstory
Motivations and inspirations
Personal values
Specific personality traits
Fashion and style
Lifestyle traits
Types of friends and people they spend time with
Hobbies and passions
Specific goals
5. Embody Your Alter Ego
Getting into character is like method acting. It takes your alter ego off the proverbial paper and puts it into practice.
You’re bringing it to life.
It’s time to get into character and use your alter ego in your life or creative pursuits. Here are some tips:
Take baby steps and start small
Spend time with people who better resonate with your alter ego
Change your spaces to better reflect your alter ego
Consume more content that’s aligned with your alter ego
Stay aware
Go easy on yourself (setbacks are part of the process)
Have fun with it
Not every part of your life will require your alter ego. You may only need it for specific things (like a musician needing confidence to perform live shows). So awareness and intention are helpful.
You may also discover that some things are working and some things are not. So don’t feel bad if you need to go back and make some tweaks. It’s all fun and creative, after all.
Whatever the case, just remember to be excited.
Because adopting a new persona is an epic segue to reaching your goals.
Conclusion
Creating an alter ego requires goal setting, identifying your current and ideal characteristics and creating a profile for your persona.
Embodying your alter ego puts all that research into practice. But the most important part is to have fun and be creative.
So remember to never feel weird or uncomfortable about creating and using an alter ego.
My own brand here started (and continues) as an alter ego. JakeYou is not my name. It’s the phonetic spelling of my initials, JQ. And even my musician name is something different.
Persona-taking is a smart move for creative people or leaders needing an edge. Lots of incredibly talented and intelligent people do the same thing.
And the fact that you’re here researching this strategy tells me that you’re probably creative, curious and smart.
So have fun with this and who cares what any naysayers say (or the voice in your head saying you look ridiculous).
Because what’s worse than looking strange? Looking “normal”.
Embrace the awkwardness and have fun. It’s all creative play.
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