High Achievers Alter Ego
Beyoncé was a shy, sensitive gospel singer with a golden voice.
Every week she sang in the church choir.
Her dream was to be a global superstar.
This was her inner desire.
But she lacked the confidence. She was physically sick with stage fright and debilitating anxiety.
She struggled with wearing flamboyant clothes and dancing provocatively on stage.
It simply was not her identity.
It went against her sense of self as a shy, sensitive gospel singer.
This was her inner resistance.
Our true creative potential lies between our inner desire ( dream goal) and our inner resistance ( fears and limiting beliefs)
It’s the gap between who we are and who we want to become.
Quit
Most people in Beyoncé’s position would quit.
Beyoncé did not do that.
Top performers always find a way.
Many of them use alter egos.
Beyoncé hired a coach and created an alter ego, Sasha Fierce, to overcome her fears and insecurities.
Sasha was everything Beyoncé wasn’t. Confident, flamboyant, provocative, fearless.
Sasha was everything Beyoncé wanted to become.
Alter Ego Trigger
Beyoncé told Oprah that Sasha Fierce takes over when she puts on her stilettos and hears the crowd.
That was the trigger.
Marshall Mathers did the same. Before every rap battle, he was wracked with nerves. He always wore a hoodie.
When he put the hood up, that triggered his Eminem alter ego.
Eminem could say things that Marshall lacked the confidence to say.
In 2008, Beyoncé metaphorically killed off Sasha Fierce live on stage.
She no longer needed her. She had embodied her traits.
She had successfully created an on-stage persona using her alter ego.
Change Your Identity. Change Your Reality
Neuroscience says identities are self-fulfilling prophecies.
Predictive Coding:
Rather than just reacting to life, the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) constantly predicts what will happen based on your belief system.
If you subconsciously believe “I’m not the successful type,” your brain anticipates failure and filters your reality to prove that prediction correct.
If you have an alter ego designed to overcome your limiting beliefs and perform at your best, then this will become your reality.
Faking it?
Did Beyoncé fake it until she made it?
Or was Sasha Fierce her true creative self without the fears and limiting beliefs that throttled her creative potential?
Was Sasha Fierce a mask? Or was she removing the mask?
I don’t know the answer to that.
What I do know is we all get in our own way.
It’s not our fault. It’s how we’ve been conditioned to think.
We experience generational limiting beliefs. We are told to be realistic. To not have ideas above our station.
To play it safe. To stay in our lane.
I say, fuck that.
What if we create alter egos that are the highest versions of ourselves?
Us, but without the self-sabotaging patterns we’re destined to repeat over and over?
What if we remove the masks?
Ask yourself this.
What could you achieve if you were not held back by your fears and limiting beliefs?