Would You Become Someone Else To Achieve Your Dreams?
Are you going about achieving your goals in the wrong way? If you’re you, then you might be.
Taking on a role has long been used in psychotherapy, in team-building exercises, in marriage counseling and in acting. When you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you achieve a new perception. You might feel differently or react differently. You might gain understanding – or achieve your goals.
In a recent post by Dave Navarro, he wrote about thinking from your goals instead of the common action of thinking about your goals. He suggested you should act as if you really were going to achieve what you wanted. Dave said:
In fact, imagine that you have it right now. Identify with it. Act from it.
Athletes often use Dave’s suggested principles – they envision the victory, perceive themselves as winners, and then they compete with often surprising results.
When you behave in certain ways, realms of possibilities open up. So what happens when you become a different person?
Case in point: Michael Brito. Michael intrigues me. Michael changed his own life by assuming a new persona. He became someone that he is, but at the same time, someone that he is not. His About Us reads as follows:
There is this guy named Michael Brito, he is me. Nice guy, plays well with others, and all that other pc shit, oh then there’s Bobby, Bobby Street. Bobby is also me, but he is not Michael Brito.
Instead of being kicked around, Michael kicks some ass of his own, these days – as Bobby Street.
Think about this for a minute. Think about how you would react if someone told you that who you are is holding you back – and you knew they were right. This person tells you that if you were someone else, you could live your dream.
Would you do it?
Would you change? Would you become someone that let you live what you wanted? Would you cast aside the person that is holding you back completely and fully to assume a brand-new role that doesn’t resemble the old you in the least?
Could you become a person that isn’t you – but at the same time, that is you in the most intimate ways? We joke about multiple personalities all the time, but… are multiple personalities so crazy?
We wear different faces all the time. Father, businessperson, friend… Mother, teacher, lover… Each of us yearns to be someone else – more confident, more go-getter, more sociable…More white, more black, more straight, more gay, more male, more female…
If you had the chance to be someone else, would you do it? Would you take on a role that makes opportunity possible, makes life easier, and makes your dreams become reality? More importantly… who would you be?
129 Responses to “Would You Become Someone Else To Achieve Your Dreams?”
Comments
Read below or add a comment...
Go ahead. Leave a Comment!
-
Affiliate Program
-
James Is Reading…
-
Social Hookups
As Seen In…
Overheard on the Web
MwP is Powered by…
iPhone rocks. Addicting as hell though.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
@ James – for sure brother, I read that one the other day, good post. Realistically speaking, the iPhone would be largely useless where I live anyway. Cell phone coverage is only good at work, here in town where I live you have to forward them to a land line to get reliable connections, which makes them quite pointless…
Luckily the envelope I have right now is big enough to fit my laptop
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
PS – we talked about this before (pats the Apple stickers on his Dell laptop)
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
Oh that’s right… I have a memory like a sieve.
What happened? Did we just turn into Twitter?
Don’t worry bro, I had to shake my head a few times to remember it myself… I’m turning into a greybeard (got some pics to prove it, somewhere, every March break I make a feeble attempt at facial hair, every year there’s a few more grey whiskers in there… a small price to pay for the 4 best kids I know.)
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
Brett: Just landed in LA (2 minutes ago)
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
9:05: Amy throws laptop at wall, wishes she could go back to being frolic-dragon.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
**POOF** you are now frolic-dragon, and your laptop is restored to full working order!
(After all, I’m also a sorceress, see above…)
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
LOL. Nice work sorcerer dude. New and improved twitter I say.
* spits fire because she can *
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
And for my next trick, I’m going to magic my way past tomorrow’s work day, I am scheduled in for a 2-hour meeting about “cover sheets on TPS forms”, followed by another meeting with “the Bobs”…
I think I’ll go read more of your manuscript, Amy, it will calm my mind a bit before bed…
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
Cool. My meetings used to be with “the Marks”. There were three, one with a C. Let me know if my book puts you to sleep. I may have to market it for insomniacs…
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
So far, not putting me to sleep… that means it is interesting, but does eliminate that niche market (damn)
One thing that I find cool so far is that one of your main characters has a name and personality quite similar (well, sort of) to a woman I used to work for several years ago. Very, very powerful businesswoman. So there’s a bit of a personal tie-in for me
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
Geez, I apparently I came late to the ballgame (*looking for a seat while holding my hot dog). 113 comments!
@ Brett – in reference who you might be – it’s funny because after I read your comment I chuckled and my wife said, “what?” I mentioned how you said “Tyler Durden” (one of my favorite movies). She said, “what is it with you guys and Tyler Durden?”
Also, about that picture board you have and the goals you’re reaching for, have you tried working your plan backwards? This always works best for me as you get to “imagine” yourself at the end of your journey and then are forced to work backwards in time detailing what you must accomplish at certain points in order to reach your goal. Eventually you’ll reach this week and this day what must be accomplished to reach that 20 year goal.
@ James – this post reminds me of when managers work as an employee for a day to gain a new perspective.
I loved this post and was thinking, “hey, is that James in the picture?”
John Hoff’s last blog post..My New Real Estate Category
James and Harry,
No point in putting in the relevant comment I had in mind this morning before I went to work, because I can see that relevance to the original topic left here several hours ago.
However, I will say that your band of merry followers (while occasionally clubby and disastrously OT) is part of what attracts new… *edits out several more incendiary words*… readers, so I’d have to recommend against taking it to IM or some such. Oh, maybe a little pull on the reins might be good for business, but it probably depends on whether that’s the business of getting readers or the business of getting jobs…
A very small Experience Design drive-by from one of your lesser, but adoring, zealots.
Regards,
Kelly
P.S. James: It was a very fine post and I am rather sorry I had to go make money and was unable to post a comment before the witching hour.
Kelly’s last blog post..How to Stick Out Like a Toupee on a Bowling Ball
P.P.S. I hate how lately CommentLuv does NOT get my last post (let’s see what happens when I hit the beautiful submit button now…
Kelly’s last blog post..Sneering at Thousands of Dollars: CRM With a Twist of Stupid
just as I suspected). What’s up with that?
Kelly’s last blog post..Sneering at Thousands of Dollars: CRM With a Twist of Stupid
Kelly – I’ve noticed that too about the commentluv; my (ungrounded) theory is that it’s because it works by feed, it doesn’t work until the feed is current, which can take a while.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
Amy,
Not for me, it used to work perfectly but lately it reaches several posts back on the first “submit” here at MWP, but no probs on other sites that use it. Feed is way past what it grabs. (Witness that the second “submit” it got the right post, only a minute or so later.) Harry has been messing with the code, I’d say…
On the other hand this is one of the few places that use it (CommentLuv) where my Mac does not get a full page of php error code whenever I hit submit, so you guys obviously did something right with it, also.
I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do…
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Sneering at Thousands of Dollars: CRM With a Twist of Stupid
Hmm… guess my theory’s out the window then So, as Emily Litella on SNL would say, never-mind.
It doesn’t work right on any blog I comment on that uses it, so I lack a proper control group. 
Your blog is very cool, btw.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
Thanks! *Shameless plug* Feel free to subscribe, Stumble, etc. Lots of good stuff on the way over at the MCE Blog.
Yes, until lately I think this was the only place the silly plug-in did work completely for me. I still want it, though, and am totally indignant that I can’t have it on (yes she dares to mention it again) TypePad.
Alas, the Irishwoman must to bed. St. Paddy has left the building.
Until later,
Kelly
P.S. (Oh I love a good postscript…) Why’s MWP on CST, when neither of you gentlemen are? Did somebody forget to spring forward?
Picky, picky…
Kelly’s last blog post..Sneering at Thousands of Dollars: CRM With a Twist of Stupid
Hey, I’m on blogger, so if they give you any grief about typepad, don’t feel too alone. I’ll definitely keep you on my reading list, and I promise not to witchify your blog.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
@Kelly: What can I say? The same thing happened to me. I went away for 20 minutes or so and they were all out of control. It would have been easier to herd cats than try to get them all back on track.
Usually when something like this happens, we conveniently blame Fukko the Clown. But in this case we can give Fukko a break and blame James for everything (including the slightly off time stamp).
@harry – think this one is by fault. I gave fukko… errr Janes the thrown. So I apologize. I will crown him privately next time. As a related aside, a chat room would be very cool.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Recovering Corporate American? Consider AA
@ Amy – He always blames me when something breaks. I think the most frequently asked question around here is. “Were you playing with this before this happened?”
@ Amy again – A chat room would be cool. I’ll see what I can do.
@ Harry – Bro? *points up* Amy thinks a chat room would be cool.
@ Kelly – Don’t these friggin’ blogs change their own damned time? What is this! I’m outraged! I’m sending WP a complaint letter! Right after I send Typepad a letter about how much I dislike their non-user-friendly blog platform!
By the way, one of our clients just made the switch from Typepad to WP. I had to go in and fiddle around with her Typepad blog for a bit. Trust me, you’d find WP so simplistic to use after the numerous tabs, hoops and pages that had to be sifted through. *nudge nudge*
@ All – I am not to blame for the behaviour of our plugins. I swear. I didn’t do it.
Also, if you’ve written catchy titles and all your posts are good, then which post it pulls is irrelevant. Getting people to read other posts besides your latest is important.
@ Kelly again – We’ve frequently heard from others that our comment section is a blogger’s dream and are often asked how we do it. So, yes, it has its charms and I love the crowd.
That said, we did have someone say, “I made the mistake of subscribing to comments…” and I thought to myself, “Oh. Calling that a mistake isn’t good.” Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
But agreed. I think I’ll change from a round-ring snaffle to a D-ring. A gentle tug back never hurt anyone and performance is enhanced with kind tweaking of the reins.
I’m also interested in your insightful comment regarding my post. So please, do share.
@ John – Fight Club is one of my favorite movies. And I look more like Tyler Durden than the guy in the pic. Unfortunately. Does that mean I get to say cool things and get away with it, though?
Good point about the manager/employee switch. Executive role playing.
@ John – I’m happy you got a kick out of that, and you had mentioned starting at the end before, a long while back – it does work, you know. I’d come across it first on a Covey course (begin with the end in mind) and when you mentioned it last time, I sat down to try it again. You do that, and you end up with a nice convenient list of tasks.
@ James – if you look like Tyler Durden, you have nothing to fear then, because I look more like “The Narrator” (Edward Norton’s character) and that means you can feel free to say and do whatever you like – it will all be blamed on me!
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the privilege of choice.
Wow, I thought maybe I would be among the first to comment because I just got this email syndication notice about the article but when I came to leave a few words, I was like, WHAT? 126 comments already?
Wow. You sure have a vibrant community here, I should say!
Well, this was a very interesting article because it promotes the idea of bringing out other aspects of our personality that we might be afraid to show because the dominant parts of ourselves won’t allow it. Funny you should mention about multiple personalities. I think we are all multiples without admitting it is so.
For instance, I’m a very nice, easy to get along with guy. But i also have a stronger side of me that rears its ugly head from time to time. So I guess I’m a multiple too!
There’s another side of me that dreams of walking out on stage in front of thousands and waving to them as if I was a very famous speaker, author. I imagine myself doing that all the time. What of that personality? Will that come out too?
Fascinating article!!
Stephen Hopson’s last blog post..Results of BeTheNextBestSellingAuthor Competition are In!