CH5: Feel Good Productivity

[P1] 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟓 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄 Alex Honnold clung on to the rock by the tips of his fingers. Thousands of feet below, on the forested slopes of Yosemite Valley, his friends watched on in agony. Nothing attached him to El Capitan, the 3,000-foot rock wall that he was attempting to scale. But he couldn’t go back, not now. The only option was to keep climbing. Free Solo, the documentary depicting Honnold’s record-breaking attempt to climb El Capitan without ropes, became a phenomenon when it was released in 2018. The film invites us to reflect on a question we’ve all asked: why do some people dare to do things that most of us would never dream of? In this case, the answer may relate to a distinctive facet of Honnold’s anatomy. He specifically has something the rest of us don’t – or rather, he lacks something the rest of us have. In one scene, the documentary crew follow Alex to a doctor’s office, where he gets an MRI scan. His doctor explains that one part of Alex’s brain is underactive compared to those of most people, a tiny structure called the amygdala. The amygdala is the ‘threat detector’, responsible for generating emotions that help us survive – emotions like fear. People who have a defect in their amygdala don’t feel any fear at all, not with public speaking, not with walking out into the middle of a busy road. It explains Honnold’s ability to grip on to a vertical slab of smooth rock 3,000 feet in the air without feeling flustered. The good thing about the amygdala is that it helps us survive. If we didn’t have that part of our brain urging us to avoid tigers and snakes and high-speed vehicles, the human species might not have lasted this long. The bad news is that the amygdala can also identify perceived but illusory threats. Researchers call this the ‘amygdala hijack’. It’s what happens when the amygdala tells us to avoid and flee, even when there’s no serious threat to our safety. The amygdala hijack underpins our second major blocker: fear. When presented with challenges that threaten our sense of safety – like meeting a group of strangers, or taking on a task that must be completed by a looming deadline, or having to pass an important exam – the amygdala interprets the task as a threat. Even if we know rationally that putting off the task will create more stress in the future, our brains are still wired to be more concerned with removing the threat in the present. The simplest way to achieve that? Do nothing. Have you ever hesitated to apply for a job or promotion out of a fear of rejection? Or put off attending a social event where you don’t know many people? Or failed to make a start on a creative project because you worry you don’t have the skills? That’s your amygdala talking, every time.

[P2] ⚙️ 𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧. Fear is another negative emotion that blocks our productivity. It impedes our feel-good hormones and clouds our thinking and problem-solving. Procrastination is natural in the face of fear. And the solution? To find courage. To look at our fear, acknowledge it, and move past it. Now don’t get me wrong. The goal of this chapter isn’t to magically help you ‘cure’ or ‘get over’ your anxieties and self-doubts. Unless you’re Alex Honnold, your fear may never be banished completely. But by developing the courage to face our fears and understand them, we can overcome the emotional barriers that might lead to a lifetime of procrastination. When fear places a lock on our abilities, courage holds the key.

[P3] 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 It took me seven years to launch my business. I’d wanted to start a YouTube channel since 2010. But whenever I thought about shooting that first video – even when I’d blocked it in my calendar and sat down to film – I’d experience some force preventing me from taking the plunge. At first, I thought I was putting it off because of my perfectionism. I had high standards, after all. I didn’t want to produce videos that totally sucked. But looking back, I now realise I was wrong. I was a perfectionist about lots of things – exams, making friends, my magic tricks – but that didn’t stop me from starting on them. Something else was holding me back: fear. The fear of failure, the fear of judgement, the fear of not being good enough. For years, the voice of fear in my head kept saying, ‘There’s no way this is going to work’, and ‘You’re not good enough to make this happen, so why bother trying?’ In the end, I didn’t create a video until 2017. Perhaps the main reason it took me almost a decade to overcome this fear was that I didn’t understand it. I didn’t have the words to explain what was stopping me filming those videos. I thought I was just being lazy, or not committed enough, and that fuelled my self-doubt and negative self-talk. But once I started to understand the role that fear was playing in my life, I was able to identify it as the primary obstacle standing between me and my ambitions.

[P4] ⚙️ 𝙂𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢. Knowledge is power. Getting to know our fears is the first step towards overcoming them. Handled right, it could even take less than seven years. ⚗️ 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝟏: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥 The first way we can get to know our fear was well demonstrated in 2016 by eighty-eight arachnophobes, several scientists and one Chilean rose-haired tarantula. With pounding hearts and sweating palms, the group of terrified volunteers lined up to meet one of the biggest spiders on earth. One by one, they approached the six-inch tarantula, its sprawling leg span casting an ominous shadow on the wall of its container. Until, at last, the most heart-stopping moment of all: they were asked to reach out and touch the spider with the tip of their index finger. These individuals were not motivated by masochism. They were participants in a ground-breaking study into the science of fear. In particular, they were there to explore the mysterious power of naming our fears in helping us surmount them. Before meeting the tarantula, the participants had been divided into several groups. Each was primed with some simple tactics by the UCLA scientist conducting the experiment. Some were told to distract themselves, or to think about the spider in a less negative way. But one group was instructed to do something more specific: to label their emotions as they faced the tarantula, for example, ‘I feel anxious that the disgusting tarantula will jump on me.’ At the end of the study, all groups reported feeling distressed about the experience. But some fared better than others. And the group that fared best of all were those who had put their fears into words. They were substantially more likely to get close to the spider. And they reported feeling their fears gradually subside, to be replaced by a new-found sense of control. This sensation persisted for up to a week after the initial test. This study hints at a powerful way to see our fears for what they really are. The goal here is not to stop your amygdala from working completely (which would dramatically increase the chances of you being hit by a truck). Instead, it’s to recognise when an amygdala hijack is happening. This technique is called ‘affective labelling’. Put simply, it’s the act of putting your feelings into words, which forces you to identify and get to know the sensations you’re experiencing. It works in two ways. First, it increases our self-awareness. By naming and acknowledging our fears, we cultivate a deeper self-awareness that helps us better understand our emotional patterns. Second, it reduces our rumination. Cyclical thoughts about our fears can make us even more convinced the fear is justified. When we label our emotions, we become better able to process and release them – and so escape the cyclical thoughts that make us put things off. The trouble is, labelling our emotions isn’t always straightforward. If you’re anything like me, you might find it quite hard to even identify the fears and emotions that might be holding you back. We’re very good at rationalising ‘reasonable’ reasons for not doing things. ‘I’m not putting off starting my business because I’m scared of something, I just haven’t found the right idea yet.’ ‘I’m not making progress writing my novel because of fear, I just haven’t had the time.’ So how can we get into the habit of naming our fears – and so learning to process them? One method involves asking yourself a few questions. When you’re procrastinating, say to yourself, ‘What am I afraid of?’ Our core vulnerabilities and insecurities are often at the heart of procrastination. To work through them, we have to first identify them. Next, take it a step further and ask yourself, ‘Where does this fear come from?’ Is it a ‘me’ reason or a ‘them’ reason? ‘Me’ reasons are fears associated with your perception of your ability. For example, being scared that you’re not good enough or not well prepared enough to start. ‘Them’ reasons are fears associated with how other people will react to what you do. For example, being scared that people won’t like your work, or that they’ll judge you for putting yourself out there. In each case, try to internally clarify what your fear is really about, and where it’s coming from. And what if you’re still struggling to make sense of your fear dispassionately? One strategy I find helpful is to tell myself the experience I’m going through, but as a story about someone else. Of course I’m not scared, I tell myself. But if I were to write a fictional story about someone like me, in my position, who was procrastinating on this task because they feared something, what might they be scared of? What fear might be holding this fictional character back from starting their task?

[P5] ⚗️ 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝟐: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥 Sometimes, our fears are about something very specific: starting a project or confronting that giant tarantula. But sometimes, our fears are broader: less about specific problems, more about our wider identities. We hand ourselves labels that make us too terrified to get started: ‘I’m not a runner.’ ‘I’m scared of maths.’ ‘I don’t like creative tasks.’ These identities can make us afraid to get started in just the same way that more specific fears can. Back in the 1960s, psychologist Howard Becker suggested that the labels society places on us profoundly affect the way we behave. At the time, Becker was focused on labels in the context of criminality: he found that people who are labelled as ‘criminal’ after a first crime are much more likely to engage in criminal behaviour again. By the 1990s, a series of studies had demonstrated that this problem didn’t just affect criminality. Everywhere from schools to juvenile detention centres to the military, people who are given negative labels are much more likely to repeat troublesome behaviours. The labels we give ourselves, Becker showed, affect our behaviour. Becker called his insight ‘labelling theory’, and it suggests that labels become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You’ve probably experienced this yourself. You have one bad relationship and you conclude that you just aren’t good at relationships at all. You fail one test and you label yourself an academic failure forever. You miss one deadline and label yourself a procrastinator. The good news is that labelling can also cut the other way. Just as a negative label can amplify our fears, a positive label can overcome them. For example, when I’m experiencing self-doubt, a favourite label for myself is ‘lifelong learner’. This label highlights my willingness to learn and grow. It also shifts my focus away from the negative aspects of procrastination, like shame and regret, and instead gives me the confidence to move forward and continue learning. A lifelong learner is constantly looking for new ways to improve themself. A lifelong learner would never get stuck in a procrastination rut for long. You can draw upon this method yourself. When you find that you’re putting things off, look at the labels you use. Are you overidentifying with the problem? How often do you say things like, ‘I’m a chronic procrastinator’ or ‘I can’t promise I’ll get to it on time, I really procrastinate’? And what might be a more positive way to identify? Someone who works hard? Someone who has achieved a lot before? Someone who meets their deadlines? This sounds like a tiny change. But it isn’t. Labels are not just inert tags other people place on us. They’re tools that help us make sense of who we are. If we can change our labels, we can often change our behaviour.

[P6] 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 By the time Peter DeLeo arrived at the Ranch House Café in Olancha, California, he was so haggard he was barely recognisable. He had been walking for nine days. Almost two weeks had passed since his single-engine plane had crashed in the Sierra Nevada. Miraculously, all three passengers survived, but only DeLeo began looking for help. Scratched and bruised, he began to walk away from the wreckage to look for someone. Walking wasn’t easy: the plane had crashed at an altitude of around 9,000 feet, and DeLeo had to hike along the snow-covered ridges of the Sierra mountains. Eventually, he spotted lights from a ridge and stumbled his way down onto the highway in the dark, flagging down a passing car. When he arrived at the cafe, DeLeo refused medical treatment. It was more urgent to get a rescue team to search for his two passengers. He boarded a plane and led searchers back to the wreck. But it was too late – his friends were dead. What kept DeLeo alive on his trek to find help, while his two passengers perished where they waited? This is the question that survival psychologist John Leach has spent years trying to answer. ‘His two dead companions warranted no more than a passing sentence in the press,’ Leach once wrote. ‘Yet, one of these men had no more than superficial bruising following the crash. So why did he die? Material was there for shelter; fire could be made, water was available and he would not have starved in eleven days.’ Leach’s research on how people react in disasters reveals a core truth about human nature: when we’re scared, we become paralysed. During disasters, victims commonly show cognitive paralysis, which means they become unable to think, make decisions or take action. The good news is that cognitive paralysis is something we can reduce. After all, not everyone experiences the incapacitating effects of fear. Some people – like Peter DeLeo – seem able to turn the adrenaline that makes some of us freeze into something more powerful: an ability to scale mountains, seek help, keep moving. With the right tools, we can diminish the effect that fear has on us.

[P7] ⚗️ 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝟑: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟎/𝟏𝟎/𝟏𝟎 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞 The first way we can reduce the power fear holds over us is by gaining some perspective. One of the reasons fear is so paralysing is that we tend to catastrophise. In our heads, some minor setback becomes hugely important. Every potential failure has the potential to destroy our entire lives and define us forever. Take the following: • You get rejected by someone you like. As a result, you decide that you’re not lovable and will spend your life alone. • You don’t get hired for a job. As a result, you decide that you’re not employable by any company and will end up jobless and homeless. • You fail your first driving test. As a result, you decide that you’re a bad driver and will never drive again. When you catch yourself catastrophising in this way, try to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. With the right toolkit, we can come to realise things aren’t as bad as they seem – and so the fear becomes less intense. The scientific name for this process is ‘cognitive reappraisal’: changing the interpretation of a situation so that we feel better emotionally. The main goal of cognitive reappraisal is to shift our perspective on an event, thought or feeling, allowing us to experience a more positive emotional response. A simple way to put cognitive reappraisal into practice is to remind yourself that the thing you’re feeling so bad about probably won’t matter that much in the future. You can do this by asking yourself the following three questions, which add up to what I call the 10/10/10 rule. Ask yourself:

[P9] ⚗️ 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝟒: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Fear doesn’t always come in such dramatic forms as ‘My life will be ruined forever’, of course. Some of the fear we experience is the low, grating sense of self-doubt that stands between us and our goals – the fear that we’re just not good enough. I often think of this form of self-doubt as a kind of suspended animation. We’re caught hanging between two mutually exclusive beliefs. Part of us thinks, ‘I really want to do this,’ but another part of us says, ‘There’s no way I can.’ The result is paralysis. For example, when I procrastinate writing (which is often), it’s because I’m suspended between two ideals. On the one hand, there’s a genuine desire to write my book – To create something beautiful! To help people! – and on the other, there’s a little voice in my head, saying, ‘Anything I write is going to be garbage anyway so there’s no point in doing it!’ Or, ‘I’m just not a good writer, why am I even trying this?’ There are certainly some cases in which doubt is useful and warranted. I’ve got plenty of self-doubt about my ability to pilot a plane, or to design a rocket. But most of our doubts are usually less rational. Usually, when self-doubt causes procrastination, it’s not because there’s something real there. It’s the result of perception: my belief in my own ability is less than the ability I believe is required. If you’re into mathematical notation, you might write it like this: ˢᵉˡᶠ⁻ᶜᵒⁿᶠⁱᵈᵉⁿᶜᵉ ⁼ ᴾᵉʳᶜᵉᵖᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵒᶠ ᴬᵇⁱˡⁱᵗʸ – ᴾᵉʳᶜᵉᵖᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵒᶠ ˢᵗᵃⁿᵈᵃʳᵈˢ If we believe our ability is higher than the standard needed, then we’re confident. If we believe our ability is lower than the standard needed, then we’re doubtful. What does all this mean for reducing the effects of self-doubt? Well, with the right tools you can rebalance the confidence equation in a way that sparks action. We talked about increasing our confidence in the chapter on power, and those tips can go a long way to removing self-doubt. But even as a self-professed productivity guru, I continue to deal with procrastination caused by self-doubt on a daily basis. In the course of writing this book, self-doubt has been the primary driver of writer’s block: there have been days (even weeks!) when I’ve felt like I simply can’t do it. In these moments, building your confidence may not be the easiest solution. Confidence is certainly nice to have, and certainly makes starting a task easier. But if you simply want to spark yourself to stop procrastinating, you might need a simpler way out. In my case, that often involves a simple method: not miraculously overcoming my low confidence, but transforming it into a non-issue. My favourite method is simple. Just try asking yourself: ‘How confident do I actually need to feel to just get started with this? Could I just get started even though I’m feeling unconfident?’ In most cases, the answer is invariably ‘yes’. Of course, if I were asked to perform neurosurgery, I’d need to feel pretty confident in my abilities to get started. But realistically, for day-to-day areas where I actually experience self-doubt – going to the gym, working on my business, writing this book – I don’t actually need to feel confident to get started with them.

[P10] ⚙️ 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒕. So I can make a start, even if it’s a shaky one. I don’t need to feel like a Schwarzenegger-style bodybuilder to work out for an hour. I don’t need my first crack at my business strategy to be a work of visionary corporate genius. And I definitely don’t need the first draft of my book to be a masterpiece. When you’re trying something new, the idea that you should only begin when you feel confident to begin is a blocker all of its own. The solution? Just do it, even if you feel like you’re doing it badly. Make a start. You won’t need to get perfect for a long time yet.

[P11] 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 As the glow of the stage lights began to illuminate the arena, Adele realised her palms were damp with sweat. She was about to face a sea of thousands of people. She had done this a few times before. But this time, she was terrified. The fear of performing in front of such a massive audience threatened to engulf her completely. Before Adele became a global icon, she was a talented artist struggling to conquer her fear of performing. It was during one of her early concerts, when the anxiety threatened to derail her career, that she stumbled upon a technique for overcoming fear that would change her life forever. Adele took her inspiration from Beyoncé. In 2008 Beyoncé named her third studio album after her alter ego, Sasha Fierce. Beyoncé said that Sasha Fierce was a persona that she could channel on stage to become more confident, more powerful, and free from inhibitions. ‘Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and when I’m on the stage,’ she said. Inspired by Beyoncé, Adele created her own alter ego, Sasha Carter, an amalgamation of Sasha Fierce and the legendary country singer June Carter. Sasha Carter was everything Adele aspired to be on stage: fearless, unapologetically bold, and radiating confidence. By stepping into the persona of Sasha Carter, she was able to distance herself psychologically from her fears and become the confident and powerful performer she had always dreamed of being. Adele’s alter ego hints at the final way we can move through the paralysing effects of fear. One of the most common forces that drives our procrastination is the fear of being seen. Whether it’s giving a presentation, sharing a new video we made with strangers on the internet, or going to a party where we might not know everyone, fear of being seen or ‘found out’ for who we truly are can keep us from growing outside our comfort zone. But what we’re afraid others will notice about us – our mistakes, small missteps, our worst qualities – aren’t typically what we notice in others. When we look at ourselves, these things seem a lot bigger and more important than they really are. And this calls for a final way to get through the effects of fear. So far in this chapter, we’ve talked about knowing our fears and reducing their hold over us. But for the most daunting tasks, these methods might not be enough. We can’t eradicate all our fears. We need to overcome them. That means finding a way to move from fear to courage. And it begins with changing the way that you’re seen by the most important person in your life: you.

[P12] ⚗️ 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝟓: 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 For me, this process began at my friend Jake’s dinner party. It was a lively Saturday evening at Jake’s house, and the room was buzzing with laughter and lively conversation. Jake had been planning the party for weeks. It was a big deal. Everyone around the table knew that he lived off Uber Eats day to day. Cooking up a buffet of delicious food for his friends was unprecedented. Therein lay an opportunity for a hilarious joke, I thought. As Jake dished up, I waited eagerly for a lull in the conversation – and as he piled the glorious dishes on the dining table I spotted my chance. ‘Thanks for ordering all this delicious food on Uber Eats, Jake,’ I said. There was a moment’s silence. And then a lot more silence. Nobody laughed. Then, some clinks of forks and knives against plates. My face flushed red and I suddenly felt hot. That hadn’t gone well. It wasn’t funny, and even worse, I’d probably offended my host who had been slaving away in the kitchen for hours. Later in the evening, still paralysed by embarrassment, I had a mild freakout to my friend Katherine. Had I utterly humiliated myself? Had I alienated all of my friends in one fell swoop? Would nobody invite me to dinner ever again? She looked at me with surprise. She hadn’t even realised I’d told a joke. ‘I was busy helping myself to the food,’ she said. ‘His cooking is surprisingly good, isn’t it?’ My imaginary faux pas taught me a powerful lesson. I’d overestimated the degree to which others noticed and judged my actions. As the night continued, I looked around the room and realised that the world wasn’t focused on my every move. Everyone was far too busy attending to their own concerns, laughter and conversation. I’d fallen prey to an interesting phenomenon known as the ‘spotlight effect’. We’re highly attuned to what others think of us. This makes sense – as social creatures, our amygdala is always on the hunt for threats to our status. But this means that we spend our lives believing a spotlight is always trained on us, and that everyone around is constantly looking at us, analysing our behaviours, and passing judgement on our worth as human beings. In a series of papers published in the early 2000s, psychology professor Thomas Gilovich and his co-authors proved, time and again, that individuals have a remarkable tendency to overestimate the degree to which others are thinking about or judging them. ‘People are often anxious about how the tiniest details of their actions and appearance are likely to come across to others,’ he writes. ‘Some of this anxiety may be misplaced. Many of the details of our appearance or performance are likely to be lost on the audience whose opinions we so assiduously court.’ The truth is, everyone is concerned mostly about themselves, and how they’re coming across. They’re not spending much time (if any) thinking about us. What this suggests is that the spotlight effect can be reduced with a simple reminder that, well, no one cares. And when fear is holding you back from doing something, this can be profoundly liberating. • No one cares if my first few YouTube videos are terrible and cringey. • No one cares if I write blog posts that are a bit rambly because I haven’t had much experience of writing. • No one cares if I show up to this salsa dancing class as a total beginner without a partner. • No one cares if my belt doesn’t match my shoes when I attend this party. The mindset of ‘no one cares’ can be totally transformative. It’s one of the simplest methods I’ve identified to reduce my anxiety- related procrastination. This isn’t a magic bullet, mind. Dealing with fear is a lifelong endeavour, and I don’t expect that after reading this book your fear of what other people will think of you and your work will disappear completely. But there’s a healthy level of fear. And then there’s a level that paralyses us. Understanding the spotlight effect means you can just make a start, right now. Nobody cares if it’s rubbish apart from you.

[P13] 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝟔: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 Sometimes, remembering that no one cares isn’t enough to overcome our fears of public humiliation. When Adele stepped out into that arena she was probably freaking out because, frankly, quite a lot of people did care. In these moments, we can take a leaf out of Sasha Carter’s book. Adele’s method of stepping into an alter ego can be a powerful tool for overcoming fear. There’s even a fun scientific name for it: the ‘Batman effect’. The Batman effect was first identified by a team of researchers led by Professor Rachel White at the University of Pennsylvania. White and her team were curious about whether adopting an alter ego could improve a child’s approach to a task. They designed a study that involved a group of kids aged four to six years old. The children were given a task that required them to concentrate and resist the temptation to engage in a more enjoyable activity nearby. The children were divided into three groups. One group was given no specific instructions. The second group was asked to reflect on their own feelings and thoughts. And the third group was asked to think of themselves as a superhero, or another character they admired, like Batman or Dora the Explorer. The children were then monitored as they attempted to complete the task. These researchers chanced upon an intriguing insight. The children who were asked to imagine themselves as superheroes or other characters exhibited significantly better self-control, focus and perseverance than those in the other two groups. This finding highlights the potential of the Batman effect as a tool for overcoming our fears of failure – and in turn overcoming our procrastination. When we embody the traits of a fearless, confident alter ego, we can tap into a reservoir of courage and determination that we might not feel our regular selves possess. I’ve been using the Batman effect to overcome my own insecurity for years. I find it particularly handy when it comes to speaking in public. Often, I’m plagued with insecurity and self-doubt, and even though I’ve been delivering classes and presentations for years, I sometimes feel the fear associated with putting myself out there. In this context, my alter-ego is young Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) from the X-Men series, played by James McAvoy. My physical trigger for stepping into the identity of Charles Xavier is when I put on my fake glasses. That’s why I still wear glasses in many public settings even though I’ve had laser eye surgery: they help me adopt a professional, intellectual alter ego that I need to overcome the imposter syndrome I often have when giving a speech. You need not be as avid an X-Men fan to use this method for your own fears. Think of something you’ve been putting off due to self- doubt: taking up a new hobby, or perhaps launching a side hustle. Now, identify an alter ego who would have no trouble with it. Who embodies the qualities you want to have, qualities like confidence, bravery, determination, or even (dare I say) discipline? Next, step into your alter ego. Find a quiet space where you can be alone and take a few moments to visualise yourself transforming into the alternative ‘you’. Imagine yourself adopting their posture, voice and mindset. The more you practise, the easier it will become to channel the Batman effect when you need to overcome fear or procrastination. And finally, I find it helpful to create a mantra or affirmation: a short, empowering phrase that represents your alter ego’s mindset. Repeat this mantra to yourself when you need a boost of courage or motivation. ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴄᴏɴꜰɪᴅᴇɴᴛ. ɪ ᴀᴍ ꜰᴇᴀʀʟᴇꜱꜱ. ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴜɴꜱᴛᴏᴘᴘᴀʙʟᴇ These mantras might sound cheesy. But they’re remarkably effective. They remind us that we (or our alter egos) have reserves of strength that we can barely imagine.