Multifaceted, One Hat

The use of an alter ego is often a strategy of high performers in sport, warfighting, and business realms. Deon Sanders is a person while Prime Time is his football playing alter ego. The advantage of utilizing the alter ego is it allows the individual to compartmentalize their performances and separate them from their identity of Self. This often means they can “go to another place” or access extreme efforts. 

Beyonce uses an alter ego called Sasha Fierce to step away from her more timid, reserved Self to take the stage and dominate. 

The downside of using an alter ego is it most literally lacks integration. It’s short sided, developmentally early, and builds fragile siloed areas of life. It covers tracks. I’m sure you can imagine the trouble in a performer knowing how much they rely on the surrealism of their alter ego and can’t unknow the potentially much more self-conscious, low-self esteem regular self. It’s the psychological equivalent of drinking alcohol for liquid courage. You’ll recognize this as a coping mechanism for individuals who refer to themselves in the third person.

In fact, I asked world-renown sports psychologist Michael Gervais whether he preferred the use of an alter ego for performance or a more integrated approach. He said unequivocally that the integrated self is the goal.

There was a time when the concept held in the collective consciousness was that it was best to wear different hats to separate your life into these categories. The future is in integration. Can you be multifaceted and wear one hat?