I taught comedy improv for many years. One tip I would give new performers is to adopt an alter ego for the stage (a fun fake name and/or personality) and to choose a totem (an object) that they wear to do just that such as shoes, a shirt, watch, etc.
This helped so many different people such as accountants, pre-k teachers, stay-at-home moms, and even university professors get out of their shells, prevent their stage fright, and to be more energetic on-stage when their normal persona is calm, cool, and collected.
I do believe we also have an alter ego in three different situations such as work, home, and play. Another common thing I would teach is that you can alter your characters in scenes easily by adopting one of those personas of the character you're portraying.
I believe many people adopt an alter ego without knowing it today. These are YouTubers, Streamers, Conference Speakers, and really anything where there's a concept of a "stage".
The book "The Alter Ego Effect" by Todd Herman goes into this further, but my favorite material on this is "Impro" by Keith Johnstone.
I can attest to the power of "acting" even in private. When I was a teenager, I had incredible difficulties getting myself to study. I was behind in every single class and the stress created a vicious cycle where it became harder and harder to study due to the paralyzing anxiety.
One day I got fed up with that huge pressure / inability to move and said, "Damn, how is this so easy for Anne, or Josh!!! How do they do it?" Then suddenly, "wait... how DO they do it?"
I tried to put myself in the shoes of the best student I knew. He was quite autistic, moved his face and body in unusual ways, but he loved learning and always read the books before term even started. I had a bit of experience with acting, so I adopted his body language, movement patterns, and mindset. "Wow," I thought, "I frigging love learning!!"
I got to work on my math homework, worked with effortless joy for the next hour, and was so weirded out by the experiment that I never repeated it.
(I later overcame my fear of math "myself" thanks to meditation: I realized trying harder didn't work because it only made me tired faster, I had to learn to truly relax—then study became effortless for me.)
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I later learned a technique from Napoleon Hill where you have a big meeting in your imagination with folks whose wisdom and character you admire. In this way you use your "hardware" (brain) to run different OS (mind) using an "emulator" (imagination).
It might sound silly but I'm always amazed at the fresh perspectives I'm able to obtain when I ask "someone smarter" for advice in my imagination. Truly my range of thought is severely limited by the constraints of my own self-concept—it's good to let go of it from time to time and see what else comes up.
This comment got way too long * and I forgot to mention the important thing: most people's attitude will tend towards negative, or at most bland, without constant external "uplifting". Most people's environment isn't very uplifting, but you can create one artificially through inspirational audio. Have something inspirational on in the background every day, while driving, doing the dishes etc.
* “Forgive me this long letter, I hadn't the time to write a shorter one.”
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Most of my "great ideas"* are derivative, ie. frankensteins created by combining pieces other people's work. (The more people like something I made, the more likely it is that it's just a clone of / homage to something I really liked. Take something you love, then take it 1 step further.)
There's a quote I love that goes something like, «If you steal from one person, they will call you “the new so-and-so”, but if you steal from many, they say “oh! How original!”» (Or was it, “good artists copy, great artists steal?” ;)
Still, inspiration by itself will not get you far: * you also have to put in the other “99% perspiration” as well, or you will just end up with dozens of “cute, but whatever” projects. So for me the greatest lesson is (still) to stop relying on inspiration and just do a couple hours of work every day.
“I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at 9 o'clock sharp.” On that note, I really do have to get to work immediately upon waking, or the day is basically lost. I turn off the internet before bed, and turn it on after 2-3 hours of work. Use offline documentation like DevDocs. Major focus boost!
Another weakness is that if I stop working for even a day I basically lose all momentum and will to continue, so I stole this guy's work ethic:
Also, never pander to the audience (Bowie), create primarily for yourself (Paul Graham on language design). My most favorite (most "original") design was something I thought already existed, but couldn't find. I didn't want to make a game, I just wanted to play it, but to my surprise I found that it did not exist. (It too was a simple synthesis of many childhood games, with all the extraneous fluff removed. Which of course brings me to...)
“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing to take away.”
I might clarify that by "effortless" I am referring to a state like the one described in the book Flow, where you get out of your own way so that a challenging activity becomes "frictionless" and most of the movement happens through "momentum" rather than pushing. There's a kind of wonderful threshold where effort starts to energize rather than drain you.
There are countless real life examples that support this.
For example, David Bowie (as a real person) was notoriously filled with anxiety and stage fright.
He went into 'Bowie'/'Ziggy' mode in order to perform and distance himself from his real life anxieties.
Honestly this is probably the most important advice anyone shy can ever use. I have 'work' ego & person. It is slightly different than who I am day to day. Similar enough to hold my values, but certainly different enough for me to feel much more confident in work related discussions.
It has to be a conscious (or at least self aware) 'switch' in order to really have an impact.
The totem point is really key. Wear a certain shirt or pants etc that you wouldnt wear in day to day casual life constantly when in work etc. It does make a real difference.
You put that on, after enough reinforcement, and you will automatically adjust 'X' mode when wearing it.
Even something as simple as cleaning. If you have a 'cleaning' outfit that you wear to do a proper deep clean of you living area, it will motivate you to push more when you put it on.
It's essentially the same effect as a uniform. We all know people wearing a uniform (especially police etc) do become more enthusiastic/passionate/egotistical when wearing them.
A different region of the brain is active while singing vs speaking. There are also physical difference between singing and speaking that prevent stuttering, such as: controlled breath, memorized lyrics, and longer phonation.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Almost all of the “successful” people I’ve met over the years do this. Whether they be porn stars, tech gurus, YouTubers, or drug dealers, they have two personalities, the totally unfiltered public persona that instantly draws people to them in a room of strangers, then later in the night, they suddenly become the broken, real person, under the skin, that constantly fears being judged, worried what everyone else thinks about them. I’ve rarely met a successful person without the whole two personas thing going on somewhere in their psyche.
I’ve found five years of D&D to have a similar, and persistent, effect. In the beginning I found it hard to relax and “yes and” what was going on. Fast forward to now, I can be in character in front of random people without a hint of anxiety. It was a completely unexpected side-effect of playing, and I’ve also seen a general increase in creativity as well.
There have been a lot of versions and revisions of D&D over the years. Amongst players of the earlier (or "classic") versions of the game, 'B/X' stands for play based around the Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay, and the Expert Set edited by "Zeb" Cook, both published in 1981.
The 'B/X' edition of the game came after the "Holmes" boxed set,first published in 1977 and edited by J. Eric Holmes, and before the BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, Immortals) published in 1983 and later (and eventually compiled in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia published in the early '90s). They existed at the same time as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which had more, and more complex, rules.
This helped so many different people such as accountants, pre-k teachers, stay-at-home moms, and even university professors get out of their shells, prevent their stage fright, and to be more energetic on-stage when their normal persona is calm, cool, and collected.
I do believe we also have an alter ego in three different situations such as work, home, and play. Another common thing I would teach is that you can alter your characters in scenes easily by adopting one of those personas of the character you're portraying.
I believe many people adopt an alter ego without knowing it today. These are YouTubers, Streamers, Conference Speakers, and really anything where there's a concept of a "stage".
The book "The Alter Ego Effect" by Todd Herman goes into this further, but my favorite material on this is "Impro" by Keith Johnstone.