In light of the recent holiday (Halloween), where you got to dress up and go masquerading around as whoever you pleased, I’ve been thinking about how we often wish we could be someone else.

I recently wrote about the importance of beliefs, and today’s topic is a big one: Other people tend to see you, as you see yourself.

Try this out, just for fun, and see if it doesn’t help you. Find a character from a movie, someone that you can watch and listen to. Pick somebody who has what you want in your life (whether it be success, confidence, integrity, money… whatever). Then Study this character… memorize the way they walk and move, the way they talk. Their facial expressions and body language.

Then for five minutes a day, when you’re alone, in front of the mirror, Be that person. Talk like them, move like them, act like them. Really make the character your own. See yourself in their location, see the people that would be surrounding this person, and pretend that they are surrounding you. Interact with these imaginary people… what would you say? what would you talk about as this new you?

Change the way you see yourself for the better. When you’re in that situation where you would normally freeze up and go into failure mode, ask yourself, “what would (your character’s name here) do?”

I’ll let you in on another little secret I’ve found: You’re brain can’t tell the difference between something you imagine happens and what really happens.

Both things are equally real to your brain. Take dreams for example. If something happens in a dream, like a friend dying, or you getting a promotion… when you wake up, supposing you’ve remembered your dream, then your brain treats those memories as actually having happened. So you wake from the dream of your friend dying with a pounding heart and an aching chest, just as you would have if your friend had actually died. And you wake from the promotion dream with the same exhilaration and expectation of a person who actually did just get a promotion.

Take Advantage Of Your Imagination

Use this to your advantage… don’t wait for a good dream that you actually remember when you wake up. Make up your own dreams while you’re already awake. It’s how we learned as kids too. We called it make believe, or pretending. See yourself as the best you possible. And when you need some help, switch into your alter ego and pretend, until you’re no longer pretending.