Introducing...MEL!
I’ve been feeling really stuck with one of my work projects lately. It’s not that I don’t know how to break down the project and execute, it’s that I can’t seem to get started on this particular project when I set aside the time to do so. It makes me crazy. I carve out a big chunk of time to make progress. I get all amped about how I’m going to be the-world’s-most-productive-person-ever today, I get my special music going, and then…
nothin.
I’m not exactly sure what does happen during that time, but the time goes away. And then I hate myself at the end of it all. And over and over and over.
And I am a process lady. I know all about the strategies and Pomodoros and getting sleep and all that. I KNOW what to do in my head. But I’m stuck on this one.
On my last phone call with my coach, I shared my frustration. She gave me some good practical suggestions to make incremental progress. And that was helpful, but nothing I hadn’t heard before.
Until the end of the call. My coach listens well and could tell that I was still searching for the magic “thing” that would help. And so she mentioned a workshop she’d gone to about Alter Egos. Apparently this guy, Todd Herman, wrote a whole book about how he coaches people to figure out their Alter Ego and then go out and do these magnificent things they couldn’t do before. Honestly, my first reaction was, “GREAT! More evidence that all of the ideas for books/businesses are already taken!” But as I sat with this idea of Alter Egos for a few minutes, it started to pique my interest. Could I really put on a new identity and do things I’d never done before? (Like get this damned project DONE!?)
Of course, I downloaded it onto my Kindle immediately. I needed this information in my brain now.
The book gives a practical, step-by-step approach for identifying your Alter Ego and all of its trappings. I speed-read through the first half of the book as fast as I could, while still doing my best to give the exercises my best (fast) effort possible, but came up empty-handed. Who was this Alter Ego I needed in my life?
I wrote down that she needed to be…
focused
direct
adventurous
courageous
poised
decisive
honest
empathetic
a finisher
a starter
powerful
witty
I racked my brain for suitable comic book characters or animals or fictional characters, but no one embodied all of these things I needed her to be.
I was exhausted at this point, so I put my Kindle aside and no sooner did I place my head on my pillow than my Alter Ego’s face popped into my head.
It was Mel Robbins.
And I barely know anything about Mel Robbins: I’ve never read her book, I’ve never watched her Ted talk, I don’t even know her backstory. The only thing I knew about her, from listening to a single podcast episode and watching one of her short YouTube videos, was her energy was the right energy. It was a different energy from mine. One that I was attracted to. She had a “way” that I wish I had too.
But as soon as I thought of her, my heart said, “YES,” quite loudly.
And so “Mel” is the name of my Alter Ego.
And she’s not necessarily Mel Robbins. As I said, I don’t know enough about Mel Robbins (yet) to say that it’s her exactly. But once her head popped into my brain, I could begin to construct the Alter Ego I need.
And she’s still a work in progress, but I will tell you this…
Today, Mel got some shit done. She waltzed right into Starbucks this AM at 5:30 am, sat down with her cup of blonde roast, and got to business. There were a couple of times when Mel got tempted to do dumb and distracting things, but then she remembered she’s mother****ing MEL and she kept pressing on.
And so honestly, WHAT KIND OF VOODOO BS IS THIS??!!! It’s stuff like this that makes me feel like nothing is real and everything is just in my head. Because how can you decide you’re a different person and easily do a thing that was so hard a mere 24 hours ago?
And also, how many more things are out there like this? Things that are ridiculous and also not. We judge these ridiculous things so easily. How many wonderful things do we miss?
I end this one with more questions than answers, but there’s one thing I know for sure: Mel is gonna stick around for awhile.