This Ramadan, with limited time to write new pieces, I’m bringing back some of the most loved issues from past years.

Each week, I’ll reshare a carefully chosen piece to help you grow, reset, and realign, whether you’re reading it for the first time or revisiting an old favorite.

This week I'm revisiting The Batman Effect.

How The Batman Effect Helped Me Become Confident

If me at 16 saw who I am at 33, he wouldn't believe I was the same person.

I was shy, nervous and afraid to talk to people.

Now I'm confident, comfortable speaking up and can communicate better.

16 year old me would never believe that I can talk to patients with confidence, let alone other people.

If I can put it down to one thing, it's this:

The Batman effect.

But what is the batman effect?

You basically adopt an alter ego.

You pretend to be someone who portrays the characteristics you want or need.

The Batman effect's name comes from a research study with 3 groups of children.

Each group was asked to do a boring task for as long as possible.

To make it tricky, an Ipad with games was placed nearby to distract them.

Group 1 was told to ask themselves "Am I working hard enough" when the task got too boring.

Group 2 was told to think of themselves in the 3rd person and ask if they were working hard enough when they found it too boring.

Group 3 was asked to adapt the persona of their favourite fictional hero, such as Batman, before starting the task. They were then told to ask "Is batman working hard?" when the task got too boring.

The group that adopted alter egos were able to work longer on the boring task.

Adapting an alter ego allowed the children to use self distancing to perform better.

Self distancing is the process of adopting a 3rd person or observer perspective.

It creates space between your subjective emotions and thoughts and allows you to become more objective and improve self control.

Using an alter ego helped me deal with my insecurities and anxiety.

I wasn't held back by them anymore.

I was able to become more confident, communicate better and perform at my best.

Eventually these behaviours became second nature as I gained more confidence.

So much that I no longer had to rely on the alter ego as often.

I still use the alter ego effect to this day.

Whenever I'm feeling nervous or to help me deal with a new situation.

I think of someone who would be good at dealing with that situation and act as they would.

If you're interested in learning more about the alter ego effect, then check out the book The Alter Ego Effect by Todd Herman.