Sometimes Tik Tok can be an interesting source of insights and trends, and sometimes trends can hide interesting ideas to be developed.
One trend is the body double.
The idea is to double up-exactly as an actor or actress does for dangerous scenes-only you play the whole movie and your stand-in is only there to…stimulate you to do it.
Okay, it’s not very clear, but we’ll get there, because instead it’s something simple and very effective, and it’s not necessarily the case that you’re not already doing it, even if unknowingly.
Why have a body-double
You don’t have to make a movie, that will be clear to you by now. You don’t have to jump off a cliff inside a helicopter while drinking a daiquiri. Unfortunately, no, you are not the new James Bond.
What you need to do is not procrastinate yet again on something you need to do: an email you need to write, a workout you’ve been putting off for two days, signing up for a race, listening to the latest episodes of all our podcasts!
As you may have already guessed, the body double is for those situations when you don’t really feel like doing something. Therefore, ask a person to assist you in making them. It is important to note that your body-double does not have to do these things for you; he or she only has to check that you do them, without making judgments or putting anxiety on you.
In fact, the psychological mechanism on which it is based is that of the commitment you make to another person. It is easy to tell ourselves that something prevented us from completing a workout, less so to justify it to someone to whom you had promised to go out for a run. It’s kind of like when you run with a friend and promise to pick him up at home the next morning at 8:30 a.m.-you have to be there the next morning!
Virtual is easier
This is one of the cases where the virtual works much better than the real. If you were to practice this technique only in the physical world you would have to have someone available to assist you at all times. In the virtual, however, you can still do it: your body double may not necessarily be with you, in the same environment or by your side during a run. So many people use it on Tik Tok to study, for example: they stream themselves while studying and, in doing so, make a commitment to do so with everyone connected to their stream – these are strange times, we know.
Think about it: it can work even during training. You can run tomorrow with a friend, even if you are in two different cities or even on two different continents! Okay, as long as the time zones somehow get along.
The point, it will be clear to you by now, is that you can make a commitment to someone who is physically present or even virtually present. Because that commitment you will then fulfill, even without feeling too much pressure on you. In short, the goal is to have someone who cares that you do something, not judging how or whether you do it.
The next level
This idea-which to our knowledge no one has yet put into practice even though it is very old-came to us by taking the virtuality of your body double to extremes. And that is, we asked ourselves, “What if this body double didn’t exist at all? That is: would it still work if it were only inside our heads?”
What we are suggesting is that you split yourself into another Virtual Self that stands by you while you do something you don’t want to do, until you do it. Why did we tell you that this is actually a very old idea? Because if you think about it, it’s not much different-though it’s less persistent and annoying-than Jiminy Cricket or your conscience. This is a person who knows you thoroughly and wants your good. It is, in other words, about your consciousness. But less imposing, more relaxed, that is. A quiet consciousness that you imagine by your side instead of inside you and doing other things while you do what you have to do, and occasionally glances over and asks how you are doing.
Here: we would like to propose a more relaxed relationship with your conscience, to the point of making it your friend and ally. After all, it looks like you and wants your good. It stands in front of you or at your side when you do something or run. It’s not about pleasing it or not disappointing it: after all, it just wants you to do that boring thing or wants to go running with you.
(Inspired by Bustle)