A short podcast clip (Ben Greenfield interviewing Lesley Paterson) in which Paterson explains how her acting background informed creating an athletic alter ego, 'Paddy McGinty', to adopt aggressive confidence for competition. She describes using visual inspiration (e.g., Conor McGregor), rituals, and training while in character to change her race-day presence.
Hey, this is Ben Greenfield. I thought you'd like this little clip of my latest podcast, Walk me through this alter ego thing. Is this something you guys came up with?
Yes. So, you know, interestingly enough, my background is actually in acting and theater, so my undergraduate and master's degree are in those fields. And so, you know, I was very adept at having to build characters. And what did that look like? You know, coming up with how they would move, how they would talk, points of inspiration.
And so as I got back into the sport, the second time for me in my 20s, you know, me as a personality, I'm sort of. I'm humble. I like to help people. No, no, no, you go first. I don't have that kind of aggression, and I realized that I needed it to be successful in the sport. I couldn't be a nervous Nelly on the start line.
I needed to adopt these different traits.
So I started to, bit by bit.
Look at pictures, look for inspiration, look.
At other athletes, other characters that had.
This kind of unbridled confidence. And I got really into MMA fighting.
And absolutely loved Conor McGregor just because of his total confidence. He just walks into a room, he doesn't give a shit what people think. And I was like, wow, imagine being like that. And I'm like, well, actually, maybe I should start to adopt some of his traits. So I created my own alter ego called Paddy McGinty. I started to look at pictures of people like Connor, and I'd be rocking up to races just with this Death Star, and I'd, like, punch my fists, and basically created this whole ritual that I would do. And then I started to do it in training, and interestingly enough, more and more people were like, wow, that Leslie Patterson, she's a bit of a bitch, isn't she? You know, if they met me when I was out there training, because I'd be so focused and so intense, and I'd be. You know, I'd be my alter ego.
If you enjoyed this clip, you should check out the whole episode and a host of other topics over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com have an amazing day.
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