The world is a stage and we’re all actors. No, wait, don’t leave. This is not a melodramatic teenager writing, it’s me. I’m talking about a theory by Erwing Goffman.

According to the canadian sociologist we switch between different roles depending on who we’re interacting with. We know it intuitively: We’re not quite the same person when we talk to our mother versus when we talk to our boss.

We put on different costumes and hats depending on what we’re doing, who we’re with or what we’re working on. You put on your suit to go to work, change into your clown costume when you entertain your kids and then put on sports gear to get competitive playing soccer with your friends.

You can keep your hat on

But when you start mixing up your costumes, that’s when things start to get funky. Let’s look at how Dave Grohl, frontman of the Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana, approaches songwriting: “The way I look at a guitar is like a drum set. I look at the lower things like they’re kicks and snares and I look at these like they’re cymbals.”

Dave keeps on his drummer hat when he puts on his guitarist outfit. This allows him to write guitar riffs in a unique way that works really really well with the other rhythm instruments in the band.

Another example is Derek Sivers, who is famous for his concise blog posts that hammer in one single idea. In a recent podcast interview he explains how he wears his musician hat together with his writing outfit:

I get rid of every single word or sentence that isn’t absolutely necessary. I spent 15 formative years of my life as a songwriter. I wrote over 100 songs. That’s 15 years of my life that I tried to say what I want to say in six syllables to match the melody. Maybe that’s why I do it. I think I still take that approach to my writing.

A gamer against the world

My last example is from the global stage: When Edward Snowden decided to leak information about his countries questionable spying practices, he was wearing his gamer hat. Glenn Greenwald writes in his Memoir:

The lesson Snowden had learned from immersion in video games, he said, was that just one person, even the most powerless, can confront great injustice. “The protagonist is often an ordinary person, who finds himself faced with grave injustices from powerful forces and has the choice to flee in fear or to fight for his beliefs. And history also shows that seemingly ordinary people who are sufficiently resolute about justice can triumph over the most formidable adversaries.”

You can do it too. I’m not talking about fighting a superpower (though if you can, more power to you) – I mean remixing yourself.

Go through your wardrobe and see what there is. Which of your costumes could profit from some fresh accessories? Can you maybe find those in one of your other outfits?

Now start mixing them up, and magic may happen.