7/8/2025

My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

                  Congratulations on being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. If you can work some magic with the junta & the Kachin Independence Army, you might just get it! It will require that you BYBS (Be your best self!) 

Let’s both embrace that mantra for the next few weeks & see what happens. Here are the steps to doing so:

1)        Set  some intentions about who we want to be.

To do so, I propose considering modern psychology’s Big Five Factors which you will recall are conscientiousness (ability to handle tasks & organize skills), agreeableness (warmth, generosity, & helpfulness), neuroticism (worry & sense of instability), openness to experience (desire to try new things) & extroversion (desire to be with others). For me, I’d like to be less neurotic by not worrying about things & more extroverted. I think you could be more agreeable with folks you don’t like. We could both work on being more conscientious by following through on things we’ve said we’d do. You can practice this by spending more time working through the details of your trade deals.

2)        Adopt an alter ego & name them.

Beyonce called herself “Sasha Fierce” to drum up the courage to perform when she experienced stage fright. Psychologists call this illeism, which is defined as “the act of referring to oneself in the third person.” According to Polina Pompliano, “Adopting an alter ego is an extreme form of “self-distancing,” a psychological tool that helps people reason more objectively and see the situation from a slight distance.” My alter ego will be “Reca” (wreck-a), who I envision as a combination between my advisor & my grandmother, accomplished, confident, gregarious women. What will you call your alter ego?

3)        Engage with our alter egos as needed

When you feel an uncomfortable emotion, take a deep breath & ask yourself what would my best self do? This momentary pause will help you get a hold of yourself & break your automatic reaction, so you can respond in a new way.

As Cary Grant said, “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until, finally, I became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point along the way.”

Easier said than done, but safe to try.

BYBS,