Your Potential is Hidden Inside the People You Idolize — Here’s How to Pull It Out
The Psychology of Idols & Projection
If you’re a human, you almost certainly have an idol.
An artist, author, musician, athlete, entrepreneur, politician, or other creator who scratches an itch of resonance in your brain. It’s as though our idols emanate a psychological pheromone that’s uniquely captivating to us, but leads to outright repulsion in others.
For instance, my idol is one Miss. Taylor Swift. Hardly a day passes when I don’t listen to her music or ogle at her (game day) whereabouts. At times, it has become so all-consuming that I’ve asked Instagram to stop showing me posts with #️⃣TaylorSwift.
So, why do we have idols?
Psychologists believe that idols serve a variety of psychological functions: They support the formation of our identity and self-concept [1, 2], play a role in social learning and imitation [3], and even foster a sense of belonging and social connection (hello Swiftie fandom) [4, 5].*
*Curious side note: Much of the modern psychological research on idols comes out of China where idol worship is a uniquely voracious pop phenomenon.
But perhaps most intriguingly, psychologists believe our idols represent an ‘ideal version’ of ourselves [6].
This phenomenon, known as psychological projection, is when we project our own aspirations, emotions, or desires onto those we idolize. It’s believed that the qualities and achievements we admire most in others reflect the within reach — but currently unfulfilled — aspects of our own lives.
In other words, the people who we most admire say a lot about who we’d like to become.
Me, projecting in every sense, at the Era’s Tour movie.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Swifties delude themselves with dreams of becoming musical superstars, nor Muskians with aspirations of holding fistfuls of Martian dust, nor RBG-ers with visions of Supreme Court appointments.
Instead, projection can be thought of as a means to identify our highest potential qualities within others, so we can use them as a sort of psychological tracing paper: A living, breathing map for our own self-improvement.
In this sense, our idols may be our subconscious’ way of pointing us in the direction of our greatest potential.
The magnetism we feel from our idols bears the invisible signature of our inner world — the thoughts, feelings, and desires we don’t readily have access to. It indicates an alignment, a potential, a ring-true-ness. They spark something in us that says, “I too am this.”
From a creative perspective, this feedback is enormously valuable.
By reverse-engineering what we admire in our idols, we can learn surprising amounts about ourselves. Like a mirror on the wall, our idols can give us a glimpse of who we can become — if we only find the courage to apply ourselves with genuine effort and intention.
1. First, answer these questions about your idol:
How do they show up?
What do they value?
What are their gifts?
What are their successes?
How do they handle failure?
How do they inspire others?
2. Then, answer these questions about yourself:
What does this say about what I want to create?
What does this say about how I want to show up?
What does this say about why I want to do this work?
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