Rewrite Your Story: A Stand-Up Comic’s Trick To Crush Inner Ageism

Feeling held back by self-doubt and internalized ageism? It’s time to break free! Stand-up comics use a powerful mindset trick—fervor and repetition—to shape beliefs. The more you hear something, the more your subconscious accepts it as truth. So why not flip the script? “Start telling yourself a new story—one of confidence, wisdom, and limitless potential!” says our expert Radical Age Disruptor, Mariann Aalda. “Your conscious mind will follow, and soon, you’ll embody the power you already have”. Ready to rewrite your inner narrative?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a radical idea or change “is one that is different from the norm,” and to disrupt means “to prevent something – especially a system, process or event – from continuing as usual or expected.”

Ageism functions as a system, a process and an event. And internalized ageism allows it to continue “as usual” because we expect it to.

As a radical age disruptor, I’m on a mission to dismantle the systemic ageism that’s become a societal norm by exposing some of the processes and events keeping it in place – and to diminish internalized ageism by sharing some of the techniques I used with clients when I had my hypnotherapy practice.

What is Ageism?

Before we dive into the solutions, let’s first take a moment to define ageism and understand its roots. To do this, let’s turn again to the dictionary for a clearer perspective.

At its core, ageism is defined as:

• A System – “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized method or framework.”  For the longest time, ageism was accepted as the natural order of things.  Ageing was equated with decline and older people – especially women – were often pushed into the shadows in favor of the “freshness” of youth. It was operational in the workplace, in advertising, in entertainment even in romance.
• A Process – “a series of actions or events performed to make something or achieve a particular result, or a series of changes that happen naturally.”  As a process, ageism functions as an unconscious bias that determines who gets hired, who gets funded and who gets wooed either as a demographic or a date.
• An Event – “a thing that happens, especially one of importance.”  As a construct, ageism can seem amorphous until it affects you personally: when you’re the one who gets passed over for a promotion for someone younger and with less experience, when you’re the one walked away from at a cocktail party for someone younger on the other side of the room.

Well, to steal a phrase from Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant 1976 film, Network, women are “mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it anymore!”

How To Crush Inner Ageism

Pro-age, positive ageing, anti-ageism, whatever you want to call it, has become a movement.  We’re flexing our muscles and we’re pushing back with our employers, advertisers, the entertainment industry, even with potential lovers.  Our yearning to be chosen is being replaced by discernment in who we choose.   And yet, sometimes we get tripped up by internalized ageism. That negative self-talk that can still make us doubt our self-worth.

So, next time those thoughts arise, try this little trick – a hypnotic modality used by standup comics: fervor and repetition. Because if something is said often enough, and with enough intensity, the subconscious mind is going to start accepting it as the truth.  And in due time, your conscious mind will incorporate it into its belief system and act accordingly.

“Hey, there! How’s everybody doing tonight?” for example, is the standard greeting of most standup comics when they hit the stage before launching into their routine. From the audience’s response, they can pretty much gauge how hard they’re going to have to work to get a laugh. And they get to work on it immediately, ramping up their energy as high as necessary to win the audience over. Experience has taught them that without that extra rocket boost of energy right at the beginning, there might be a failure-to-launch and they won’t be invited back to perform at that club.

That’s a great habit to emulate.  When you wake up in the morning, before you even get out of bed, ask yourself: “Hey, girl, how ya doin’ this morning?!”  If it’s sub-par, immediately get to work on changing your energy…win yourself (actually your subconscious mind) over! Have a go-to mantra, prayer or visual image you can rely on, and don’t stop chanting, praying or visualizing until you feel the positive shift.

Only then, should you allow your feet to hit the floor and go out the door. You’ll find that even if your ego takes an ageist punch later on that day, the blow can’t injure because it’ll be intercepted and disrupted by the “positivity shield” you started off your day with.

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