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Your identity can only be found through struggle | Jett Franzen | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Your identity can only be found through struggle
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Summary
Core Theme
True self-identity is not discovered through theoretical beliefs but forged by actively confronting life's challenges and discomforts, which reveal one's inherent capabilities and provide opportunities for growth.
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In order to find out who you truly are,
you need to put yourself in positions
that are testing you. What do I mean by
that? Everybody in theory likes to
believe that, you know, they're a good
person. They're they're morally and ethically
ethically
a sound person. They're confident.
They're capable. They're all these good
things, right? In theory. And most of
them have never been put to the test,
myself included, until I was probably 20
years old. I always thought that I was
like, "Oh my gosh, like I would always
help a person in need. I would always be
able to get through hard times if I was
put in them, you know, and yet I'd never
been stood I never stood on trial." And
the truth is is that if you want to
actually find out who you are, you want
to figure out your identity, which
shapes your entire life, you have to not
be [music] afraid to face the cruelties
of life. And you know, for me, I'll get
into that a little bit later in the
video what it was, but [music]
I found out that I wasn't as strong as I
thought that I was, but I was given the opportunity
opportunity
to become and build a better version of
myself by going through the trenches.
And [music] what do I mean by that? It's
like you need to find out what your
identity is, but then you can also build
your identity when you're going through
the struggle. Now, you can't build your
identity when you have everything handed
to you. When you've already made a bunch
of money, when you have a bunch of
friends that were just sort of
convenient that popped into your life,
when people just highly regard you
because of the status that you were born
into, right? All these things are just
sort of given to you. So, it's like,
hey, would you actually be uh, you know,
as successful as you think you are if
you weren't just sort of born in this
situation? And the only way you can
figure out who you are is by having your
back against the wall, right? And so I
always encourage people, don't shy away
from the idea of taking on hardships in
life. There's a quote by an ancient
stoic, I'm forgetting who, that says,
"Your environment doesn't shape you. It
just shows you who you are." And what
this quote means, it's like a lot of
people are born into really bad
situations. And they become, for lack of
better terms, losers because of it. they
don't really accomplish anything and
then they blame their situation [music]
as to why they became the person that
they are. But the truth is is that their
situation nearly merely exposed who they
were. Okay? So the hardships were just
showing them that they really weren't as
tough as they thought that they were.
Now people that don't have hardships,
never experience hardships, sort of live
in this illusion of, you know, like I
said at the beginning of this video,
like they think that they're, you know,
all these amazing things. they're a good
person, that they're [music] capable,
smart, and you know, are are really
go-getters. But it's [music] like what
is making you believe that? And the
reason that your identity is so
important to establish, and I think the
main point I want to get across with
this video is because on a long enough
timeline, everything regresses to the
mean. And your mean is your identity. So
what I'm trying to say is like maybe not
now, maybe not next year, but eventually
after a long enough time, if you are a
confident person, if you're a capable
person, you will be successful. I mean,
it's literally that simple. If that's
actually your identity, eventually luck
will be ruled out on a long enough
timeline. And the opposite of that can
be true as well. It's like maybe you get
a little bit of luck now, but if you're
not really that guy, if you're not
really, you know, viciously aggressive
about pursuing the things you want in
life, maybe you won the lottery, but
eventually that's going to fade and
you're going to be left with this, you
know, insecurity of like, I'm not the
guy that I think that I am. And, you
know, your reality is going to fade.
You're going to be these illusions that
you've built the foundation of your life
off of will eventually crack and
crumble. So, building your identity is
an absolute necessity.
And what's hard in our society is I
people of all ages are going to be
watching this video. Um, but I feel like
a lot of you guys are probably young
like me. You know, I'm 22 and I I I
already get people calling me. That's
kind of a side note. But, you know, I
think that
you have to the earlier that you figure
out your identity, the better because
everything's going to be based off that.
And also let's say your identity is not
the best, right? Like I was mentioning
earlier, you can build your identity up
when you know your just because you're
not confident now doesn't mean you can't
be confident in the future, right?
[music] And so it's important to
establish and understand what your
identity is so you can try to improve
upon that, right? But if you just always
think you're this certain person and
you're not really, then life is going to
kick you in the butt later down the line
and it's going to be a lot harder to
pick yourself up when you're 40 years
old now, right? It's not not to say it's
impossible. You can absolutely change
your life around at any time, but it's
going to be a lot more beneficial the
younger that you are to establish this.
And that's why I always tell people,
don't be afraid to get a little bit
dirty. Go through the struggle.
Experience hardships in [music] life.
You know, I was I've taken a lot of
different jobs in my life. I would say
like almost all of them I hated.
Probably like 95% of the jobs that I've
taken I've just not enjoyed at all. And
my family kept asking me like, "Why are
you [music] working so hard when it's
you don't need to work as long of hours,
you're already fully enrolled in school,
stuff like that." And I didn't really
understand why myself. It just made
sense in my head. But now, in
retrospect, I think the whole reason I
did it was because I was discovering who
I was, right? Was I willing to
consistently show up like I promised I
would when it actually when push came to
shove, when my back was actually against
the wall, right? for example, with the
social media stuff that I'm doing. Um,
you know, I I've set out a goal. So, I
started taking it like seriously and
posting on on October 9th, so around 2
months ago. And I said I was going to
post 10 videos every single day until I
hit 100,000 followers. And then I did that
that
and then I was like, you know what? I'm
just going to keep going. And now it's
like until I hit 100K on Instagram,
which is going to be in a few days here
hopefully. Um, and I didn't weather away
from that, you know? I I figured out who
I was. You know how many nights that I
didn't want to record videos like like I
back in the day I used to watch TV shows
and stuff like that. Since I started
pursuing, you know, building a brand
around philosophy or my ideas of life or
you know, my my personal brand. Since I
started doing that, I've completely
given up all of my free time. And that's
not an exaggeration. Like I used to love
the TV show Stranger Things for example.
The new season just came out. I'm I
[music] have like I'm not even looking
into it at all. Right. I'd rather be
recording videos and and creating art
for the world. And I know some of you
guys might think that's a little bit,
you know, exaggerated. Creating art?
Like, what are you talking about? You're
just talking. Well, I feel like I'm
expressing my views, which is a form of
art. But
I think the point that I'm trying to say
here is I didn't weather away from what
I said I was going to do. And I do think
there is value to that. And you guys as
the viewer right now could be
implementing the same thing in whatever
pursuit you're doing in life. You have
to make the time to
challenge yourself to
make yourself face the realities so that
you know that you're not living a life
based off of some illusion that you
have. You have to go and pursue what you
want in life. And the only way you can
do that is by establishing an identity,
right? And it's like for me it's like
hey it ended up the the social media
thing it ended up actually working out.
I was like okay this is uh I don't want
to say it worked out like I'm nowhere
near where I want to be and I'm and I'm
humbly grateful for what I have. But um
I think there's a not a quote a lyric
from a Frank Sinatra uh where the song
My Way where he's like he's like I
sought it through without exemption. I
freaking love that lyric, man. It's so
good. I saw it through without
exemption. Like, do things regardless of
how you feel. That's going to become
your struggle. You're not going to know
whether or not it's going to work out in
the end, but that is part of the
struggle. It's like blind faith. [music]
You need to put yourself and test
yourself in foreign waters to figure out
what you're truly made of. and it's
going to be scary, but there's like this
weird exciting aspect of it that I
really like about the fact that it's
scary. Like, as of recently, I've been
trying a lot of like things that I that
the old me wouldn't do. Okay, for I'm
going to give you guys an example. Like,
there there was a girl at the gym that I
go to, like my gym crush, and I always
am preaching that like you should go and
like talk [music] talk to pretty girls,
like do the things that no one that
you'd be scared to do because you only
have one life. And it was like I had my
eye on this girl for I don't know how
long, maybe a couple months. And you
know, I'd see her every once in a while
in the gym and I'd never go up and talk
to her just cuz I'm kind of like to
myself or whatever, a little bit shy.
And I was like, screw it, bro. I'm going
to go do it. And it like worked out
good. And I was like, wow, why did I
waste all this time like overthinking
that situation, right? Just go and try
things that that you feel uncomfortable.
Did it feel uncomfortable? Yeah. Was it
worth it? Absolutely. Like it worked out
like absolutely, [music] you know? So never
never
never sell yourself short.
Figure out what you're capable of and
then when you realize what what you're
not currently capable of that's giving
you that's giving you a pointer. Hey, I
need to work on this in life. Put
yourself in an uncomfortable situation.
Figure out how you respond. What type of
person you are. Are you fight or flight?
You know, not literally, but you get
what I'm saying. And then build off of
that information. You can never learn
who you are. You're never going to get
this vital piece of information until
you actually go out and try the thing.
I'm getting very monotonous in this
video as we as we know. So, I just want
to say, hey guys, life is going to be hard.
hard.
Make it a thrill. Make it a ride. Right.
I It's right now it's it's 5 5:05 a.m.
and I've recorded videos for the past 5
hours and I've wanted to go to sleep.
I've been super tired. I had finals. I
literally took two finals today. And I'm
not making an excuse because I want to
figure out what I'm actually made of.
Right? Struggle sometimes doesn't have
to be literally like you're broke and
[music] you have nothing going for you.
Sometimes struggle is just going through
super uncomfortable situations where you
don't want to do something [music] and
you're forcing yourself to do it. Right?
This whole week I've had finals and yet
I'm still hitting all my goals. I need
to, you know, create x amount of input
every single day and I want to make sure
that I do it. And I know, I'm telling
you guys, you can too. If you're
watching this, I am literally just like
you guys. [music]
I'm ju I'm still trying to figure it out
just like you guys. I don't know
everything just like you guys. And I
think that's kind of what makes life a
little bit fun to be honest with you is
that there there's this unknown. There's
a there's a mountain that I get to
climb. What a privilege that I get to
climb this mountain. What a privilege
that I get to go through hardships. I
You're telling me that I get to wake up
and go to the gym? There are people
that, you know, don't even have limbs
and can't go to the gym. They can't do
these things. And so,
don't complain. Embrace the hardship and
figure out who you are through it. Thank
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