Let go of labels. Transform your life. | Ryan Holiday

Don’t call yourself “a writer,” just write. Ryan Holiday on how the labels you give yourself can hold you back.

Who would you be without all the labels and identities you’ve collected over the course of your life?

Ego, titles, and societal expectations often shape who we think we are—or who we think we should be. Author, and for simplicity's sake, bookstore owner, Ryan Holiday explains the simple question “What do you do?” can turn into a trap, making us cling to roles that don’t really define us. But what happens when you let go of these labels? What if, instead of focusing on the identity of being a writer, you focused on the act of writing itself?

As Holiday got older, he learned that being busy “doing the verb” is far more valuable than obsessing over the noun. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to fit into the “right” categories and titles, but that often means copying, comparing, and losing sight of what really matters.

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

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About Ryan Holiday: Ryan Holiday is a bestselling author, marketer, and one of today’s leading voices in modern Stoicism. He’s known for taking ancient wisdom and making it relatable and practical for everyday life. Before becoming an author, he led marketing at American Apparel. Now, he writes about strategy, self-discipline, and leadership, weaving history into real-world advice.

[EricwilliamCarpenter]

I'm retired at 27, went from Grass to Grace. This video here reminds me of my transformation from a nobody to good home, honest wife, $35k biweekly and a good daughter full of love ❤️

[BendingPinkSteel]

I've read Ryan's books for 12+ years now and it's crazy to see how much he's grown while consistently being himself. It's very cool to watch. I want growth like that - where I can become a better version of myself. It's hard to know what to keep and what to let go, but Ryan feels like a really good example of how to do it well.

[NathanHarrison]

Great video thank you. And I agree with him… If happiness is not a part of our life, or a part of the lives of those we love, then nothing else really matters. Happiness should always be the ultimate secular goal.

[btyler]

Doing the verbs, not trying to be the nouns 🔥

[jamiedorsey]

I'm an old nerd. I remember back in the 80s and beyond as nerd culture rose and having the nerd label went from something negative to positive. It initially felt good being able to have a positive identity like that. I kind of wore it on my sleeve for a while but at some point it did become a constraint as it became something to mold myself towards. As well as setting up a mental in group/out group dynamic. Trying to let go of the identity and just be authentic is freeing.

[ryan]

Its fascinating that hardly anyone has heard of the book Unveiling Your Hidden Potential. I believe it was banned but I recently saw that it has been returned

[DLG]

Like a hand dipped in paint, we are labelled and label from birth. Intentional living helps to negate the effects.

[MinistryOfMotivations]

"The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it."❤

[SwitchMaxFX]

Certain groups of people need to hear this

[IbrahimKone-ixqi]

!I just switched up my Roth IRA to 50% SCHD, 25% SCHX, 25% SCHG, and my Roth 401k is 70% vanguard S&P 500 index, 20% vanguard growth index, and 10% vanguard international index. Seeking best possible ways to grow $350k into $2m+ before retirement.

[vielspaclaas-zorm]

Even though I do generally don’t like labels and box thinking, and I see their use mostly in areas of profession, I have to criticize this. Not ever seeing a value in ego seems very, very privileged to me. Without my ego, I personally, would probably not be alive anymore, just as my brother and sister. Ego is a survival instinct, sounds to me as if you might have never had to survive off of your ego, therefore not seeing the use of it. Yes, on the larger scale, ego does a lot of harm, especially when it comes to certain ideological groups sharing an ego together, but for the individual, it can be Livesaving. And honestly, you don’t seem that humble to me, sounds to me like your identifying yourself with not identifying yourself a lot. A bit paradox, but that’s just my perception. I think ego is not bad in itself, but bad depending on the situation.

[brothermine]

A label such as "writer" isn't a problem, because everyone understands it's only one of many facets. Much more troublesome are adjectives (and adverbs, and many verbs), because an adjective is really a vague, often misleading or manipulative linguistic abbreviation that represents a relative comparison to an unstated alternative. For example, the statement "X is big" really means X is bigger than Y, for some Y not specified. The threshold between "big" and "not big" is undefined, so "big or not big" is a false dichotomy, but "bigger than a breadbox" has a clear meaning. When playing the game Twenty Questions, the question "is it bigger than a breadbox?" is an effective question, and only a loser would ask "is it big?" because its answer would be uninformative.
The problem with adjectives becomes most insidious & manipulative with adjectives such as right, wrong, good, bad, evil, supported, opposed, approved & disapproved. What these have in common is that their underlying relative comparison is either "better than" or "worse than." For example, it's misleading to call something "bad" or
"evil" when what's really meant is that it's worse than some other alternative(s). If the definition of "bad" were "worse than some unstated feasible alternative" then it wouldn't be a problem to label something "bad, " because everyone would understand the need to ask that the better alternative be specified. But unfortunately this isn't the common definition.
It's important to specify the other alternative(s) being compared. Public opinion polls that ask people to use those insidious adjectives, such as "approval" polls, misleadingly lump together people who give the same response for opposite reasons... for example, someone who says s/he "disapproves" of Kamala Harris might mean s/he thinks Harris is worse than Trump, or s/he might mean s/he thinks Harris is worse than Bernie Sanders (and has the order of preference "Sanders Harris Trump), etc. A poll that instead asks people to rank the alternatives would be much more meaningful than the false dichotomies that most polls elicit.

[lijmoo]

Would rather see labels like "writer" "comedian" "photographer" "videographer" "critic" than "content creator".

[ariyt]

“The more you’re in it….. “ In what? I’m completely missing this. Is it just me?

[maxr]

True but he also uses the label “stoics” a lot 😊

[someone-wn]

That simply not practical in real everyday life. You need to he categoried, if you don't categorie yourself, people eill do, sk do it yourself...

[Alex-wkjv]

Let go of labels says the guy whose entire career is labeling himself a stoic.

[rvaldrich]

Wow! This was useless! I want my 5 minutes back.

[aldiguy]

Well at the end of the day he is on HOLIDAY 😏

[SionSweet]

Good for you, Ryan. Ditch YOUR labels. You enjoy that privilege.