Back when I worked a 9 to 5, I had a 20-minute commute each way on a good day. Most of that time was filled with the same 10 songs on repeat, broken up by mindless talk radio. I didn’t even realize how numb I’d become to it all until a friend recommended I try a podcast instead.

The first one I listened to was hosted by Tim Ferriss. And just like that, I found the exit ramp I didn’t know I’d been looking for.

Tim was the kind of person I wanted to become. Always experimenting. Always learning. Always improving. Tim opened a whole new world for me. Not just of ideas, but of identity. He’s the reason I discovered Ryan Holiday, a modern-day Stoic whose book Ego Is the Enemy became something of a bible to me.

I was hooked. Obsessed. These were people I had never met (and never would), but I hung on their every word like gospel.

Over time, I realized I had found a new way of living, and in doing so I’d also forgotten how to live for myself. Every habit, every system, every belief became something I tried to replicate. Rather than take their lessons and translate them into my own life, I did whatever I could to live as them.

I thought I was growing. But in hindsight, I had just traded one set of unconscious patterns for another.

It took me years to realize that by putting them on pedestals, I was quietly devaluing my own life.

You can enjoy the music, or the words, the images, and the videos. Let it heal you, challenge you, inspire you. But don’t confuse the art with the artist.

I still admire their work. I still learn from them. But now I know better: the point isn’t to become someone else. It’s to build a life that’s fully your own.