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ALSO KNOWN AS How special am I?
# Overview
Moral You matter because you are not invisible; you are not just another person—we need your help.
Definition
In this program, self-identity means one’s individuality. Everything about a person is unique and special. It’s not so much as how they identify to the world, but how they are special to the world. It’s one’s thoughts, beliefs, purposes, and special uniqueness that cannot be replaced entirely. It’s a way to value oneself.Captain Theme Only you can fly your flag at full mast.
Mnemonic You are a drop of water, but together, we are an ocean.
Location Self-identity is a quality of the Self-aware trait in the Instinct power.
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# Agenda
- Why does the world need you?
- Who are you?
- Why do you matter?
- Why are people not doing what I want?
MR. TURNER'S STORY
Word Count: 545 Duration 140wpm: 3:54
Today, our topic is your self-identity, and what I mean by that is knowing who you are, valuing yourself, and knowing what you want out of life. We’ll start off with Mr. Turner who loved to see people smile. It was the top of his day to do what made others feel great. He was so busy making others feel good, that he didn’t have the courage to fight for what he wanted. Instead, he did what others expected, what his family said was right, and what his culture said is the dream for everyone.
It all started when Mr. Turner, who was from the United States, was in his late twenties. He was becoming a man, and everyone he trusted followed the same life path: get educated, get a job, get married, get a house, and have a family. That’s what he did; he wondered why he should question it. If it worked for everyone and they all seemed happy, why wouldn’t it work for him? It wasn’t until after he got the job, after he got the wife, and after he got the house that he realized it wouldn’t work for him after all.
He consulted his family, and they said to stick with it. Everyone goes through this kind of thing, and it’s only a temporary feeling. Mr. Turner knew differently. There was something that said it wouldn’t go away, and he felt his life was a lie. By that time, he had already been married for five years. His wife was ready for kids. Everything was closing in so fast.
Mr. Turner didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, he felt detached from people and responsibilities: he became a living zombie. Everyone saw what was happening to him, but no one knew the reasons, and Mr. Turner wouldn’t say. It was clear that he was depressed, and he understood that it was because he didn’t value himself. Every chance he could, he would try to escape life through reading, tinkering with stuff, or building things. Even that seemed pointless, eventually.
It took him a while, and even though it seemed like the dumbest thing to do, he listened to what his body and mind already told him. He quit his job, divorced his wife, sold his house, and decided to value himself from then on. People were hurt, lives were affected, and relationships were ruined, but Mr. Turner felt better. He wasn’t better because was being selfish but because he wasn’t depressed anymore. He enjoyed living again, but this time, on his own terms.
Mr. Turner was stumbled through life without knowing who he was. He followed the life that people said was the way. He never thought to question them because he trusted the system. Mr. Turner’s self-identity spoke up. He denied his self-identity’s call to action because it was too painful to face, and it nearly ruined him. The moment he accepted his identity and value is the same moment things turned around, but a lot of damage had already been done.
The moral of Mr. Turner’s story is that you can’t live comfortably while you deny yourself and what you truly want. It’s wiser to learn who you are, what you want, and have the confidence to choose yourself over others.
1. Why does the world need you?
Let’s take a moment to give you a new view on yourself. What we’re about to do is look at you as you exist in this world. We’ll compare your size to other things we see and things that only scientific tools can see. We’ll make you feel big, and then we’ll make you feel small. This is not to shock you or to overwhelm you, but we hope it teaches you the space that you take up not only on planet Earth, but in the universe, too.
Are you ready to explore?
繁體中文
為什麼世界需要你？ 讓我們花點時間，給你一個全新的自我視角。接下來我們要做的，是看看你在這個世界中的存在。我們會把你的大小與我們肉眼可見的事物，以及只有科學工具才能看見的事物做比較。我們會讓你感覺自己很巨大，然後再讓你感覺自己很渺小。這並不是為了震撼你或讓你不知所措，而是希望能讓你理解，你不只是在地球上佔有一席之地，同時也在整個宇宙中佔有屬於自己的空間。
準備好探索了嗎？
1.1 Understand Scale
1.2 Understand Yourself
1.2.1
One Opinion
The robot will have its own experiences and thoughts as time changes it. It might make decisions that I might not make. Machines can’t have emotions, only logic. They have no needs. They might be knowledgeable but not skillful.
1.3 Moral
The world needs you because you have a unique set of experiences, talents, and thoughts that give you a perspective no one else has. You might seem like one drop of water among many, but we are here to work together as an ocean.
繁體中文
寓意 世界需要你，因為你擁有一組獨特的經歷、才能與想法，這些讓你擁有其他任何人都沒有的視角。你或許看起來只是眾多水滴中的一滴，但我們存在於這裡，是為了共同成為一片海洋。
2. Who are you?
This is a hard question for anyone, but if you are ready, we can face it now. The difficult part is that a person is a lot more than one or two descriptive sentences. It would take a lot of time to say everything that you are—even if you already knew the answer. Remember, the understanding that you know nothing, not to insult your intelligence, but to bring a sense of humility. With that in mind, let’s start our search for who you are.
繁體中文
你是誰？ 對任何人來說，這都是個艱難的問題；但如果你準備好了，我們現在就一起來面對。最難的部分在於，一個人遠遠不是一兩句描述就能概括的。要完整說出你究竟是誰，得花上好長一段時間——哪怕你心中早已有答案。請記得，承認自己其實一無所知，並不是在否定你的智慧，而是為了擁有一份謙遜。抱著這樣的心情，讓我們開始探索『你是誰』吧。
2.1 Belief, Flaw, Purpose
This short exercise is not enough to tell you exactly who you are, but it teaches you how to start. This question is so difficult that it might take people their whole lives to understand it. Don’t feel bad if you feel like you still don’t know. The best way to search for the answers is to sit in silence, remove distractions, and ask yourself questions about yourself.
- What do I like?
- What do I dislike?
- What do I believe?
- Who can I trust?
The answers can bring a clarity of thought, especially if you remember them!
- Write down:
- one secret belief you have, even if no one else believes it,
- a flaw that you love about yourself,
- and one purpose that you have.
- Now, suppose you are a colorful painting. Your colors are made up of what you wrote down: your belief, your flaw, and your purpose.
- What does that look like?
2.2 Moral
Whatever beliefs, flaws, or purpose you choose, those represent you. You are the painting, and those are the colors. If I changed even one of those colors myself, your painting would look different. While this lesson cannot tell you who you are, it gives you the tools to find how you are made special.
繁體中文
寓意 無論你選擇什麼樣的信念、缺點或使命，它們都定義了你。你是一幅畫，而它們就是調色盤上的色彩。倘若我擅自改動了任何一種顏色，你的這幅畫作便會截然不同。雖然這一課無法直接定義你是誰，但它給了你所需的工具，去發掘自己究竟因何而獨特。
3. Why do you matter?
There is no question that you matter. You matter, unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light. Then, you energy. This is a little joke that is based on Albert Einstein’s famous “E = MC2” formula. This is so funny because of how English works. In this case, “matter” has two meanings: 1) importance; 2) substance. We say that material things (a pencil, water, oxygen) are all made of matter, which describes atomic molecules. Therefore, you are literally matter (substance) and you matter (important)! However, if you are flying through the universe at the speed of light, you aren’t matter (substance) anymore: you’re energy (light)!
(Don’t think me clever, though, because I didn’t create this joke. It’s common in the science community, but I still love it.)
Of course you matter, and if you are confused on why you matter, let’s lay it out.
繁體中文
為什麼你很重要？ 毫無疑問，你很重要。你是重要的——除非你把自己乘上光速，那麼你就會變成能量。這是一個基於著名公式「E = MC2」的小笑話。這個笑話之所以有趣，是因為英文中的 “matter” 有兩種意思：1）重要；2）物質。
我們會說各種物體（像是鉛筆、水、氧氣）都是由「物質」構成的，而這裡的物質指的是原子與分子。因此，你從字面上來說就是「物質」（substance），同時你也「很重要」（important）！然而，如果你正以光速穿越宇宙，那麼你就不再是「物質」了——你會變成「能量」（光）！
（不過別以為這笑話是我發明的，因為它其實是科學界裡很常見的笑話，只是我依然非常喜歡它。）
當然，你是重要的；如果你對於自己為什麼重要感到困惑，那就讓我們把它說清楚。
3.1 The Bumpy Key
You are special because there is only one of you. What we are going to do now is talk about how only you fit in certain situations. What we are doing here isn’t a way to exaggerate the truth, but to reveal the exact truth. This is not exaggeration used to charm you.
- Think of an ordinary key. It has weird, irregular bumps along the length of it. This combination of peaks and valleys fits a certain lock, and if they don’t match exactly, the lock remains locked.
- Now, imagine that the key is you.
- Can you explain how this key and lock symbolizes why you matter to the world?
Take a moment to think on it. What is the purpose of a key and a lock? When you are ready, reveal my opinion below.
One Opinion
The lock symbolizes your purpose in life. All of those weird bumps and valleys on the key represent your uniqueness: how you think, what you do, your natural talents, your skills, and more. Only that specific configuration of bumps or uniqueness fit that lock. Only you can do the things that certain people need in certain situations. No matter what you do, you will be there when you are needed, and you will easily fill the role. It’s life; that can’t be avoided. However, don’t convince yourself that this is not true for you. That is the trap, and that is completely avoidable.
3.3 Moral
You matter because we need you, only most of us don’t know it. Einstein says you are literally matter because you take up space and are made of materials. This program says you matter because there’s a hole in the world that is shaped like you, and only you can fill that space. Just like one pattern of bumps unlocks a specific lock, you unlock a world of matter.
繁體中文
寓意 你之所以重要，是因為這個世界需要你，只是大多數人還沒有意識到而已。愛因斯坦說，你從字面上來看就是「物質」，因為你佔據空間，並由各種物質構成。而這個課程則說，你之所以重要，是因為這個世界上有一個缺口，它的形狀正好像你，而且只有你能填補那個空缺。就像某一組特定的凸起圖案能打開對應的鎖一樣，你能開啟一個屬於你的世界。
4. Why aren’t people doing what I want?
The context of this question is centered on who you believe you are, not as other people see you. For example, a person might believe they are a master and others are their students. However, that person may have no formal training on anything, and their “students” never agreed to be students. Therefore, the master is pushing their own belief onto other people, and those people don’t see the master as he sees himself. That master has rather unfair expectation: he expects the world to instantly match his belief exactly as he sees it.
This same question could be asked by parents who want their children to follow their plan. Some parents plan the lives of their children, and they do so without asking the child what they want. Instead, the parents tell the child what they will do, and when the child doesn’t want that life, parents can become genuinely confused. People have their own paths that they can decide, and to have the best chance for a rewarding life, they should develop the strength to walk their path for better or worse.
繁體中文
為什麼人們不照著我想要的去做？ 這個問題的核心，在於你如何看待自己，而不是別人如何看待你。舉例來說，有些人可能認為自己是一位大師，而其他人則是他的學生。然而，這個人也許根本沒有接受過任何正式訓練，而那些「學生」也從未同意成為學生。因此，這位大師其實是在把自己的信念強加到別人身上，而那些人並不像他看待自己那樣看待他。這位大師懷抱著一種相當不公平的期待：他希望世界能立刻完全符合他心中的信念。
同樣的問題，也可能出現在希望孩子按照自己規劃人生的父母身上。有些父母會替孩子安排好人生道路，而且是在沒有詢問孩子真正想要什麼的情況下這麼做。他們不是與孩子討論，而是直接告訴孩子「你將會怎麼做」。當孩子並不想過那樣的人生時，父母甚至可能真的感到困惑。每個人都有屬於自己的道路可以選擇，而若想擁有最有可能帶來成就感的人生，人們應該培養出無論好壞都能走自己道路的力量。
4.1 Pass the Belief
• Pretend that you believe you are a cat in a human’s body. • Imagine meeting someone that loves you and respects you, and you ask them to treat you like a real cat. • What would the person do? • Now imagine meeting someone that doesn’t know you, but maybe they respect you enough to treat you nicely. • How would this person react if you asked them to treat you like a real cat? • How healthy is it to expect people, loved ones or strangers, to live their life in a way that fits your expectations of them?
A person may genuinely feel like they are something they are not. They may believe that their inner reality doesn’t match the outer reality. You may be such a person, and if you are, what you believe is for you to believe. It’s OK to ask others to follow your belief, but it isn’t fair to expect them to do it. That’s because what you believe isn’t what they believe. It isn’t meant to be a sign of disrespect if they don’t want to follow what you ask them to do. It’s a sign that everyone is different, and not one belief is correct for everyone.
Loved ones may do as you ask them even if they don’t believe the same thing you do. That’s because they don’t want to hurt your feelings, and they want to respect you. However, in some cases, it may not be the best option for maintaining mental health. We all live in the same reality, and it’s fun to use our imagination to escape it sometimes. We must maintain this reality as much as we can so that we can survive and maintain our relationships with others.
4.2 Moral
People aren’t believing what you believe because they have their own beliefs. It isn’t a sign of disrespect toward your beliefs. It is an acknowledgement of mutual respect. They are not asking you to meet their expectations because they want you to be yourself. It isn’t fair to ask people to meet your expectations of them. Allow people to be themselves, you be yourself. There may be a minor discomfort when people reject your beliefs, but as long as no one is hurt beyond that, everyone should be happy!
繁體中文
寓意 人們不相信你所相信的，是因為他們也有自己的信念。這並不是對你信念的不尊重，而是一種彼此尊重的體現。他們並不是在要求你去滿足他們的期望，因為他們希望你做你自己。同樣地，要求別人符合你對他們的期望是不公平的。讓別人做自己，你也做自己。當人們拒絕你的信念時，可能會帶來些微的不適，但只要沒有因此對任何人造成超出這個範圍的傷害，那麼每個人都應該能夠感到快樂！
Expand the Lesson
- Genuine Authenticity - How to be yourself
2026-06-01 15:43