Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's impossible. Let me tell you what I believe.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's your weakness, it's not your technique.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Don't think you know.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The Impossible Life Podcast and yes, sitting on a winning lottery.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Second, an idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks.
This is the Impossible Life Podcast because Nick and I
are attempting to live impossible lives. What we know is
that nothing is impossible. So instead of using impossible as
an excuse to not try, we'll use the pursuit of
(00:37):
impossible as an accelerant for greatness. If something's never been
done before, that just means it's unexplored. If they tell
you it's too hard, it's just waiting to be simplified.
Impossible as a default label used by uncourageous people unwilling
to take a risk. The real truth is this. The
(00:58):
solution to any impossible task starts with this question, if
I had to what would it take? What would it take?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome to another episode of the Impossible Life Podcast. I'm
your co host, Nick Surfis, and I'm looking across at
a man so authentic he refuses to drink anything that
would be a lie. That's right, friends, The former Garrett
Uncle back a man who knows that soy milk, oat milk,
almond milk are not actually milk.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
They're just like they they are lies. H Lindsay will
laugh at this because one of the things, like she
discovered for me is when we've like eaten lean or
gone through seasons, we're focused on a certain diet or whatever.
She realized I hate fake foods, stuff that pretends to
be something out. She's like, do you want you know
(01:51):
these I don't know, oatmel whatever, pancakes. I'm like, no,
I don't right right, I either want yeah, it's not
like all this Stud's like I'll say it's a pancake,
it's not a pancake. Or you know, fake waffles or
all these you know, all these different dishes that are
like a brown it is like a protein brown. It's like,
nothing in that is a brownie, nothing in that is
(02:12):
ice cream. You're just calling it ice cream. Like I
don't want that. I'd rather just like eat chicken and
rice and not eat ice cream than eat these pretend
healthy ingredients that we mix together and we're going to
close our eyes and blow out our birthday candles and
pretend it's ice cream or pretend it's a brownie. She's
like she realized over time, like she likes to cook
(02:33):
and bake, and she quit trying to make any of
these recipes, even if they were quote unquote good recipes,
if they were like a dupe's people what people call them,
they were pretending to be something. She's like, you hate that.
I'm like, you're exactly right, I hate it because I
know what the real thing is and that's not it.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
That is like such a microcouse of a view as
a person, but here's the real conn And then we
got to get into the actual episode. How did you
deal with Mrs? Was that like death to your soul?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
You know?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
MRIs were, actually, when if you're ever eating an MRI,
it's because you're not in a great place, right right? Okay,
so you're like, I beggars can't be choosers. Yeah, it's
a great consolation. Uh. MRIs were honestly like, I have
good memories of eating MRS. Not the not the food,
but like the experience you rip it open, it's like
a it's like a it's like a mystery bag. As
(03:25):
a kid at a birthday party, it's like, ooh, what
am I going to get? And you pour it out
and you hope that you got peanut butter and jelly
or cheese and crackers. It is like your snack and
you're gonna do arts and crafts in the middle of
the wilderness while you take your entree and you put
it in the heater. You pour water in this pack
and it like heats up your dish. That it's you know,
(03:46):
the food's terrible, but it's somehow still a good experience.
I can say this.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
There's an odd fondness on your face as you speak.
I didn't I didn't expect that. But that's not anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Well, guys, guys who have had that experience, they know
what I'm talking about. The food's actually absolutely garb, but
all it's where I was at, who I was with,
you know, It's like, oh, look this little it is
kind of like a man thing. It's like, I'm out
here fighting the world, and let me just rip up
in this little bag and pour out some food and
throw my trash away and then get back to what
I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Refuel the body. Like you said, the best way to
eat a turt sandwich is with this stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
It's not fuel, it's straight chemicals. But did the job.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Oh praise the Lord. All right, So gee, we're today,
we're talking. The reason I had an authenticity intro for
you is because we're talking about one of the great
lies of society that appeals to something godly that I
think a lot of people love to believe and has
caught a lot of traction, which is your authentic self.
And I think it's one of the things that we've
(04:43):
we've talked about. I will reference the episode later on.
In episode one fifty nine, we talked about how limiting
beliefs and identity, like beliefs and identity are limitation for
a lot of people. And I found that identity is
the glass ceiling. What I mean by that is like
a lot of people will bump into like, oh I
don't have enough money. That's a very tangible ceiling for
the time being. You can always go get more, but
(05:05):
you know it's there. I think where people are like
struggling with things and having difficulties and stuff breaking down
they can't make sense of it is in their identity
because it's it's just limitation that they have that they
bump into. And we get fed lives from society about
this all the time. I mean, like, the quote unquote
progressive movement is literally known as like the political identity.
Politics has been their strategy for a while. And look
(05:25):
what we've gotten. We're at a place where you can
call yourself. You know, hey, I'm a man, but actually
identifies this. There's fifty six different letters you can identif
there's all this craziness, that's absolute absurdity that's going that's
been paraded around in society, to the point that our
health minister under the Biden administration was a transgender I
don't even know whether to call a man or what.
I don't even know what they're but like was a
(05:46):
transgender person, which to me is wild that the person
is like, hey, I'm the health minister, but actually I
have what it is, actually a mental illness, and we're
going to put it on display and celebrate it. This
is stupidity, but this is what you get whenever you
build on something that's not God and so, but like,
authentic self sounds so.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Appealing, and I think that's I think that's a lie
that's easier to see correct. But I think there are
many people who listen and subscribe to this podcast, not
just like literally subscribe, but figuratively subscribe believe what we're thinking.
And I think at times or even currently, have fallen
into the lie or the trap of the authentic self,
(06:26):
because you will see apparently healthy people talk about it
just like, hey, you need to just be your authentic self.
And I was listening to someone talk about this the
other day and my spiritual lie detector was just going off.
It was screaming, and it's a good lie. Good lies
are lies that you want to believe. And here is
(06:47):
the lie of the authentic self that who you that
your current state is a virtue. That's the lie, right
And that's what people say out of this is like, oh, well,
I'm just a person, you know, who needs to be
listened to, right Like I just need to feel heard
as if I'm just being my authentic self. I need
to be able to just run my mouth and say
(07:08):
what I feel because that's just who I am. That is,
and people, well, you're just being your authentic self. And
in certain circles there are people who would just validate
for you that for I'm just being honest, that's just
who I am. And this is a lie that takes
your current state makes it a virtue, which what that's
going to turn into is an extreme lack of grit
(07:30):
that what you're You may not say it that way,
because lies do. Lies always end up doing these gymnastics.
Lives are not based upon principles. Principles stand in one place,
whether the weather's good or the weather's bad. What lies
do is they figure out this web and how to
navigate all the challenging parts and only get the pieces
(07:51):
that they want. And so whenever you see yourself or
feel yourself doing that, it's like, Man, I feel like
I'm doing a lot of left turns right turns here.
I'm not feeling as of principality in the way that
I'm operating and thinking that is that should be a
queue and a trigger to you that you're operating underneath
a lie, being your authentic self. Because when I was
(08:13):
getting out of the military, I had to like, I
went through this transition, you know, from being a veteran
or to being in the military to being a civilian,
and there were parts of me that I had to
dig back up that I was like, Dude, I forgot
I was that way. I forgot I liked those things.
I forgot this skill, this preference that I had because
it was of zero value in the military. So I'm
(08:36):
not saying that there's like you're supposed to just be
some you know, this very neutral no identity person.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Authenticity is just a lie that takes you away from
identity because that's what it does. It makes your current
state a virtue. Here's one of the And I let
me just beat up authenticity a little bit more and
then we'll talk about what you're supposed to have. Authenticity
absolutely removes accountability. Right Again, this would be a conversation, well,
(09:08):
I'm just being authentic what you are what you're saying
when you say that, right, if those words ever come
out of your mouth as some sort of defense, what
you're really saying is, well, you just can't challenge my
thinking because my truth is this is how I feel, right,
and that is your feelings are not the source of truth.
Your lived experience is not the truth. Right. Even in science,
(09:31):
science does not It's called an anecdote in science, right,
science knows this. When you have it, you like your
one personal experience, that's called an anecdote. It's not a science.
It's not science, right, What is science? Verifiable? Demonstrated, will repeatable.
This happened to you that one time. That doesn't mean
that that's the way things are. An anecdote does not
(09:54):
identify principles. What identifies principles patterns, not single experiences, And
authenticity tries to take your individual experience and make it
a foundation foundation for truth. Authenticity it gives permission to behavior.
It doesn't give direction to behavior. What's the direction of authenticity?
(10:16):
What I feel, what makes me feel good? Right? That
is permission to just be whatever. It is not an
actual direction. And that's uh, that's counterfeit freedom, counterfeit freedom. Right,
this is like a huge cultural lie. And that's what
I'm saying this. I was listening to it the other day.
My spiritual light detector is screaming because I'm like, that
(10:38):
is a very well disguised example of the lie that
underpins all of culture. Like one of the big lies
in culture right now is just counterfeit freedom. Counterfeit freedom
is give me permission to do whatever I want. That's
what people think true permission, like true freedom is is
just this permission. But true freedom is the power to
(11:00):
do what you want. Right. Authenticity does not give that right,
the power to do what I want. Is when my
children are irritating me, I have the strength and the
power to not be irritated and to love them well.
When my wife is being a certain way, not the
permission for me to act however I want, but the
power to act in the right way.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I'm just giving a couple small examples. I don't want
to spend much time making examples because I think that
point is clear. There's a difference between permission to do
what you want and the power to do what you want.
And authenticity gives permission to do what you want what
is actually not the right thing. And just the last
part of authenticity here and what we'll dive into, the
truth we'll dive into going the right direction, is that authenticity.
(11:45):
We know this again if you listen, subscribe to this podcast.
We know that what God wants us to do is
change and transform, and authenticity is the opposite of that.
Authenticity says, well, the greatest you is just in there somewhere,
and you need to just throw off all these constraints
of culture, of rules, of system. Just throw all of
that out. Throw out courtesy, throughout respect, throughout dignity, throw
(12:09):
all these things out and just be however you feel. Again,
you will hear brilliant people. You'll hear seemingly successful people.
Talk about your authentic self. And there are pieces of
that that are not terrible because you have a unique identity.
That's part of what's in your hand is some of
the genuine way that God has made you. However, it
is not a source of truth. It is not a direction, right,
(12:32):
and if you continue to follow that lie, the authenticity
turns into counterfeit. Freedom authenticity turns into a lack of accountability.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I mean this one is you broke that down
geprobably more thoroughly and intelligently than I think a lot
of people would interpret that. I think from just a
very simplistic thing. It's so funny to me that somebody
can be like this my authentic self, Oh who said me? Oh,
so yourself certifying authenticity? Like, think about it if I
just if I got a baseball glove and I was like, hey, guys,
(13:01):
I'm a professional pitcher, says too. Well, I said, so, well,
do you play for a team. Well, no, I don't
play for a team, but I'm a professional pitcher. Oh okay,
But this is like, because there's no established authority on identity.
There's an established authority in baseball. It's the MLBRE.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
This is an MLB certified bat Who certified it? I did?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I did? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It has ever been used? Nope, hasn't been used. But
like so, and people would say that's absurd. But what
actually what actually authentic? We looked up in the Good
Book Webster's eighteen twenty eight what authentic actually means. It
says having a genuine, original or authority in opposition to
that which is false, fictitious, or counterfeit. It's being what
it purports to be genuine, true, it's applied to things.
It's an authentic paper. Now listen to this as applied
(13:41):
to a person. It's of approved authority. And that's why
I want to make that point. So who's the authority?
And that would approve you to say you're authentic? Well,
I'm gonna go ahead and point to the person who
made us, which of course is.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Not gonna go ahead and say not you.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, I did not make myself. I mean, like, if
you even wanted to be super cynical, you would say,
at the very at least it would be your parents. Right.
And then there's a whole, but like a list of questions.
But like what we're pointing at is like, if you
want to really know who you are, you one percent
have to dive into who created you and what he says.
And we cover this. I talked about it earlier in
the Limitations, Limiting Beliefs and Identity. It's episode one fifty nine.
(14:18):
I'd really encourage people to go back and listen to
this because the three foundations that people build their false
identities on is based on what people say, what you've achieved,
and what you possess, right, and like those are the
three biggest lies, and what happens is you go up
and down. So like I'm my authentic self? Is this
based on what people say about me? Or I feel
(14:38):
really good about myself when I'm successful, I feel really
bad about myself when I'm not. I feel really great
whenever I get something new, and then I feel like
a turd whenever that new feeling wears off, so I
have to go get something more. This is like the
cycle of identity that we see all the time, and
it's because they it's not built on what God, what
God gives you. God gave you first and foremost because
if you don't get this, you can't build the rest
complete love and value. People fall down on this because
(15:02):
they're like, man, I'm not You know what do we
all want? We all want to be loved and accepted, right,
We all want to know that like we're part of something.
We have this innate need in us to be loved,
and that is a good and godly desire that, if
not nurtured and understood, can end up in all sorts
of twisted ways. And this is Romans nine to twenty, Like,
there has to be humility about your self worth and
(15:24):
your uniqueness because this is yeah, Roman's nine twenty. Paul says,
but who are you a human being? And he's quoting
in Isaiah to talk back to God. Shall what is formed?
Say to the one who formed it? Why did you
make me like this? Now? This is understanding. So if
you have, if God's given you a complete love and value,
He's also given you your one percent, like your unique
skill set and you're winning philosophy. He's given you these uniqueness.
(15:46):
You don't get to choose it. If I said, like, oh, man,
I really like Garrett's stuff. I like this about Garrett.
Like man, Garrett's got this. Garrett's got that. I'm going
to have that. Guess what, maybe that's a good thing.
Those things are great and Garrett, they're not going to
be great me because they're the The uniqueness of Garrett
is exactly that. It's the uniqueness of Garrett. So there
has to be humility to say, what's the uniqueness of me?
(16:06):
And not from a standpoint, but like, oh, but everybody
celebrates Garrett being a Navy seal and him having these
cool things to say and being this like superdominant leader,
and like that's what I want. Well, hang on, that's you, actually,
in a very from a positive place, saying to God,
why do you make me like this? You're not being
the you know you're being. You're talking back to the potter.
So you have to have a humility to say, you
know what, Lord, what I want to be is one
(16:28):
hundred percent who you made me to be. I love,
I Love Psalms one thirty nine and fourteen. That talks
about I know that I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. All
your works are wonderful. This is David talking to God
about how he his innermost parts were formed. Means every
single part your desires, your heart, like literally the deepest
seat of you was designed by God for a reason.
And when you can understand that and know that that's
(16:49):
wonderful and look at God's works and go, man, he
does not make average, he does not make like pretty good.
He made me to be wonderful. But as soon as
you start trying to define that by worldly ways, you
will down. And that's whenever good things can be twisted
into uh into bad things. And so you really have to,
like I said, I wouldencourage you to go back. We
break it down a lot more than one five nine.
That was a quick overview of like what God gave you,
(17:11):
because that's where you're gonna win, and you're gonna you're
gonna fight. This lie of authentic self will just look
so obvious to you because you'll realize how selfish it is.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Right. Well, we talked the other day about living your
life like a video game. Like play a video game.
It's going to be like a nerd here for a
second and it drives like g if that's true, and
it would be like you know you were you you
picked the character archetype of being a mage, which is
(17:40):
you know, a certain set of skills, but then you
get that character archetype and you're like, well, I want
to be a warrior, right, you know it's like, well,
the warriors like, you know, sword and shield, physical skills,
doesn't have you know, all the intelligence and wisdom abilities
that the mages have. Like you're trying to do stuff
that you you weren't given the the unique set have skills.
You know what I'd really like to be I really
(18:02):
wanted to I really like music, you know what. Garrett
did not get gifted with a lot of natural musical ability,
and I don't come from a family of musical ability. Right.
I have friends that that's their family, that's their and
it's just that stuff just comes natural to them, doesn't
come natural to them. It's funny. People will say to
me sometimes like, well, you're just like good to everything.
I'm like, well, let me give you the list. Not
good at this, I'm not good at this. I'm not
(18:22):
good at this. I have a list of all the
things that I would have liked to have been good
at that I'm not good at.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Right. Yeah, I hope that encourages people because you are
a very capable, useful person because of the training and
just the way you've lived your life. But everybody will
have that, and that's the point we're making it. So
it'd be foolish to just be like, but I wanted that, okay,
Like honestly, so, like you have to understand you're.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
The best thing you can ever be. Is exactly who
God made you to be.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Right, and you will not know that until you first
know his love and that He loves and values you.
Like Garrett is not more valuable than me or anybody
else listening to this. God values us because he made us,
and he's the one who gets to determine what we're worth.
We don't get to determine that, but society will try
and tell you all the time. Hey, if you're an
athlete and you look this way, now you're really great.
If you earn a certain amount of money, then you're
And so we have these lies being pumped into us
(19:09):
all the time. That's like attacking the root of identity.
I'd say this is probably one of the number one
things that I work on with people that I could
go so far on this because it's something that I've
had to overcome myself.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
But that's going to be for another time because there's
a lot to this so different than authenticity. Let's let's
go towards the here's what you need to have. Right,
there's a piece of authenticity, that's what we just talked about,
which is like the what God gave you piece. That
part is important. You need to have that. But the
cultural lie of the authentic self is missing this piece.
It's missing the important part of what you wore against. Right.
(19:43):
There are parts of us, there are parts of us
that are our sinful nature. That culture might say, well,
that's just your authentic self. Let me give you a
great example. Here's one that I think probably everyone listening
to this podcast would find extremely disgusting. There is a
certain group of people in the LGBT movement. I have
(20:03):
a I have a friend who is homosexual who told
me he thinks this is like the most terrible disgusting thing.
There are people in that movement who call themselves, uh
maps minor attracted persons, right, They're called They're called pedophiles,
is what they're called. There. They are sexually diseased people
(20:25):
who are adults praying on children. But they say, well,
I'm just a minor attracted person. I'm just attracted like
that's my sexual attraction is to children. That that is,
That is them saying well, that's just the way that
I am right. Just accept accept me for who I am. No,
that is a part of you that needs to Culture
must war against that. You must war against that within yourself.
(20:47):
Every single one of us has things within us that
that are wrong and terrible. And that's where we need
to go to the cross and say, God, help me,
help me not be this way. I want I want
your way. I want to die to myself. I want
to remove these parts of me. And here's the distinction.
That aren't who you say I am, yes, right, Because
(21:08):
if you don't have that, you would say, well, I'm
just a minor attracted person. Now, that's not who God
says that you are. God's word is very clear on
Here's because this is the part of purpose and identity
that you have to pull from scripture. And then on
top of that you add all the things that you
naturally are that don't oppose scripture. Scripture says a lot
(21:29):
about you're this, you're this, you're this right. I made
you this way, I made you this way. I made
you this way. That is what every person who reads
a Bible can say, well, okay, that's me. But then
there's also parts of you that scripture doesn't necessarily identify,
and as long as they don't oppose scripture, then that's
a great part of who you are, the parts of
you that oppose scripture. Like Pastor Josh says about one
(21:51):
of his professors from college who said to him, if
your beliefs conflict with the Bible, don't throughout the Bible,
throughout your beliefs. If there's parts of you that conflict
with scripture, don't throw out scripture, throw out that part
of yourself. The authentic self lie of culture is missing
the piece of war, right, and this is it's John
Eldridge who said, if you don't see your life through
(22:13):
the context of war, you'll misinterpret ninety percent of what
happens to you. And that that's true. There's war has
been around unfortunately, if you just study human history, it's
been around for thousands of years. It's not going away.
And inside a man, inside a woman, there's going to
be conflict, right, And this authentic self, it is a
(22:34):
peace faking mentality of like, I just want to feel
good about who I am, and that seems like a
good thing, but it is an attractive lie. That's so good. Gee.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And so the things that you're warring against. Look, really,
if we want to make it very simple, it's pride, selfishness,
and lust. And I want to define lust is in
their regular or inordinate desire. Like this is things that
are out of proportion. It's not just oh I looked
at that chick. Lust after possessions. You can lust after
a position, you can lust after you know, all sorts
(23:06):
of different things. And like this is where things good
desires get twisted. To be loved and accepted and to
like grow and prosper, those are good desires that you
can basically those can get twisted and put out of
out of ordiner so that you're like, well, yeah, I
want to be loving, accepted in this the way I am,
Because like Parret said, if you don't understand that, you're
going to be warring against pride, selfishness, and lust. Mean
(23:26):
it's first John two sixteen. For everything in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life comes not from the Father
but from the world. Like your source of truth cannot
be what makes you feel good. It needs to be
the word of God. Like I can make a very
I think intellectual argument about why the Bible is a
lot better for a source of truth than anything else
(23:47):
out there. You could look at how old it is,
you could look at all the different places it's referenced,
you know, so many different things. But that's not even
that's that's not. What we're here to do is to
just appeal to you intellectually. It's to know that God's
put something in you and that in your spirit you're
drawn towards truth. You know, like there's something deep inside
us that wants to be drawn towards truth. But we just,
like we said, we get so twisted. And one of
(24:07):
the big lies that is in this whole authentic self,
like you said, is that you have to war against
things in you. You have to understand you have a
sinful nature and there's always going to be things. I
am very conscious because it's so deceptive. Gee, sometimes I'll
ask myself the question. I'll be like, is this just
benefit me? Because if something solely benefits me, or if
that's the root driver of whatever I'm thinking or what
(24:29):
I'm considering, that to me is like, Okay, it needs
to be thrown out right, because that's not putting yourself
on the cross. The moment that you start to go,
who's really benefiting here? Like, what's really driving it? So
it's just a highlight for us all because it's so deceptive.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So just to wrap us up right, this lie of
the authentic self is a terrible source of truth because
it's about you. It's about what makes you feel good.
You got to remember what God really wants for you.
God wants you to mature. God wants you to grow.
God wants you to transform, die to yourself, become everything
that you were created to be. And let's end on
(25:04):
scripture today. Here's what Efesions, chapter four, verse twenty two says.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted
by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the
attitude of your minds, and to put on the new
self created to be like God and true righteousness and holiness.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Thank you very much for listening. Guys, Remember to share,
like subscribe. If you think that this would be something
that someone would enjoy, please send it to them.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
We appreciate it all.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
If you want to get in touch, you can follow
us on Instagram at the Impossible Life. You'll find us
on there. You can also email at Impossible Life Podcasts
at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
You have any questions.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
If you want to get in touch and find out
about Garrett's personal or business coaching, that's the way to
do it. Thank you again for listening. Go out there,
think better, and live the impossible. You see again sooner