Personal Thought: Jay Shetty Podcast x Emma Watson

I listened to the whole 02:38:15 Jay Shetty Podcast episode with Emma Watson recently. I’m not the biggest fan of Jay Shetty given that I don’t find him to be extremely wise or have really good insights. To be honest, he gives very obvious advice in my opinion; he seems more like a new-age guru who makes people feel good as opposed to having true wisdom or truly deep insights. With that said, I do give Jay credit in that he’s a good conversationalist and asks good questions. He does have lots of famous friends and is good at networking and growing his platform. This episode was very interesting because of who the guest was: Emma Watson.

Emma Watson needs no introduction. She’s a world famous actress, model, and public figure. We’ve all watched many of her movies growing up and she has been in the public spotlight for decades now. Emma is only a couple years older than me; I can’t relate to the crazy stuff she said in the podcast about fame, but I can relate to some of the stuff she said about life. I think what stood out to me was how Emma, through all the fame and glamour, wanted to be more authentic and realized that the superficial stuff was not making her happy. The ritz and glamor was all a facade and she was not afraid to say it and take action to course correct. To heal, she took up a more private life and turned to art (creative writing, playwriting, and graduate school) to escape the spotlight. That’s cool, and I respect that a lot because I went on a similar journey to take back my privacy and live a more private life (i.e getting rid of social media). I learned from Emma that it’s important to dabble and try new things, even though one may not be very good. You have to tell yourself: “I am an [X]!”, where you replace X with whatever captures your fancy, no matter how much of a beginner you are at the specific activity. For example, Emma tells herself: “I am an artist!”. As someone who’s around her age (only slightly younger), I can totally relate to the other things she talked about with regard to identity, social expectations, growing older, disappointments, and making an impact. The key takeaway is that we all go through highs and lows as people; you never truly know what hidden battles someone else is going through, no matter how perfect it seems on the outside. So be kind. I think this was a cool podcast episode overall and I learned a lot!