The Rob Arthur Podcast

Do you ever feel like you just can’t get out of your own head?

Ruminating over the past?

Things you’ve said and done, replaying repeatedly.

Worrying about the future?

Thinking about all the things that could go wrong.

Powerless over the present?

Unable to resist your impulses.

Each and every thought pulling you this way and that.

Unable to control your thoughts?

Such patterns can be frustrating and defeating.

You’re not doomed to feeling this way forever.

Your mind can serve you.

A tool for reflection and solving problems.

Moving you toward your best life.

Or it can hold you back.

A tool for reactivity and impulse.

Stuck in a cycle of depression, rumination, and anxiety.

Learn to use your mind or it will continue to use you.

Start with a mindfulness practice like meditation.

Even two minutes a day can help tremendously.

The key is consistency.

Showing up, day after day.

Even for those two minutes.

If you think you need professional help, seek it out.

There’s no shame in that.

But consider what you can do first.

The basics that give you the best chance possible.

You’re worth that chance.

You’ve got this.

You might have seen recent headlines reporting that a low-fat vegan diet can speed up your metabolism, boost weight loss, lower your diabetes risk, and prevent disease (1, 2, 3).

But does the study on which these headlines are based support such claims?

In a controlled experiment, there are independent variables (e.g. specific foods or nutrients) and dependent variables (e.g. health outcomes).

Ideally, an adjustment is made to only one independent variable, then the dependent variables are monitored for any effects of that adjustment.

If more than one independent variable is adjusted at once, it can't be determined which adjustment is responsible for any observed effects.

The study in question compared an intervention group - instructed to follow a diet of vegetables, grains, legumes, and fruits without animal products or added fats, supplement Vitamin B12, and attend weekly support meetings - to a control group - asked to not make any dietary change (4).

The intervention group lost weight, decreased liver and muscle fat levels, and improved markers of insulin resistance, compared to the control group.

So, the intervention group did benefit from their low-fat vegan diet.

However, the study wasn't designed to show if that's because the diet was low-fat and/or vegan, as the headlines might suggest.

With so many changes to the intervention group’s diet, we can't tell whether or how each change played a role in the observed health outcomes.

Furthermore, previous studies have shown prioritizing food quality to promote eating less, weight loss, and improvements in multiple disease risk factors, regardless of relative amounts of dietary fat or animal products (5,6,7).

Thus, it’s likely the intervention group’s benefits were due to an overall improvement in dietary quality, as evident by increased fiber intake, decreased caloric intake, and reportedly high adherence.

If you're looking to improve your health, consider first prioritizing high quality, minimally-processed, nutrient dense foods.

This will likely take you further than worrying about any specific food or nutrient.

Oh, and take any news headline with a hefty grain of salt :-)

You’ve got this.

So many of us want more time.

In the short term, we’d like more hours each day.

To accomplish more tasks.

To hit more deadlines.

To pack more in.

In the long term, we’d like more years in a lifetime.

To reach more goals.

To build more memories.

To chase after more dreams.

Alas, neither the hours in a day nor the years in a lifetime are up to us.

We’ve only got so much of each.

And the only time we really have is right now.

This moment and what we do with it.

You may feel like you don't have enough time.

Like you'll never get everything done.

Unable to do all you want to do.

That may be true.

Complaining won't do any good, though.

Clarify what matters most to you.

Prioritize accordingly.

The time you have is the time you have.

How are you using your time?

Are you allocating it to the efforts that fill your cup?

Or squandering it on fruitless pursuits?

Only you can answer such questions.

Based on your values.

On your priorities.

Yours, and yours alone.

You’ve got this.

We often hold ourselves back out of self-doubt.

We’re unsure if we’ll succeed.

We don’t know if we’re capable.

We might fail.

Make a mistake.

Embarrass ourselves.

So we just don’t try.

We’d rather play it safe.

Stay in our comfort zone.

We might recognize this pattern of self-doubt.

Perhaps even beat ourselves up for it.

Wishing we were more confident.

Not understanding that our doubt is totally normal.

It's okay to doubt yourself.

There are things you can't do.

Recognizing this is not a flaw.

Self-doubt isn't the issue.

It's letting self-doubt keep you from living.

Paralyzed by fear of failure.

Driven by impossible expectations.

Compounded by lack of self-compassion.

Go ahead and doubt yourself.

Then set out to learn if you’re right or wrong.

Find out what you can and cannot do.

Allow yourself to fail.

Let yourself fall short.

Explore your limits.

That’s the first step in expanding them.

You’ve got this.

There’s knowing what to do.

Then there’s actually doing it.

One of these is more straightforward than the other.

There are countless resources for figuring out what to do.

Books, classes, online lectures.

Never before has information been so accessible.

It’s so accessible that we often get caught up in it.

We dedicate all of our time toward learning.

Toward learning skills we need.

Overlooking the part where we put those skills into practice.

That’s often not a matter of knowing what to do.

It’s having the right mindset to do it.

You can read the books.

Take the classes.

Watch the lectures.

Learn all the skills you need to live your best life.

Will you have the confidence to do the work?

The patience to keep showing up?

The mindset to make it happen?

The skillset without the mindset is useless.

Which is your limiting factor?

Is it a lack of skills?

Or the inner intangibles necessary to use them?

Inner work isn’t easy.

It’s uncomfortable.

Rarely exciting.

But it’s worth it.

You’re worth it.

You’ve got this.

It’s not always easy to accept our reality.

When we haven’t achieved what we’ve set out to achieve.

When our lives aren’t the lives we expected to live.

When we’re not the person we aspire to be.

Some of us admit when we’ve missed our target.

We see failure as a valuable lesson, an opportunity for growth.

Others of us choose to hide our shortcomings.

Seeing failure as shameful, embarrassing.

So we put on a façade.

Trying to impress others with a shallow appearance of “success”.

Even when we’re far from it.

You may be able to lie to your friends.

Or to your coworkers.

Your family, even.

Not to yourself.

You might get away with it for a while.

Deep down, though, you'll know the truth.

Eventually, you'll resent yourself.

Knowing you're living a lie.

Be honest with yourself.

Your truth might not be what you want it to be.

You can’t change that without first admitting that.

If not to others, to yourself.

You deserve that.

You are worthy of a most excellent life.

If you’re not there yet, that’s okay.

Start where you are.

Take it one step at a time.

You’ve got this.

People can say hurtful or offensive things.

Do things to make our lives more difficult.

Annoy and inconvenience us, even in the smallest ways.

It’s really freaking hard to be kind when these things happen.

Our instinct is to reflect to them who they’ve been to us.

To say something rude back.

Make their life more difficult.

Annoy and inconvenience them.

We might even take it out on the next person we see.

Seeking some sense of retribution or justice.

Even if only a fleeting illusion.

Yet, all we’re doing is perpetuating the problem.

Doing nothing to stop the cycle.

We don’t have to play that role.

Somebody might say something rude to you.

Do something that makes your life more difficult.

Could even simply be a small annoyance or inconvenience.

You'll want so badly to return the favor.

Why not show them kindness instead?

You don't know what battles others are fighting.

What problems, insecurities, or pain they’re carrying.

Choose to be part of the solution.

To be a light in their darkness.

You might even encourage them to do so for somebody else.

If not, that’s okay.

You can only control you.

Do what you can.

It’s all you can do.

You’ve got this.

We beat ourselves up over a number on the scale.

We avoid looking in the mirror.

We’re never satisfied with our performance in the gym.

We see our health decline slowly over the years.

Our bodies can be major sources of discontent.

Perhaps even disappointment.

We don’t look, feel, or weigh how we think we should.

So we feel shame, guilt, and embarrassment.

Some of us work hard to change our bodies.

Some of us resign out of frustration and hopelessness.

Either way, most of us do so in an effort to “fix” a body we hate.

Failing to recognize that our bodies are our most precious gifts.

Your body may not weigh what you want it to.

You might hate how you think it looks.

It may not be as strong as you'd like.

Perhaps it's even failing you.

Treat it with love anyway.

Loving thoughts, words, and actions.

Your body is the only one you'll ever have.

This doesn’t mean you have to accept it “as is”.

It’s okay to want to improve.

To be healthier, stronger, and more capable.

But guide those efforts from a place of self-love.

You are worthy of a body that you love.

You’ve got that body right now.

You’ve always had it.

You always will have it.

You are worthy.

You’ve got this.

How often do we let fear of failure keep us from even trying?

We don’t attempt to improve our eating habits.

We’re afraid we won’t stick to them or they won’t work.

We don’t pursue that project or promotion.

We’re afraid we’ll drop the ball.

We don’t allow that romantic interest to develop.

We’re afraid it’ll end in heartbreak.

When we do this, we don’t only throw away any chance of success.

We also throw away the opportunity to learn.

To learn about our shortcomings.

To see what about ourselves we might improve.

To discover more about what we want and how to make it happen.

When we avoid failure, we avoid growth.

This can be a frustrating process.

Especially for the perfectionists among us.

But the lessons we learn with each iteration are invaluable.

Each failure, taking us one step closer to success.

Serving as a tool for growth.

The more you fail, the more you can learn.

The more you learn, the more you can succeed.

Take a little pressure off of yourself.

Practice some self-compassion.

Fail with courage and humility.

Let failure lay the foundation for success.

Use it as a stepping stone.

Take that step.

To move toward your best life.

You are worthy.

You’ve got this.

It’s not uncommon to feel stuck.

Like we’re not making any progress.

Day after day.

Week after week.

Year after year.

Our life isn’t getting any better or richer.

We might not have any glaring problems.

Yet, we feel this emptiness.

Often, this is because we actually are stuck.

We’re not making any progress.

We’re simply going through the motions.

There’s a solution to this feeling of stagnation.

Identify what you want.

Who you want to be.

What you’re called to accomplish.

How to make it happen.

Then do the work.

Start with identifying.

Follow up with doing.

Identify then do.

It might sound simple.

It won’t be easy.

It’ll take some time to figure out what you want.

You’ll probably fail, repeatedly.

That’s okay.

Keep showing up.

Keep moving forward.

That’s unstuck.

You’ve got this.