Ep. 010 - Silence Your Critics for Greater Health, Weight Loss and a Better Life!

SHOW NOTES

Have you ever wanted to do something but quit while trying or maybe you didn’t even get started because you were worried what other people might say?

Of course you have - as have I - many, many times!  I know you have because you’re human with a normal, functioning human brain.

But that stops today because it’s time to silence your critics.  In today’s episode, I share…

1. The two types of critics you need to watch out for
2. Three ways to silence them
3. How to take action and get into the arena

 TRANSCRIPT

 There are two types of critics who will try to tear you down and keep you from pursuing your dreams. Today I'm gonna tell you how to spot those critics and how to silence them.

Welcome to Man in the Arena, your go-to podcast for all things related to health and weight loss for men over 40. Here we discuss strategies that will get you off the sidelines and into the game so you can achieve your optimal health. It's time to lead a legacy of longevity.

Welcome back to Man in the Arena.

I cannot believe this is our 10th episode. You know, it took me two years to launch this podcast, and here we are already 10 episodes completed with many, many more to come. So since you're listening to this now, I want you to know just how grateful I am for you to be listening and helping grow the Man in the Arena podcast.

And when I see these downloads tick up, I get super inspired because I know it's having impact on you in some way. So thank you. With that, I have three requests. Number one, if you haven't already done so, please leave a five star review, which is gonna help the podcast continue to grow. And it's gonna give other people an incentive to stop and listen as well.

Number two, if you're receiving value from this, please share it with your friends, your family, and your colleagues. And lastly, number three, I want to hear from you. Send me an email and let me know what you like, what you don't like, and if there's a question you have or a specific topic you want me to address in future episodes, please let me know.

So you can send me an email to Craig cr aig the spear method.com. So I know that's a lot to ask, and I promise you I'm gonna bring the heat today. I've got a great episode lined up where we're talking about silencing your critics. Now, I don't care who you are or what you've achieved, at some point there have been two critics who have gotten in your head and stopped you not only achieving your goals, but they've stopped you from even getting started in the first place.

You heard me say two types of critics because there are two types of critics we face. We face the obvious external critics, people who are haters, people who talk shit, people who try to bring us down because they're either jealous or they're fearful themselves. We all know these people, but there's an even more powerful critic, one that keeps us from growing, one that keeps us from taking risks and one that has a huge fear of failure, and that is our inner critic.

So today I'm gonna talk about each of these critics. How to overcome them, how to silence them, and then most importantly, how to take action towards your dreams and your goals. Before I do that, I wanna tie this all together by sharing part of the inspiration for this podcast, which is the poem written by Theodore Roosevelt, and it's called Man in the Arena, and he wrote this over a hundred years ago.

So the poem goes like this. It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, but where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who airs, who comes up short again and again.

But there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows? Great enthusiasms, the great devotions who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end, the trium prove achievement. And who at worst if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those coal and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

As I mentioned earlier, it took me over two years to launch this podcast, mainly because the inner critic inside my head had dominated my thought process. I have thoughts like, you don't know enough. People are not gonna wanna listen to you. You don't know anything about podcasting. Wait a little longer until you have the time and the ability you need to be more polished.

Now, these are just a few of the thoughts that I have, but believe me, there were many, many more, and I know on some level because you're human and you have a pulse and you're breathing, you're listening to this podcast that you've had similar thoughts. You might not even be aware of them. They're so ingrained in your subconscious.

But the reason I know this, Is because you are human and your brain's first order is survival. That means staying safe. That means avoiding risks. That means there's a part of you that doesn't want others to succeed, because if they do, that means you have to grow as well. So we criticize others, we criticize ourselves, all in an effort to survive.

Now, of course, this is old hardware. It doesn't serve us anymore, it's maladaptive. Instead, we have amazing opportunities to pursue our goals. But in order to do that, we need to silence these critics, both external and our inner critic. So here's how we do that. Three things. Number one, we have to find our fans.

Number two, you have to find your inner champion. And finally, number three, you need to show up to the arena and surrender the outcome. So I'm gonna talk about these in a little bit more detail. Find your fans means to find your people. Find people who lift you up and cheer you on, and as hard as it might be to do, you have to let go of anyone else who doesn't.

So let's put this in practical terms, finding your fans and getting rid of people who don't lift you up. The first thing I want you to do is stop watching and reading the news. Nothing positive is going on there. And in fact, all the news outlets are designed to grab and keep your attention. So they have the very interest in activating that survivalist inner critic that I talked about earlier.

Second, curate your social media feed to show you things that inspire you and lift you up. Now this takes a lot of intention, but it's gonna have an amazing impact on the way you think and the way you feel. And the third thing is write down a list of people who you connect with regularly. And if they're not cheering you on and showing belief in you, or they're always tearing themselves down, or they're tearing you down or gossiping about other people, you might wanna start finding new fans.

And one of the things I'm so fortunate to have is a number of people, especially in my coaching community, who are my fans and I'm fans of theirs as well, and we're constantly cheering each other on. I also have coaches and friends, and of course my family who energize me and lift me up now. I've had haters as well.

I've had people who bash me. But through this process of filtering my inputs and surrounding myself with positive people, my external critics have mostly been silenced. I'm not naive to believe that they don't exist, but I certainly don't pay them any attention. Next up, you wanna find your inner champion.

So when I was in training camp with the Hamilton Tie Cats of the Canadian Football League, There was another receiver who was there and he was always smiling. He was always bringing this big energy and you know, always just so positive at meetings and practice. And it didn't matter if you were a rookie or if you were a tenure vet.

He was there to give you a high five when you succeeded and then he was there to pat you on the back when he failed. He, he was awesome. And that's what we need to cultivate in ourselves rather than that inner critic. We need to give ourselves high fives every day, and we need to pat ourselves on the back when we mess up.

So there's a woman on social media who offers a bunch of courses who I follow. Her name's Mel Robbins. Maybe you've heard of her, but she talks about this concept of giving yourself a high five every day in the mirror. Look at yourself, give yourself a high five. And at first I thought this was super gimmicky and it was ridiculous, but I have to tell you that the more I do it, the more my inner champion comes alive.

And then the less I hear from my inner critic, and I wanna offer to you that it can be that simple. Imagine if you developed this habit of validating yourself every day. What would happen? My bad is that you'd stop people pleasing. You'd start taking more risks, and you'd stop avoiding failure. You'd probably also stop having that imposter syndrome.

In fact, I know this would happen because it happened to me. And I have to tell you that up until a year ago, I really didn't like who I was, and despite all the success and all the positive people that I had in my life, I let my inner critic dominate my inner dialogue, and it led me to some really dark thoughts until one day I made a conscious effort to be more clear and elicit my inner champion, which is silenced, mostly my inner critic.

Lastly, number three. You need to show up to the arena and surrender the outcome. So just show up and surrender the outcome. I love this idea of being in the arena and practicing your craft. Whatever that looks like. Maybe it's growing your business or losing weight. Maybe it's overcoming past trauma or improving your relationships or stopping over drinking, whatever it is.

Just show up and do the reps. So for me, it's post on social media. Start a podcast, make offers to people. Work out, even if it's just for 15 minutes. Make a meal plan for today. Get your blood work done, reach out to a coach, and ask for help. When you show up and you surrender the outcome, you start to see what you're capable of way more than your inner and external critics would ever be willing to give you credit for.

From there, you develop more confidence and you find an even deeper connection to your fans and your inner champion. And then of course, this becomes a positive, virtuous cycle. But first you have to show up. You have to get off the sidelines, and you have to get into the arena and do the reps. Sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you will succeed, but you'll be in the arena getting better and realizing your true potential.

So I challenge you. To start silencing your critics, your inner critic, your external critics by finding your fans, finding your inner champion, and then show up to the arena, surrender the outcome, and do the reps. And of course, I'm here to help you do all that. So connect with me. Head on over to the spear method.com.

Schedule a free consultation, and we're gonna talk about where you are now, where you want to get to, and how you're gonna get there. I want to thank you for listening. Again, like I said at the beginning of the episode, I'm so grateful for all the positive feedback I've been getting all the reviews, all the shares, so please keep doing that for me.

I look forward to episode number 11 next week, and in the meantime, keep leading a legacy of good health and longevity.

If you're ready to step inside the arena and change the trajectory of your health, head on over to the spear method.com and download by free guide to learn simple and effective strategies on how to optimize your health today.