Change the Ingredients: What to Do When Your Life Tastes Like Anxiety

If you don't like the way your life tastes right now, stop blaming circumstances and start changing your ingredients.

It is exactly 9:00 A.M. What have you already fed your mind today? If your morning routine consists of compulsive doomscrolling, breaking news alerts, or a casual complaint ritual with your partner, you aren’t just looking at "content"—you are consuming a high-friction, low-nutrition mental diet that actively programs your mood, your self-worth, and your earning capacity.

In this episode of the Living Lucky® Podcast, Jason and Jana lay out the ultimate psychological menu, classifying the three distinct mental diets running society. They expose the hidden traps of the "Status Quo" lifestyle—the middle-of-the-pack mindset where inspiration flickers constantly through saved quotes and saved videos, but never matures into real execution. If the world is accelerating and you are consuming the same default inputs, you aren't staying safe; you are actively falling behind.

In This Episode:

• The "Worthless" Soundtrack: How letting thoughts of lack go unchecked turns your focus into a searchlight for threats, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Flickers vs. Flames: Why collecting inspirational quotes without taking immediate, uncomfortable action leaves you completely stagnant.
• Not-So-Ball Soup: A sharp, repeatable linguistic boundary to instantly shut down complaint culture and financial scarcity talk around you.
• The Cheerios Principle: How to utilize radical agency to prune toxic cynicism from your inner circle and fiercely protect your optimism.
• The Streaming Detox: The operational reality behind Jason and Jana completely cutting off their streaming subscriptions to starve anxiety and focus on production.
• Receptivity Overload: Why old habits of unworthiness construct invisible blockers that actively sabotage good opportunities the moment they land in your lap.

You are the absolute chef of your own mind. Stop force-feeding your soul mental junk food and expecting an extraordinary life.

Listen now, subscribe, and replace the empty calories with high-octane fuel.

NUGGETS

• You are the chef of your own mind. If your daily experience feels heavy, repetitive, or anxious, you don't have a motivation problem—you have a toxic consumption problem.
• Inspiration without execution is an expensive illusion. Scrolling for good vibes and telling others they are inspiring while avoiding the micro-risks required to change your own story is a hidden form of regression.
• The world is moving too fast for mediocrity to be safe. If you are the exact same person on December 31st that you were on January 1st, you haven't maintained the status quo; you have fallen behind.
• Unworthiness acts as an energetic immune system. When your subconscious is conditioned to view lack as normal, it will actively construct invisible blockers to reject abundance because success feels foreign and unsafe.
• Optimism and cynicism are equally contagious. You must exercise ruthless agency over your human inputs. Practice saying "Not so" to group complaint sessions before their low-vibrational narrative programs your expectations.

Questions:

What is a mental diet and how does it affect your mindset? A mental diet is the sum total of all digital content, news, internal self-talk, and social conversations an individual consumes daily. Because the brain automatically seeks confirmation for its dominant inputs, a low-quality diet filled with doomscrolling, breaking news, and casual complaints directly programs the subconscious to expect scarcity, anxiety, and failure.

Why is staying in your comfort zone considered a hidden way of falling behind? Staying in your comfort zone results in stagnation while the surrounding economic and social landscape progresses at an accelerated pace. If an individual fails to consistently learn, expand, and take calculated risks, their skills and perspectives remain fixed, meaning they are effectively regressing relative to an evolving world.

How do unworthiness blockers affect an individual's ability to receive success? Unworthiness blockers are subconscious defense mechanisms that activate when an individual experiences a positive breakthrough that contradicts their familiar, low-vibrational self-image. Because the nervous system prioritizes familiarity over expansion, it will generate underlying discomfort or anxiety, driving the individual to unconsciously self-sabotage the new opportunity.

⏱️ CHAPTER MARKERS (ENGINEERED FOR MAX FOMO)

• The 9 A.M. Audit: What have you already contaminated your mind with today? Your day is barely starting, and you have likely already programmed your system for failure. Listen here to find out how your first look at your phone dictates your entire financial mood.
• The "Worthless" Soundtrack: Dismantling the hidden script of not being enough When you let sub-surface phrases like "I'm not ready" go completely unchecked, you build a self-fulfilling cage. Discover the precise mechanism that turns your focus into a radar for threats.
• The Tall Poppy Syndrome: Why your fear of mediocrity is masking absolute stagnation You might believe you are above average, but hiding in the middle of the pack is a slow-motion trap. Learn why scrolling for inspiration without taking terrifying micro-steps is a symptom of deep decay.
• Flickers vs. Flames: Why you need to stop calling other people "inspiring" Using other people's success as digital entertainment while refusing to feed your own flame is a massive cop-out. Turn here to find out why staying unchanged for 12 months means you are actively losing ground.
• Not-So-Ball Soup: The linguistic execution tool to completely shut down brokers of scarcity How to implement a proprietary boundaries protocol popularized by elite personal development frameworks. Learn exactly what to say to evict complaining friends, broke habits, and systemic doom-looping.
• The Cheerios Ultimatums: Ruthlessly pruning long-term cynics from your inner circle Optimism isn't soft; it's a high-value performance asset that requires protection. Access the direct strategic method for choosing who gets access to your ears and who gets a definitive farewell.
• Grateful Fruit: Moving past beginner gratitude journals to leverage the hard data Listing three superficial items you're glad to have won't move your thermometer. Discover the three advanced tiers of gratitude—including how to monetize the worst crises you’ve ever survived.
• The Streaming Execution: Why we completely terminated our digital subscriptions TV and repetitive anxious news loops are the equivalent of pure chemical sugar to your executive functioning. Hear the raw timeline of our subscription detox and learn how to quiet your mind enough to produce.
• The Receptivity Deficit: Shattering the invisible blockers that reject real wealth You can execute every strategy perfectly, but if your identity is stuck in a low-vibrational baseline, your mind will actively repulse big wins because the success feels too unfamiliar. Learn how to open the pipes.
• how to change your mental diet
• overcoming internal unworthiness blocks
• stop doomscrolling anxiety routine
• mindset shifting exercises for success
• how to stop living a mediocre life
• positive mental attitude growth strategies
• why does inspiration without action keep you stuck
• how morning news consumption causes chronic anxiety
• identifying invisible blockers to wealth and abundance
• shifting from a scarcity mindset to an extraordinary life
• why staying the same means you are falling behind
• how to handle negative people who complain constantly 
• dynamic gratitude practices for high performing adults

Mental Diet Optimization, Eliminating Doomscrolling, Overcoming Mediocrity, Subconscious Programming, Scarcity Mindset Detox, High Vibration Inputs, The Four-Minute Formula, Ruthless Boundaries, Receptivity Blockers, Elite Performance Coaching

Transcript

From Doom Loop To Upward Cycle

Jana and Jason Shelfer 0:00

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start Living Lucky®. Good morning. I'm Jana. And we are Living Lucky®. You are

You Are What You Consume

Jana and Jason Shelfer 0:19

too. You are what you eat. That's so true. You are what you consume. Yes. You are the cook. You are the chef. What are you feeding your mind? Yes, your life becomes what you feed your mind. It's just, it's the way things work. So let's just ask ourselves. It is nine o'clock this morning. What have we already consumed this morning? Have you picked up your phone? Have you doom scrolled? Have you turned on the news? What is it? You read a book. Have you complained to your partner? Oh, that's a tough one. Right? Like, oh, I don't want to go to work today. I mean, that's just hearing that is a form of allowing things into your mind that says, work is bad. It's going to be a hard day. What are you feeding your mind? And we always talk about awareness, but when you become aware, what is it that I'm feeding my mind? Then it it becomes very clear that we are what we eat, which is what our grandma, our kindergarten teacher, our parents told us growing up. You are what you eat. Yeah, you hear it on the commercials. You are what you eat from your head down to your feet. Oh my gosh, I've never heard that. You haven't heard it. I'm gonna steal that. It was uh I just remember hearing that Saturday mornings at like seven o'clock in the morning when I'd get up for cartoons when I was a kid.

The “Worthless” Thought Diet

Jana and Jason Shelfer 1:47

Now, there's levels of diets you could either be on I think one of the one of the first ones that's that strikes me is you hear people go, God, I'm so worthless. Like like you kind of hear that internal voice sometimes. Well, when you say that, there's there's a lot that falls under that umbrella. It could be I'm not smart enough, I'm not skinny enough, I'm not pretty enough, I'm not young enough, I'm not old enough, I'm not sure. That just gave me goosebumps because there are times in my life where I have felt like that was that was the diet that I was on. That was that was what I was feeding my my brain, my soul, my like those were the things that I was allowing to go unchecked in my mind. Okay. So right now we are describing what maybe a poor diet. Just a really crappy diet. And when you start feeding your mind with poor questions, we say that all the time, your life is very dependent on the quality of questions you ask it. But when you feed your mind with low energy vibrational thoughts, we're talking about thoughts that maybe stew in worry, doubt, fear, uncertainty, lack, unworthiness. It will create a self-fulfilling prophecy. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna go through this life and experience, and you are gonna end up being a victim all the time. Yeah. Because what you're gonna do is there will be something else to blame because you feel unworthy, because you feel not enough, and everything will be pushing in on you all the time.

The Status Quo Comfort Zone

Jana and Jason Shelfer 3:36

Okay, so let's go through what may be a normal or maybe a you said normal. I don't even, I hate that word. Maybe a an average quo or a status quo. The status quo quo diet. The status quo is like, I don't want to stand, I don't want to be the tall poppy syndrome. I don't want to be below average. Yeah, it's kind of the middle of the pack diet. It's a lot of the times what we measure ourselves against, because it's like like how do I how do I be the average American? You know, we all try to measure, look, we hear these statistics. I don't want to be mediocre. I'm above average. In fact, my biggest fear is mediocrity. That's I don't want to be like everyone else. That's so funny. So let's let's talk about what does the status quo diet look like and feel like just where we just sit in our comfort zone. Like this is not anything that allows for the stretch. It's not a it it's it doesn't bring in the excitement, it doesn't live in that the possibility. Yes. This is uh we're still consuming a lot of the news, the feeling. We're gonna stay safe where it's comfortable. Yeah, it's uh oh, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. It's not, I don't want to embarrass myself, it's not necessarily bad. You know, I could I could go to the festival, but you know what, I would be just as content going to bed. There's there's not really a lot that's inspiring. It might have those inspirational moments. I could throw a party, but oh, that's just a lot of money and energy, and you know what, I think I'll just do nothing. Yeah, to me, that this this middle ground it can be recognized by moments of inspiration, but no action in that. You kind of let the inspiration pass you by. They are flickers instead of flames. And what we know is that the world is constantly progressing, maybe at a faster pace than it ever has before. And if you are not constantly growing, learning, expanding, evolving, then really you're being left behind. If you are the same person at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year, then you are slowly falling behind. And I think one of the things in this, in this normal or the this average um setting, yes, you will you might notice yourself scrolling for inspiration and feeling that inspiration, and then not having anything behind it. So you so you you recognize I want to be inspired, yes, but you don't know what you want. So you'll you might be in a you might be in the grocery store, you might be somewhere out, and you so you're you're m taking action. So you're going out and about and you'll see something and you'll say the words, oh, you're so inspiring. Oh, or tell someone I was so inspired by. Or it may then you don't do anything that inspires you. You or you may feel a tinge of, oh, I want what they have, or I I there's something about that that's catching my attention, and you may feel something like envy or jealousy, or but there's something in the background over here because we've been feeding ourselves a little bit of that worthless diet that says, I'm not enough, I'm not worthy, that says I'm not gonna feed that flame. Yes. So now I'm still kind of lingering. So I don't feed the flame to get me to that next other diet that's extraordinary. Oh my gosh. Okay, so let's keep going because what does that extraordinary diet look and feel

Building An Extraordinary Mental Diet

Jana and Jason Shelfer 7:34

like? So to me, this is one that we we kind of need to force-feed ourselves because the world is kind of giving us the other, the other food. It's the vegetables, it's the drinking the water and the nutrients. Yeah, and we have to filter out some of the other stuff. It's the superfood. Yes. Thank you. It's it is a identifying what is it that I exactly, what is the thing that I want? What is important to me? And then what are the things that are empowering and uplifting and that give me energy? Yeah. Give me fuel. Yes. Like what is it that that push that moves me forward and pushes the needle? What gets me a little bit out of my comfort zone and makes me get gets me a little bit nervous and a little bit scared? Yes. And how can I just take a small step towards it? Oh, I love it. Okay, so can you give me just a little more? Those are receiving the it's living in gratitude. Gratitude, it's receiving all of the abundance that is coming your way. Success leads breadcrumbs. So read something. Like we read all the time, we listen to those podcasts, but then we also say, How does this apply to my life and the things that I want out of my life?

Not-So-Ball Soup And Better Company

Jana and Jason Shelfer 8:50

Many, many years ago, we were introduced to the Michael Beckwith diet, and he says, You got to change your diet. You gotta start each day with some not so ball soup. Not so ball soup. And I'm like, what is not so ball soup? Not so ball soup is when you say not so. And that means when you're around people who are complaining. Oh, there's not enough money out there, there's not any good men, there's not enough jobs to go around. Not so, not so. That's right. Eat your not so ball soup, not so. I gotta go. I'm not even gonna listen to it. I'm not even gonna entertain your negative doom and gloom. Because what's happening is people are saying that there's not enough abundance in the world. Yes, and that's just not true. So you start your day with some not so ball soup, and then we're gonna go fill our bowl with Cheerios. That's right. Because we have agency over our attitudes. That is something I learned so many years ago from Jim Rohn. PMA, baby, PMA, positive mental attitude. We have the agency over our minds. Yes. So we can show up with the energy that we want. So that's where the bull of Cheerios is extremely important. Yeah, and he also talked about how we get to have agency over who we're hanging around. Yes. So Cheerios had a kind of a double entendre, I think, is the word, where at two dual meanings. Because sometimes what we'll notice is some of our friends refuse to subscribe to our new way of thinking. Our optimism. Yes, our enthusiasm. They just refuse to say things are going to be better. And they refuse to recognize that there's abundance all around and that things can be positive, that there are good things all around us. So we have to cultivate, we have agency in choosing who we're gonna spend the most time with. So Cheerios to the people that are refusing to subscribe to our new way of thinking. The next thing you need to feed your mind because you are the chef, is some grateful fruit.

Grateful Fruit And Levels Of Gratitude

Jana and Jason Shelfer 11:12

I'm not saying grapefruit, I'm saying grateful fruit. Gratitude. When we live in gratitude, when we are grateful for everything that we have, life just starts to clear. It it just starts to magnify. We talk about this all the time. Is is what you appreciate appreciates. And that I've never found that to be more true than gratitude. It's too bad that it's such an expensive practice to try to start trying. No, it's free. Oh, it's free. What? Hold up this one. Now there's levels of gratitude. First, you know, we always talk about our gratitude journals. And it literally is what can I be grateful for? Can I be grateful for what I have? Can I be grateful for everything around me? Yeah. And then part the next level of the grateful fruit is can I be grateful for the seemingly bad things that have happened in my life? Right. Because those are the challenges. What are what how can I be grateful for the hardest parts of my life that grew me? And we're getting into a little bit of a whole other podcast, but the third level of gratitude then is just being grateful for being alive. And when you get to this level, you are truly Living Lucky® because you are in alignment with source. Yeah. And that's source is just flowing through you. Yeah. And that's kind of like just being in your spiritual curriculum and allowing yourself to be in the natural progression of your growth, learning, expansion, and evolution in your highest power and highest purpose. Now, next on this diet, after your grateful fruit, grateful fruit.

No TV Dinners And Cutting News

Jana and Jason Shelfer 12:59

Grateful fruit is the no TV dinner. Ooh. Because a lot of people are gonna struggle with that one. I struggle with that one. I struggle. I'm gonna be real with you. I go through I go through extremes on this one where we cut it out. And and to be It's my deprivation dial completely transparent. Jason and I have we have cut off our subscriptions to all of our streaming services, which I think end it on June 15th, June 4th. Okay, oh, so like today or tomorrow. Oh, hold on, I'm gonna go watch some TV. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's the no TV dinner because what we consume is what we become. We are the chefs of our lives. And when you think of TV in the scope of a diet, TV is the sugary candy with zero nutritional value. Yeah, it's actually killing us. So one of the things we we actually cut out of our diet was news. And when we cut the news out, and we're not, it's not like we're not informed. We get the information that we need. Well, because the news makes us worry, worry, worry. Yeah, it makes us nerdy. We're nurry. Worried, afraid, nervous, anxious. And the news is literally repeated over and over and it's also designed to hit all the major target points just to program it's programmed for anxiety and fear. So I think just this little recipe of a sample meal for the day will bring awareness to all of us.

Receiving Goodness Without Blocking It

Jana and Jason Shelfer 14:58

And the last little component that I want to bring up is how receptive are you? If you do all of these things, if you eat your not-so-ball soup, your Cheerios, your grateful fruit, your grateful fruit, your no-tv dinners, then are you receptive to all of the wonderful things around you? Because sometimes when we talked about the unworthiness, sometimes when we start to receive and feel all of the good vibes, we tend to bring up blockers without us even really knowing it. And the reason is is because it feels uncomfortable. Yeah. And then and somewhere deep, deep back in our unconscious mind, there's something that's running that says, Are you worthy of this? Yeah. And you'll start to hear the soundtrack playing more clearly. The the more we start just the more breakthroughs you have. Yeah, the more, the more we're tasting this diet. And just recognize that, like Jana said earlier, you are the chef of your own mind. So if you don't like the way your life tastes right now, start changing the ingredients. Oh that say that again. Say it again. You are the chef of your own mind. Jana said that. And if you don't like the taste of your life right now, just start changing the ingredients.

Change Ingredients And Sign Off

Jana and Jason Shelfer 16:24

Thanks for joining us. Keep living luck. Bye-bye. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at LivingLucky.com.