# The Psychology of Self-Sabotage w/ Dr. Ben Steel, Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #847

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbell-shrugged-988895/the-psychology-of-self-sabotage-w-dr-ben-steel-doug-larson-travis-mash-dr-mike-lane-847
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbell-shrugged-988895/the-psychology-of-self-sabotage-w-dr-ben-steel-doug-larson-travis-mash-dr-mike-lane-847.md
Podcast: [Barbell Shrugged](https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbell-shrugged-988895)
Published: 2026-05-06T07:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://barbellshrugged.libsyn.com/the-psychology-of-self-sabotage-w-dr-ben-steel-doug-larson-travis-mash-dr-mike-lane-847
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/barbellshrugged/Dr._Ben_Steele_Episode.mp3?dest-id=93237
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/barbell-shrugged-988895/episodes/the-psychology-of-self-sabotage-w-dr-ben-steel-doug-larson-travis-mash-dr-mike-lane-847
Duration seconds: 3274

## Resource

In this episode, Dr. Ben Steel joins Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane to break down the psychology of self-sabotage, performance anxiety, and why high performers often get in their own way. Ben shares his background as a former wrestler, certified mental performance consultant, and mental health counselor, explaining how his own experience with pre-performance anxiety led him into sports psychology. The conversation centers on how athletes and driven people often use avoidance, perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking, and "paralysis by analysis" as protective mechanisms, not because they are lazy or weak, but because they are trying to avoid shame, embarrassment, failure, or exposure. The team also explores how self-sabotage shows up differently in athletes, lifters, business owners, and high performers. For some people, it looks like blowing a diet, skipping competition, overtraining, or waiting until everything is perfect before taking action. For others, especially successful people, it can look like over-indexing on work or performance while avoiding uncomfortable emotional conversations, relationships, or deeper personal issues. Ben explains how tools like CBT, visualization, breathing, self-talk, arousal regulation, and pre-performance routines can help, but the deeper solution often starts with empathy, trust, outside perspective, and helping people feel understood rather than judged. Big takeaway: self-sabotage is usually not a character flaw. It is a protection strategy. The goal is to identify what pain the person is avoiding, reduce the perceived threat, build confidence through small actions, and help them step into a challenge without needing everything to be perfect first. Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/barbell-shrugged-988895/episodes/the-psychology-of-self-sabotage-w-dr-ben-steel-doug-larson-travis-mash-dr-mike-lane-847/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbell-shrugged-988895/the-psychology-of-self-sabotage-w-dr-ben-steel-doug-larson-travis-mash-dr-mike-lane-847.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.