The voice you don't have to argue with

22 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief monologue, Dr. Aziz explains that being on your own side is not about indulging in positive self‑talk but about recognizing the split between objective reality and the internal narrator that constantly comments on your performance. He acknowledges that real challenges—such as setting boundaries, speaking up, or making career changes—require concrete action in the world. However, alongside that action there is a parallel stream of self‑critical narrative. Dr. Aziz advises listeners to consciously withdraw attention from this inner commentary, likening it to a radio channel that can be switched off. By treating the narrator as "bullshit radio" and simply changing the channel, one can reduce the mental noise that interferes with effective problem‑solving.

Chapters

Being on your own side is not a bunch of positive self-talk. It's simply being able to separate here's reality, here's the narrator. I'm not saying that there aren't real challenges you want to solve. You maybe do want to know how to talk to somebody who's giving you a hard time or have a boundary or speak up or go for something or change your job or whatever that takes real steering in the river. You want to do, take action in the world. But I will say this, that there is actually addressing the challenge, the problem, speaking up, saying the thing, whatever. And then there's this narrative commentary about you and how you're doing. And the more you can withdraw attention from that, literally just think of it as a channel, you say we're changing the channel. My friend would call that bullshit radio. I'm calling it the narrator. We just changed the channel.