10% Happier with Dan Harris
For the Burned Out, Overcommitted, and Perpetually Drained | Robin Arzón
26 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the 10% Happier podcast. I'm your host, Dan Harris. We are in the middle of an excellent series this week called Get Fit Sanely, where we talk about how to take care of your body without losing your mind. And this series is sponsored by our friends over at Bioptimizers.
Bioptimizers make a product called Magnesium Breakthrough, which they say delivers better sleep, calmer days and more energy. Definitely want to give a big thanks to the folks over at Bioptimizers. You'll be hearing much more about magnesium breakthrough later in today's episode. Today, my guest is going to be talking about hustle. This is a loaded word.
I know a lot of people hear the word hustle and they think they're going to be told to push themselves beyond their capacity. aim for standards that are impossible, both professionally and personally. But my guest is actually trying to retake the word hustle, and she's doing so in ways that I actually find quite convincing.
Said guest is Robin Arzon, who is vice president of fitness programming and head instructor at Peloton. She's a 27 time marathon and ultra marathon runner, a three time New York Times bestselling author and the founder of the Swagger Society. She also hosts a podcast of her own called Project Swagger.
So today we're going to talk about hustle without burnout, how to rewire your self-talk and counter program against your inner critic, the upside of jealousy, why action creates motivation, not the other way around, and much more with Robin Arzon after this quick break. A few things before we hear from our sponsors today. Mark your calendars.
Our Summer Sunday Live series premieres in just a few weeks. Every Sunday for eight weeks, starting on July 12th at 4 p.m. Eastern. You can join us for a live meditation and Q&A hosted by the legendary meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. This is happening only over on my newish meditation app, which is called 10% with Dan Hayes. Harris.
Every Sunday, Sharon's going to break down one part of a foundational Buddhist list called the Noble Eightfold Path. You can think of the Eightfold Path as the Buddha's cookbook for human happiness. We will drop replays in the app if you miss the live sessions, but it should be pretty fun to go to the live sessions themselves.
Sharon will guide a meditation, talk a little bit about one aspect of the Eightfold Path, and then take your questions. This is your chance to both learn from and be in conversation with a true Buddhist master. People always ask me how to get started in Buddhism, and I haven't had a great answer. Now I do take this course with Sharon.
Like I say, it will be live in the app for eight weeks starting on July 12th, but you'll be able to take it anytime you want thereafter. You can go to danharris.com and sign up for the 10% with Dan Harris app right now to start your free trial. and we hope you will join the party. We love what we're doing over in the app, and we'd love to have you as part of it.
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Chapter 2: What does hustle mean in today's context?
They've got a formula called Magnesium Breakthrough that they say supports muscle function, stress response, and recovery, and comes with a 365-day money-back guarantee. As always, talk to your doctor before starting any new supplement. Much more on this later. To learn more, though, you can check out bioptimizers.com slash happier. Use the code happier at checkout for 15% off plus free gifts.
today robin arzon is here to talk about habits identity and how small daily things can compound and speaking of small daily things that compound i want to tell you about eight sleep they make a product called the pod which is a smart mattress cover that heats and cools your bed automatically and tracks your sleep without a wearable it's a habit that runs itself essentially which if you've ever tried to build a habit you know
really is the dream. If you want to check it out, use the code DANHARRIS at 8sleep.com slash DANHARRIS for up to $350 off of the Pod 5. Robin Arzon, welcome to the show.
Let's do this, Dan.
It's so funny to sit here and talk to you because I feel like I know you because I've taken so many rides with you. I've only actually met you one other time, but I'm sure you hear this all the time.
Daily.
Daily. Because you're in my life in such an intimate way. But of course, I don't know you.
And it's a very visceral experience. Like it's different than, you know, watching a movie or even watching a concert. Like you are physically active in that experience. And so there's I mean, there's a chemical thing that happens as well.
Well, it's very cool to sit here with you. I want to talk about hustle. Hustle gets a bad rap, I think, deservedly these days because of hustle porn and this idea that you should, you know, rise and grind and push yourself to exhaustion. Never stop. Never stop. But you have really made an effort to retake. and redefine the word. So can you say more about that?
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Chapter 3: How can we redefine hustle to avoid burnout?
And those are the folks who are redefining hustle for themselves.
I think that's the key, redefining it for yourself. What you just said there is crucial. It's a marriage of something you said earlier, which is you don't get sucked into other people's fire drills. And listeners to this show don't need to follow somebody else's wellness program, but you should figure it out for yourself and go for it, both professionally and personally.
What do you do when the voice in your head is serving up really shitty, undermining thoughts?
That is when I'm usually depleted and I didn't even realize it. It normally happens when I'm on a book tour. Funnily enough, more microphones, more lights, and I'm just like, oh, behind the scenes, I feel like a terrible person just because I'm depleted. That's when I truly go back to basics. How much have you slept? Are you fueling? Do you need a therapy session?
These are things that are very real conversations. And I have a little checklist. So, I affectionately call it my superhero toolkit. And there are basics. There are things that I'm sure that you've talked about on this podcast hundreds of times. But when we are in the throes of it and cortisol is high and it feels like... our body is foreign to us, they're the last thing that we want to do.
It's like, okay, I roll. Like, yeah, I'm supposed to drink a glass of lemon water. Give me a freaking break. The world is crumbling. But sometimes it really is that simple.
So for you, there are moments when you're on a book tour and everybody's asking you questions.
Well, most recently. Most recently. The last time I felt that way was on my book tour. Just because it was a schedule that's usually later for me. It involves travel. I just had to adapt to the demands of those few weeks. But for me, that I could tell that I was misaligned.
Were you having kind of imposter thoughts?
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Chapter 4: What is the difference between intensity and volume in work?
Well, I think that we often view greatness and achievement as other, and we are absorbing and inheriting lots of historical context of what we are capable of. And I especially think I don't know, as a mom, as someone in their 40s, it's for sure changing a lot of those narratives that I feel like I've inherited. But when one feels stuck, I think that's a very helpful question to ask.
Why not you to get unstuck? Why not you to become that person that has never done that thing? Again, a lot of sports analogies because that's what my world is. But, you know, you've got two people just broke world records at the London Marathon, you know, getting sub two hours. Why not them? Right. And now there's going to be a cascade of folks who do that because they that broke that bubble.
of potential. And that's an extreme example, right? Like the top of a sport in human history. But we can scale that and make it apply to our everyday lives. And I think the goal setting, anytime we're goal setting, that has to be a central question. Why not you?
I'm curious, just personally curious, listening to you talk about your goal setting, vision board, striving for greatness, like what's on there now? Like what are your goals?
That's interesting because I just released, if you would have asked me this a year and a half ago when I was creating my cookbook, it would have been my cookbook because I thought, oh my gosh, there's no way as somebody who's not a classically trained chef, I'm going to be able to have a cookbook that is And it's vegan, right? It's a plant-based cookbook.
It felt like the little engine they could. And it did make the New York Times bestseller list. And I was so deeply proud of that because I didn't think it was possible at all. Like I was like, there's just no chance. And that's okay. I poured so much love into that project. not thinking it was going to get some button of achievement on the other side.
I genuinely did it because I wanted to bring folks into my home and into my kitchen and my point of view on fueling intentionally as a plant-based athlete. Now, for this year, I am giving myself the freedom of not having a short list of, I got to do this and I got to do that. You know, there are unscripted projects that I want to pursue.
You know, my husband and I have a media company, Swagger Studios, and we have some seeds that we're planting. I always want to continue expanding into the lifestyle space, beauty, fashion. But it's not like I think that you have to let things breathe. And I think I want to pursue things out of hunger, not thirst. And I'm just waiting for a few pangs of hunger.
It's admirable in my view that you can wait instead of just hurling yourself into the next thing because there has to be a next thing.
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