Women with Cool Jobs
Women with Cool Jobs
Why Being Obsessed Can Help You Start Something New and the Secret for How to Stay Consistent, with Host Julie Berman (Shorties ep)
While being "obsessed" with something may often have a negative connotation, it can make all the difference when it comes to starting something new!
Being obsessed can mean:
- Being deeply in love with or curious about something
- Being so interested in a topic that you're not going to let it go
- Pursuing something with extreme passion and intentionality
You can use it to fuel persistence, overcome challenges, and lead to meaningful personal and professional pursuits.
She also shares some brilliant advice from Atomic Habits author James Clear for how to stay consistent after you start something new.
Contact Info:
Julie Berman - Host
www.womenwithcooljobs.com
@womencooljobs (Instagram)
Julie Berman (LinkedIn)
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I absolutely LOVE being the host and producer of "Women with Cool Jobs", where I interview women who have unique, trailblazing, and innovative careers. It has been such a blessing to share stories of incredible, inspiring women since I started in 2020.
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Hello everybody. This is Julie Berman, and welcome to another episode of women with cool jobs. So this is going to be a shorties episode. To be honest, it has been a crazy time. I have so much going on between sick boys and I have three kids, if you didn't know that, so, and they're all under 10, so as you can imagine, they pass germs around a lot, and so we have been dealing with that. We have the end of the school year happening, and it is just a crazy, crazy time in life. And I've also had done live events. So I did one workshop all about unlocking your alter ego and using the hard times that you have had in the past to figure out this alter ego, and basically how you can use all those beautiful things, like all those skills that you learn, and all that tenacity and persistence, and those beautiful parts of you who got through those hard times, and who did hard things to create this alter ego, so you can use that for the future as a tool. And so that's what I did earlier, earlier, like about two weeks ago, and then today, I had a really fun women's networking event, and we all brought something that we created with love and we shared it. So it was everything from Pottery to someone who knit a baby blanket for a friend to the first chapter of a book that she's writing. And then I shared a poem so so much going on, and amidst all that, I have just like I have just been in it every day, and I once heard this idea of, like, the idea that balance really cannot exist, at least as a mom. And I love that because it brings me, it brings me deep comfort. I have found that to be true what I heard more recently. And I really love and I've been trying to adopt this and really think about it and consider like, how does this apply in my life and where I am now, and how I make decisions and how I prioritize? And it's this concept of of basically being able to prioritize things. It's like, how are you going to use that you have this time now. How are you going to use that time, and what decisions are you going to make in order to prioritize a certain part of your life? Because this idea of balance is like feels so impossible. And if you're a parent, feel free to chime in on this. I would love to hear your thoughts, and if you found a way to balance things. Please let me know your secrets. So the alternative here is that I was thinking about this idea of prioritizing and like, what does that look like in in my life right now, in, you know, some days I am prioritizing my children, some days I'm prioritizing myself, not honestly, not as often as sometimes I would love that's the reality, and other times it's like prioritizing the things that bring me joy and or the things that I feel like will allow growth for me, whether it's personal, professional or both. And so I think all those are really, really important. So it's like, whether you're thinking about your career, whether it be it's things like your family, or outside your family, like if you're a big part of your community in some way, or perhaps part of your religious organization. How do you how do you feel like you're contributing, and how are you prioritizing things? And so part of this is thinking about this made me think about my podcast. So I've been doing this podcast for five years, and I know sometimes the word obsession or obsessed has this really negative connotation. But actually, to me, I love this idea, because to me, it means that you were so in love, or like, you're just like, so curious about something, or you're just like, so interested in it to the extreme that you are not going to let it go. So for me, I'm obsessed with this podcast. I love doing it. It brings me immense amounts of joy. It brings me, I feel like a combination of personal and professional fulfillment. It grows my skill set in right? There's like so many different beautiful things that I have enjoyed about it. And so I really am obsessed with this podcast, and sometimes I'll get people asking about advice for, you know, starting a podcast, like I've so many people over the years Tell me, oh my gosh, I love that you're doing a podcast. I've thought about doing a podcast, and they know exactly what topic they want to do it on. They know exactly like, how they'd want to do it. They have a. Planned out. Sometimes they have topic ideas and they've gotten a mic, but they actually haven't literally started like they haven't actually figured out how to push the record button and record and then share it with the world, but they have so many of the other bigger pieces that actually organized and done and ready to go. So I find this really fascinating. So in thinking about this, I was like, Oh my gosh, okay, if you were wanting to start something, it doesn't have to be a podcast. It can be anything. How do you start? Like, what are the most important foundational elements to starting something? And I recently saw this quote, and I have read this book, also, if you have not read it, I so recommend it. It's called atomic habits by James clear, and it's really a phenomenal book. But the interesting thing is, like one thing that he says is, when determining the size or complexity of a new habit, ask yourself, What can I stick to, even on my worst day? I thought this was fascinating, because if you think about it, a lot of the times when we're making goals, or when we're thinking about our dreams, or, like, going for something big and new, we start from this foundation that is often right, like, what are we doing on our best days? Like on our days that we are all in when we're energized, when we're like, Yes, I can do this and like, when it just feels good, but what about those days when you actually just really don't feel like doing it, whether you're tired, whether you're sad, whether you're upset, whether you're like, Oh my gosh. Why am I doing this? Is this worth the time? Whatever the things that you're saying to yourself, these are the moments that make it really hard to be consistent, to stick with something to like, actually stay true to yourself, to stay aligned to what you're doing and what you're obsessed with. Like, what are you interested in? And like, how are you right? Like, putting things out in the world to make something happen. So this is, I think, such a critical thing, and I think is really a game changer. And I didn't have these words when I first started my podcast. I didn't have this idea of, like, what can I stick to, even on my worst day, per James clear and his brilliance, I thought about just logistically at that time, when I was starting five years ago, also right before the pandemic started. Interesting timing, for sure. But I had two young children, and at the time, they were both under the age of they were like, four and under, and I just remember thinking, like, Okay, what? Because it's really important me, like, when I do something, I go all in. I'm very I use this word again, but like, I'm very obsessed, I'm very persistent, I'm very intentional, and I have very high standards for myself. And so I was like, What can I stick to that I feel like is a challenge, but not too crazy of a challenge, and also reasonable, given that I am a mom. You know, things are constantly going on that I just, I can't possibly know what's coming, whether it's my kids getting sick, whether it's the world pandemic and the world shutting down that I was not, I was not planning for you, I guarantee that whether it's, you know, something with my husband or my family, there's just so many things in life that we can't always, we can't always guess what's going to happen. And so I decided that I would release the podcast every other week, on Wednesday, and I have literally stuck to that for five years. I took a super short break, like a little bit after my third son was, was born, and, you know, and I've done a few reruns here and there, but, like, literally, I have made the commitment for five years that I am basically, like, releasing an episode. It took me six months to figure out how to podcast because I just, I didn't know anyone who's podcasting. I didn't know what a podcast was. I had never opened the app on my phone. Like, I didn't even know what it looked like. I mean, literally, how did you research like, what is the difference between a YouTube channel and a vlog and a blog and a podcast? And so I did, like, six months of work, and then I started the podcast, and here I am. And so I'm really proud of that, and so I want to suggest to you, like, if you are starting something new, if you have this desire, something that you've been really wanting to do, something that you have been thinking about, like a thought that's been coming back to you, that you feel like you can't let go of and you're just so curious about, or something that you're passionate about, you're obsessed with it. I want to challenge you to start and to ask yourself, What can I stick to? Even on my worst day? I think that is so powerful. And some other things. I think are really interesting to think about as you are considering you know something to start, like answering a few questions I think can be really, really helpful. So the quick and dirty version of like, how to start anything and some key questions you'd want to ask yourself are one, what are you incredibly obsessed with or about? Two, what's an idea that you absolutely can't let go of, and you keep coming back to it time and time again. Three, what's something you are totally curious about, and you must know more if you have an answer to any one of these questions. Or all three. I think you are ready to start. And consider this your permission slip if you feel like you need one. So now you're saying, like, okay, great. You have these great questions to think about. You have the idea of, like, what can I stick to even on my worst day? And that's like a starting place. And so I think that by starting, essentially, you can think about what is the first tiniest step. Like, if you know that you want to start writing a book, you don't have to actually start at the beginning, right, like you can start anywhere in the book and work from there. If you want to join a new a new group and grow in a certain area, like you want to do a new hobby, or you want to be part of, like a book club. What is the first easiest step that you can do, whether that's researching on Facebook and like going to groups and typing in your city and putting in Book Club, whether it's listening to a podcast on a particular topic that really interests you, whether you know that could be AI, that could be knitting, it could be scrapbooking, it could be right, there's, like, a plethora of topics that you can just learn about so easily now. And the idea is, is starting, is that like, what is that first, tiniest step, and if it feels overwhelming, then my next suggestion is like, break that down into even tinier steps when I first, when I first thought about podcasting, because I literally had no idea what podcasting was. I just had no conceptualization of it. I just knew it was audio based, and that's all I knew. I felt so big and so overwhelming, and it took me months to research. And so the idea of learning piece by piece, like, you know, thinking about, okay, my first tiny action step is going to going to my phone and typing in the App Store podcast, right, and figuring out, oh, this is where the podcast app is. I'm going to open it and I'm going to listen to several podcasts and just see, like, what are the difference between them? What kind of topics are people talking about, who's on, what kinds of guests do they have on getting these basic types of information you can do this in any area. And so I hope that this helps you, not only to have a little bit of inspiration to start something that's maybe on your heart or that you've been really excited about, that you've been thinking about, but also thinking about how you can set yourself up for success, how you can stay consistent, and how to how to do that, like, where's the starting place and how to get started is like taking one tiny little step, the tiniest step, and just building off of that. So hope you're having such an amazing may, if you have graduations in in your life, or in your family's life, or loved ones. I hope those are amazing and that you get to celebrate them. I know here in Arizona, we are going into a season of lots of heat, and actually for me, I really don't enjoy this time of year. It's really rough, except for the fact that actually a lot of my family has birthdays, so that's like a joyous part. Other than that, I don't enjoy the heat, but I hope that you are stepping into this like next season, as we enter into summer, and it's something beautiful where you live and lovely. And if you have not yet, please make sure. Do me a huge, huge favor. Please make sure that if you're especially on Apple and Spotify listening to this, that you scroll all the way down, there's an area where you can click, write a review. Please write me a quick review. I have 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of listens and and a handful of reviews, so I always appreciate them. I read them. Gives me so much joy and inspiration to keep going. Make sure you if you're loving it, please click on five star rating for both of those and it basically just helps share with the world that you are loving this in that ask the algorithm of these podcast platforms, it asks the algorithm to share it out with other people so that more people know that women with cool jobs exist. Artists, and they can get inspiration, they can learn, they can hear all these beautiful stories of incredible women. So I truly appreciate it, and I really appreciate your time. So thank you so much for listening to this shorties episode, and I hope you're doing amazing you.