Why Smart Women Podcast
Welcome to the Why Smart Women Podcast, hosted by Annie McCubbin. We explore why women sometimes make the wrong choices and offer insightful guidance for better, informed decisions. Through engaging discussions, interviews, and real-life stories, we empower women to harness their intelligence, question their instincts, and navigate life's complexities with confidence. Join us each week to uncover the secrets of smarter decision-making and celebrate the brilliance of women everywhere.
Why Smart Women Podcast
Doone Roisin talks Dresses Determination and Davos Pt.2
Ever wondered why it's so hard to try new things, even when nothing's truly stopping you? This episode dives deep into the psychology of self-limitation and offers practical wisdom for breaking free from restrictive thinking patterns.
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Anyone can just show up and be your unique self, or be your weird self, or just try you know, just try and who knows what happens, but From relationships, career choices, finances to faux fur jackets and kale smoothies.
Speaker 2:Every moment of every day, we're making decisions. Let's make them good ones. I'm your host, annie McCubbin, and, as a woman of a certain age, I've made my own share of really bad decisions. Not my husband, I don't mean him, though I did go through some shockers to find him, and I wish this podcast had been around to save me from myself. This podcast will give you insights into the working of your own brain which will blow your mind. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land in which I'm recording and you are listening on this day. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. Hello, smart women, and welcome back.
Speaker 2:This is part two of my interview with Doon Rashin, where we chat about how we don't try new things because we're scared. If you haven't already, please have a listen to part one. Enjoy, enjoy, because I do. You think that people get caught in like a cognitive loop where you just this is what's expected of me and this is what I'm going to do and this is what I've always done, where, almost like, there's a paucity of imagination. You know how can we prick the side of that sort of habitualised thinking and go hang on. I was really good at drama in like year nine, or I like what you said about singing lessons.
Speaker 1:It's like why is it you're going to start singing? I'm absolutely the worst singer of all time. I am. I am the worst singer.
Speaker 2:And I had singing lessons.
Speaker 1:We should have been singing today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we should have, because I'm an actor and I wanted to go for more jobs in musical theatre. And after about three years the teacher said look, sweet Annie, you've got a really sweet voice, but it's never going to be, you're never going to be able to belt anything and all it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't even know if I'd accept that. I feel like now, in today's world with technology and social media, you could be some DJ with some cool synth mic in front of you and still be.
Speaker 2:Whoever you want to be, I'm like throw that attitude, yeah, and I and I like that, and I think that is to do with your, I think that's to do with your age. It's like you and your generation really look at things so differently and I find it so exciting and so stimulating that you don't get stuck. It's like anything is possible for a certain class.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I mean I can't speak for other people but for myself. I am someone who is really action orientated. I'm always someone who, if I don't like the thing, I change the thing and I move in a different direction and I'm constantly trying things, doing things to figure out also what I don't like. That gets me closer to what I do like and what I do want. And so when I get stuck in a state of inertia where I've just been like filtering through something and I realize, hey, I don't actually like this, I don't want to do this anymore, I will not do it anymore, yeah, I'm just wondering where that thinking, where that thinking comes from well, it doesn't make sense to do something that you don't like yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, for some people they genuinely are trapped and they really have to do what they're doing.
Speaker 1:I mean, we oh yeah, I mean, I'm only talking about my own personal situation yes, yeah, I can't speak to other people and I think for myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's right, though I think there's a cohort that can't do anything about it, but there's a massive cohort that can, that actually can live a different life and don't. And it's always interesting for me to unpick why don't we? You know, especially for us living at this level of society, there's so much that's available and yet so many people sort of live highly restricted lives, but really they're restricting themselves at this level.
Speaker 1:They're restricting themselves yeah, and I think you said something just before about. I think you said something about your like different generation or something like this and I also am like yeah, but you still have access to a phone and social media.
Speaker 1:I still have access, so it doesn't matter about age and it doesn't matter about generations, because you can go on TikTok and I guarantee if you open TikTok right now, you would see someone that's 99 and has millions of followers yeah because he is just a 99 year old or she 99 year old grandparent who's on there talking about life lessons from a grandparent and, like anyone, can pick up a free internet, phone situation, social media you don't have to pay to be on social media and create something, regardless of your age.
Speaker 2:So age, I don't think is a barrier, and you are so right, and what that shows me is I've just hit up against a cognitive bias of my own. So you're absolutely right, and that's a brilliant example of how we take these cognitive biases into our lives and we don't examine them.
Speaker 2:And you've just made me examine it and you're absolutely right. I, you know, I was an actor until I was well. I've acted my whole life, but just cleanly. That was my major career. And then I went into a consultancy and I was in my fifties before I thought I want to write a book and I hit up against so many and I hit up against so many. I can't, I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:And I had this structure in my head, which is why David thinks I've got ADHD as well. But I had this idea in my head that I could write a comedic novel and at the end of each chapter I would have the cognitive flaws that had infected the behavior of the characters and gave them poor decision making. And I kept talking to publishers and they were like what you want to do, what? And until I found one that actually saw that it had value. But and I'm sure it's been the same for you, which brings me to this idea of confidence and bravery, because they're not. And bravery because they're not, it's not to do with how you feel, it's what you're going to do Like. Yeah sure, I had terrible fears and terrible insecurities. I was horribly anxious and felt like a shocking imposter the whole time, but it's what you do. Confidence is what you do, not waiting for a feeling to arise where you go, I can do. Do you agree with that happen? That'll just do it, do you think?
Speaker 3:that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think, like your internal system and and you and I spoke about this during tech stars there's an internal voice and you've got to be louder with your actions and just like trying to like override that voice and short circuit it, because that voice will often always been there. I've spoken on so many stages Like I've, I've been in front of hundreds of people and I'm still nervous and I still have the voice and so it's just there and I'm like okay, you've just got to be quiet and keep going. And going back to the kind of cognitive bias, I just want to give you a really good example, because I saw it yesterday and it's in my mind and I was talking about it with my girlfriend on whatsapp yeah.
Speaker 1:So this guy and this this just proves like anyone has an opportunity. This guy posted one video on tiktok. It's his first video that he ever made like a week ago. He's a farmer, he's from like the middle of australia, posts this video and he just talks about how he likes smutty fantasy books that are like you know what chicks read. It's like chick lit kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:He's really into book talk and so he's really into the akatar series and all this kind of stuff and it kind of like it's these two juxtaposing things.
Speaker 1:Like he's this farmer that's meant to be like macho and like there's a you know stereotype around this kind of vibe. But he's into this totally other vibe and he's really found himself in book talk on tiktok and so he makes this video talking about his love for fantasy fiction that's smutty and chiclet and like he kind of feels like he found his tribe totally viral, millions of views. He has producers reaching out to him from farmermer Wants a Wife. He's got all of these opportunities just because he thought, hey, I'm just going to sit in my car today, record a video sharing really vulnerably and openly about what I like and my interests, knowing that there's a bit of a contrast to who I am in terms of my profile as a farmer, and he found his tribe online. He has just got so much support and so much love and he just like nailed it and he's just so genuine and authentic and that is a really good example of like anyone can just show up and be your unique self or be your weird self, or just try.
Speaker 1:Or just try Just try, and who knows what happens. But if you don't try, you never know.
Speaker 2:Which is different.
Speaker 1:You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right, which is different to trying to work on the way you feel, and I think that's I know, with all this stuff in the zeitgeist. It's been out for years about trying to spending time visualizing and then people are sitting in a room visualizing or nothing happens. Well, of course, nothing happens because you're just thinking it's the steps that you take and the way you manage the internal voice. I think it's the way you manage it, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that I should also just say that guy's name on TikTok is Luke Reads.
Speaker 2:I feel like we should credit him because he's brilliant.
Speaker 1:Everyone should look him up and go support him. Um, I feel like it's so true because your emotional internal dialogue and your inner self can often be different to your outer self, and that is just through, like your lifetime of how you've experienced the world, and what? Happens and we all have an inner dialogue. I'm pretty sure I think we do like. I think, like a lot of people have a, you know not every, interestingly enough.
Speaker 2:Um, not everybody has pictures, so when they, you know how you visualize something and you see things in your brain, it's so interesting. Not everybody has that like everybody would have to have. Surely, to God, everybody would have internal dialogue and internal chat.
Speaker 1:Surely.
Speaker 2:Surely.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but I assume yes and so, yeah, it's more about getting the skill of just being like okay, I feel this way and I feel like I'm on a roller coaster or I feel like I'm about to vomit because I'm walking on stage to talk to 500 people but, I'm just going to do it anyway, and even if I fuck up, well, that's still like one on the belt that I did it and the next time maybe it gets a little bit easier, or you know, I just do it again and I combat how that happened and so, and is that the dialogue you have with yourself? What's the dialogue that I have with myself? That?
Speaker 2:sounds really good. It's like, well, I'll stick that on the belt, I like that and I'll just give it another go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I tend to just try to like ignore it and just keep on going, keep on going. I still do practical things to calm my nervous system before something. So if I'm going on stage, I will always, always, always, just before I'm about to leave the house or the hotel or like whatever, wherever I'm about to go on stage to, I will lie on the bed. I will put on. No wait, I'll go downstairs. First.
Speaker 1:I will have a glass of water with L-theanine in it, which is a kind of supplement that I should just rewind for one second so I'm someone who really likes a state A like, a state of being like A and a state of being B, so you can see where you feel A and B, and so I'll give you an example of when I don't feel A and B. If I like, sit in a room and try to meditate. I don't feel better before or after. It's like the same state of being. I feel the same, and I could do 30 days of meditation.
Speaker 2:I feel the same and I could do 30 days of meditation. I won't feel any different. That for me actually is like really um anxiety inducing sitting there like you know it's actually not and calm my thought, you know that for a lot of people that meditation is contraindicated. So it's not good, not good yeah, I knew it for me well anyway, yeah, because they go, everyone should meditate.
Speaker 1:Well, no, they should. Yeah, honestly it's, it doesn't the way that I can calm my brain is watching something, so I've got like a visual coming in and scrapbooking so my hands are busy and then I can't think about work so it like shuts off my brain. Anyway, so I will have L-theanine. Do you know why that?
Speaker 2:works. Do you know why that works? Because when you're scrapbooking, see, the emotions are in the limbic system, in this part of the brain. When you're scrapbooking, scrapbooking it's taking you into the prefrontal cortex, so it's you're shifting from the emotional to the executive function of the brain. So your hands are actually doing something and it takes this focus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're not thinking well it's.
Speaker 2:That's still there, and that's the thing. Good thing to remember is this behind here is still there, but your focus is now here and you can't do two things at once. We're just pausing for a minute to hear a word from our sponsor.
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Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean, I do love a scrapbook.
Speaker 2:It's great, it's perfect, it's perfect.
Speaker 1:So I'll take L-theanine, and what L-theanine does is it actually removes the flutters in your chest. So if you've had a coffee and you feel jittery, but you have it with L-theanine, it's like big in the biohacking community, but you have it with L-theanine, it's like you get it at the health food shop. It'll take the flutters away in your chest or it'll take away that feeling of jitters. So I'll have that because I definitely have the feeling Of course You've gone into fight flight.
Speaker 2:It's perfectly normal.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I have that, and then I will you know 10 minutes later or 20 minutes later, I'll go and lie on the bed and I'll do a Wim Hof guided 11 minute breathing exercise. And again, because it is that like hyperventilating kind of exercise and it's guided I'm listening to someone while I'm trying to focus on my breath. Yep, and have you done Wim Hof before?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:So the point is that you kind of you do three rounds.
Speaker 2:I know all about Wim Hof, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, so you do three rounds of hyperventilating and then you kind of go tingly in all your arms and your sensation, and then when you finish and you just sit up, you are in a different state than state A. I'm so calm, I can feel right through my like. I feel like I've just breathed out all the stress and I actually have a physical, different state of being.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:I feel much more calm.
Speaker 2:And that works for you, doesn't it really works?
Speaker 1:yeah and then when I go on stage, yes, I'm still nervous, yes, I still have a voice. Those things aren't ever going to go away. But at least my physical state starts from a very calm place, versus being like anxious all day, maybe having coffee, yeah, getting more and more stressed and then going on stressed. I've, like really wound my system down and I'm starting from a place of just like no jitters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's you know we do. We all have a. Well, hopefully we have an approach, because David and I have to do a lot of public presentations and I think we all have an approach. David does a vocal warm-up. I don't know what I do. I think I do a bit of Shakespeare in my head or something, but I love that, I know. But I think that it's such a smart thing you just said, because you're organising yourself in the face of the anxiety or the fear, but in the knowledge that it doesn't actually go away and we don't, in a way, we don't want it to, because it shows that we care. If something actually adrenalises you, it means that you're in a risky situation because you care about something. So in a way, it's perfect. It's there, it's part of your experience, but it doesn't have to dominate.
Speaker 1:Totally. And it's really exhilarating when you do the hard thing and come out the other side knowing that, yes, you're okay, like you're not in a real fight or flight situation where you actually are in danger, you're just in a state of environment danger kind of thing. Speaking on stage, you come out being like wow, like proud of myself, and so even little things you can do for yourself that make you feel, oh, wow, I did that, like I conquered my day. I started doing daily cold showers and so again, it's one of those things that gives you the shock. It then calms your nervous system down and then afterwards it gives you really that feeling of like well, I can do anything, because I just had a cold shower in the middle of winter in the swiss mountains and it was fucking freezing, and so when you do those things, again you're teaching yourself and your muscle, kind of like.
Speaker 2:Muscle memory.
Speaker 1:Your muscle memory that you can do hard things, and you can. Even your brain is telling you what are you doing? Get out, I'm about to vomit or cry or whatever. But you're like, no, no, I'm going to stay in here. And then your brain is like, no, no, get out. And then you get out and you're like, oh huh, I did that like amazing, and so it doesn't have to be something, as you know, hectic as speaking on stage, but you can do those tiny little things. That still, your body is like no, no, no, no, no I know 100, 100 agree with you.
Speaker 2:I have a cold shower every day and I exercise, go to the gym every day, and I have a lot of people saying to me you shouldn't go every day. I'm'm like, well, fuck off, I do and you feel good Because I go and it's an achievable goal. Yeah, and at the end of it, especially when I'm being I can't, I'm hopeless on my own, people say one I've got a gym in my building where I live, but there's no point because I sit there and I've got my phone and then I have a little sit and a little think, whereas if I'm in a class that goes for 45 minutes, I'm with my friends and I've got someone going. Come on, annie, you can do this 100% and I have excelled.
Speaker 2:I've definitely exceeded what I thought I could do. And that, for me, I always do it first thing in the morning and that, for me, sets me up in that place where I'm like, oh, I, I can do that, I did, it's an achievable goal. And if you do a small achievable goal to your point, it makes everything else accessible, but not in a really sort of daggy spiritual way, it's just, it's cognitive. I did that. Therefore, I can do that and it gives you a sense of achievement.
Speaker 1:and that's going back to the beginning, when I was saying even if it's something really small, that builds your confidence and just starts a process of being like oh yeah, I can do that, I can do that, and maybe I want to go a little bit further, maybe I want to stretch that goal and try something harder, or whatever it might be. It can be something as simple as starting a daily morning cold shower routine or, you know, something that pushes a boundary, that then starts a process of further pushing a boundary and further. You know, deciding a new goal and a new thing and starting a new thing and and kind of using that as a launch pad to keep on.
Speaker 2:and I think also, what it does is if you do start something really small, it breaks the pattern because we just get habitualized and in a pattern, right. So for everybody listening out there, for all the people women that are listening out there, and they, you know, we've got a lot of listeners in america and, um, a lot of listeners in canada where else? Harry britain, sweden, anyway, for those women out there that feel trapped, because I think you're the exemplar of someone who's not trapped. So if you are living in a social strata which you know not everybody is and I always make that point that not everybody has the opportunity to do something different what advice would you have for a woman that's listening to this podcast, that feels stuck and trapped and has quashed her dreams?
Speaker 1:So I would. I would definitely just start by doing the simple things that, like we said, are in your control. So finding a podcast where you're listening to someone that can inspire you control. So finding a podcast where you're listening to someone that can inspire you and that could be, you know, someone in any kind of field the podcasting space has people in every kind of topic ever. So listening to someone that's going to inspire you.
Speaker 1:It could be setting a very small routine, like a daily cold shower, just those small daily actions that you can control, that are free, that you can do yourself and kind of build the muscle memory like we spoke about. And then I think, if you want to kind of get to that next level of like okay, well, maybe you've started to, I guess you could also to to rewind a bit, you could do. I like to do an exercise where I dream like of a scenario just let my thoughts go crazy, so like you might go sit outside or something and just be like, okay, let's just dream for a second, let's not put barriers of why I can't do it or what's going to hold me back.
Speaker 2:Sort of like brainstorming in your own head.
Speaker 1:Exactly Like brainstorming in your own head about just what's possible, because sometimes if you get stuck in the like busyness of the day and you never let yourself kind of sit idle and just dream for yourself, see where your thoughts go, see what you like, see and there are lots of different like exercises you can do online around um kind of like you get a piece of paper and you jot down things that you like, words that you like, kind of put thoughts on paper and then let yourself dream, and I don't know what it's called, but you can do those kind of things we should find that where you kind like I guess it's more like a structured exercise to think about what you like or what you want for your life and kind of have a bit more of a framework to it.
Speaker 1:But you could also just sit there and let yourself dream, because you might be sitting there being like you know, I want to travel around in a van, you know, or it might be whatever it might be. Everyone has different kind of goals and aspirations and dreams, but maybe yours is I want to quit my nine-to-five. I fucking hate it, and I want to travel around in a, in a van. And how would I make that possible? So, to reverse engineer that, you need to be like okay, how much does it cost to live in a van? How much would it cost to have the van? Um, how much?
Speaker 1:You know money or savings, what I need, and could I do that via social media? Could I start, start a TikTok account? Could I do something that allows me to build this kind of dream over the next 12 months, over the next 18 months, and work towards chipping away at that? You know, saving up what I need to save up. And this is such, again, a crappy example because it's so kind of like on the spot, but dreaming of the goal that you want, setting a bit of a roadmap, because things don't happen overnight, things take time. So setting a six, 12, 18 month roadmap, that's quite practical, whether it's like the financial goal you need to get there or whether it's, um, you know, that's such a that's kind of a big one, like I feel like it can be such a small doing a local theater performance.
Speaker 1:You could be like hey, I want to actually start start doing theater. I really loved drama in grade nine, like we said before. Yep, um, I want to do that, like that's my goal for this year. So great, then finding a local theater and then and taking the step to enroll, and then committing to the class once a week and putting that into your budget, which then expand your social connections as well, right as well exactly and the other thing that's it's so good.
Speaker 2:What you're saying is that, as opposed to you know, if you're just visualizing in a room and then just crossing your fingers and hoping for the best what you're talking about is expanding your mind by doing. They're almost like acting exercises. What you're talking about it's like imagination exercises and then taking small steps, exercises and then taking small steps. But the other thing they say to do is actually actively look at the obstacles along the way to achieving that, so that you start problem solving. Because what problem solving does because the thing about sitting around just visualizing and doing nothing, it's all just very limbic system, it's just all in this other part of the brain. As soon as you start looking at the obstacles and problem solving, what's happening is you're using your prefrontal cortex, so it's moving into the executive function part of the brain and you're more likely to actually to actualize it. Yeah, and the other thing to do is don't tell 27 people what you're planning to do. Like, like, keep it as a kernel of truth just with you.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'm I'm with that. I'm kind of like the share your goals kind of thing you get people like on board to be your like support it depends who you tell. Yes, it does yeah it's, I think, all of these things it's very um everything's, very case by case.
Speaker 1:It's not ever one size fits all and I'll give you an example, because the you know traveling around the country, or the you know whether you're doing a performance. These are all very like hypothetical, but I'll give you a personal, practical example. So I often like to set just one big goal for a year. So it'll be whatever it is. It could be work related, or it could be um like kind of a goal that is linked to work, or it could be a personal goal.
Speaker 2:And when do?
Speaker 1:you set it? Do you set it like At the start of the year usually and it's again I'm doing kind of an exercise of what would be one thing that I would want to achieve this year and sometimes it's much more practical and sometimes it's more like it could even be a feeling. Whatever it is Like I want this year. I want to come out of this year feeling X. But one year I really wanted to. I was like great, my goal for this year is I'm going to publish a book, and I wanted that within FSC. I wanted it to be a marketing initiative. There was a much more kind of like to it, but basically I was like I want to get to the end of this year and I want to publish a book. That Like I want to get to the end of this year and I want to publish a book. That was the kind of brainstorming that I had done. That's what I landed on, and then I was like.
Speaker 2:Is that 24 this year?
Speaker 1:That was in 2021, I think, oh, was it 2021? Yeah, I think it was 2021. It was either 2020 or 2021. But I was then like okay, to publish a book within a year. What does my month look like every month? What are the things that I need to do every single month? What's the system that I need to chip away?
Speaker 2:at and what is the roadmap which is problem solving, reverse engineering Reverse engineering is problem solving.
Speaker 1:And so, even though I didn't publish that by the end of that year, it published it in March or whatever. Having that kind of like, I brainstormed, I pr pricked the goal and then I reverse engineered what does that look like? How do I actually get there, and what are the things that I need to do every day, every week, every month, whatever?
Speaker 1:and so it's about kind of like brainstorming, dreaming up what it is, setting a realistic timeline to achieving it and then locking that into your diary, locking that into your calendar and being like, well, keeping yourself accountable yeah, keeping yourself accountable, and it might be telling someone else or it might be getting a buy-in from a friend or a colleague or a partner or a family member or whatever, but kind of reverse engineering and then going for it and also sometimes you realize when you start doing the goal that you're like, fuck, I don't want to do this like you know you might be like I'm gonna run a marathon.
Speaker 1:Then you're gonna be like I hate running, I'm absolutely not gonna run a marathon. You know, whatever it is, you can also change your goals. You can be like yeah, I tried it, realize that's not for me, which is a good thing, that's another data, data set and a data point to be like cool, move away from what you don't like towards what you do, like yeah, and it gives you more of being like well, I don't like that, so maybe I'm going to try this next, you know yeah, I had something really intelligent to say then.
Speaker 1:Oh, please remember. No, no, tell us.
Speaker 2:It's gone completely out of my brains when you were talking about. It happens to me all the time. So what you're talking about is habit as opposed to willpower, because we know that willpower is a terrible master and it just never works. But what you're talking about and that's probably why it works for you to tell people is when you get into the habit of doing something, then it becomes automatic and it moves into a different part of the brain, whereas willpower is just terrible. You're starting from scratch all the time. Get into the habit of it. Do a little bit every day. It's what I say to my friends about writing. You know I'm attempting to write a novel at the moment and, no matter what I'm doing, I write 500 words a day and you know some of it's total rubbish and I'll never, ever use it. But you know I just dump it out. If an idea comes in, I just dump it out.
Speaker 1:You should put all that on social media.
Speaker 2:Sorry.
Speaker 1:You should put all that on social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I should shouldn't I.
Speaker 1:Even the rubbish stuff. You should put it out there, because it'll be potentially really interesting for other people.
Speaker 2:My book, or the talking about my book, my book, the process, oh yeah, writing the rubbish. Oh yeah, publish the rubbish. Yeah, I just, I just put any, I just write anything, and then I go back in. And then sometimes I go back and I go oh my god, that's so funny, annie, you're so clever. And other times I go back and I go what is that? That is just such total junk. But I'm in a habit, yeah, because willpower is a very bad master.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I also think to add to that it's like if you miss a day, whatever, who cares?
Speaker 3:Start again fresh the next day.
Speaker 1:I think people get too tied up in being so rigid about things, and for me, I'm just not a rigid person. So if I'm giving 1% today, that's the 100% that I could give today, and tomorrow maybe I'll give some more.
Speaker 1:But like you've got to just like not be too hard on yourself and just keep on going, because I think you can set this goal of, like, I'm going to write 500 words a day and then, you don't do it and then you're like self spiral oh my God, I'm the worst, I'm so shit, Whereas you could actually just be like great. Well, today I only wrote 10 words and that was the best that I could do. So I gave 100% because that's the best that I could do today and tomorrow.
Speaker 2:maybe I'll get back on track to writing more and that's like exactly the same as people on diets, yes, oh my God, they're like. Well, I had a. You know an eclair, so I may as well. That's done, the day's done. You know an eclair, so I may as well. That's done, the day's done. It's ruined. Look what I've done. I've ruined my life, I've ruined my diet. Well, no, you haven't. You just ate an eclair and that's totally fine. And I'm with you on the relaxed thing I, I, I, you know, I try not to have. I try and have two alcohol free nights a week, but if it's like easter, I break that because I go, it's Easter and it's a public holiday.
Speaker 1:Totally, and I should have a glass of wine. I mean, how boring if we're all so strict that every day is exactly the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a journey.
Speaker 2:It is a journey. It's a journey and, on that note, thank you so much. That was the best chat. Thank you. You're so welcome, thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to have my uh, my first, my first episode with you in this studio it's such a beautiful studio and, sweetie, I was going for maximalist.
Speaker 1:Can you tell, yeah, no, not at all. It's very subtle and I'm very, I'm very, uh, beige. I'm a very, very beige.
Speaker 2:I can tell that I'm sitting the studio. We'll put something up. I don't know how we'll. Yeah, we'll put up a picture of us in this studio, but it's this beautiful pink studio. And also Dune has the smallest dog I've ever seen in my entire life, called Sweetie, because my dogs are gigantic, like beasts that roam about. And then Sweetie is a little chihuahua, isn't she?
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's as big as a dot.
Speaker 2:She's as big as a dot, she's as big as a dot, but she's adorable, she's a big as a dot.
Speaker 1:She's as big as a dot, but she's adorable. She's a tiny thing. She's just a tiny little mutton. She's a little mutton.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, we've just gone on so well, so lovely to have you, I'm a chatter, I can chat, I can chat, I can ramble, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll guarantee to have forgotten every question that you'd asked me and, like, started answering, were at Landers. Same same we did.
Speaker 2:Well, bear with me, it's very interesting and I really hope that all the smart women and any men that are listening take heed of this conversation and of this advice. Don't be too hard on yourself and just reignite the imagination that was so accessible to you as a child, because we get in these ruts, we get in these patterns of existence, and life is short and brutish and you've really got to enjoy it. And, on that note, see you later, bye-bye. Thanks for tuning in to why Smart Women with me. Annie McCubbin, I hope today's episode has ignited your curiosity and left you feeling inspired by my anti-motivational style.
Speaker 2:Join me next time as we continue to unravel the fascinating layers of our brains and develop ways to sort out the fact from the fiction and the over 6,000 thoughts we have in the course of every day. Remember, intelligence isn't enough. You can be as smart as paint, but it's not just about what you know, it's about how you think. And in all this talk of whether or not you can trust your gut, if you ever feel unsafe, whether it's in the street, at work, in a car park, in a bar or in your own home, please, please respect that gut feeling. Staying safe needs to be our primary objective. We can build better lives, but we have to stay safe to do that. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and share it with your fellow smart women and allies. Together, we're hopefully reshaping the narrative around women and making better decisions. So until next time, stay sharp, stay savvy and keep your critical thinking hat shiny.
Speaker 2:This is Annie McCubbin signing off from why Smart Women. See you later. This episode was produced by Harrison Hess. It was executive produced and written by me, annie McCubbin.
