“Positivity gets you through adversity. Confidence helps you achieve your goals.”
Julie Watson
“I can do this!”
It is just four little words but the way you say it is by imagining you are writing it with your wrong hand. This is just one of the mind techniques Julie Watson shares with us today on The Culture of Leadership (TCoT) Podcast as she breaks down the difference between being positive and being confident.
Julie is General Manager of Stronger Than My Excuses which helps people to find their own inspiration through presentations and web TV panel discussions. Everyone has a story to tell but unfortunately, many of us have excuses within that story. Stronger Than My Excuses is designed to help people push through those excuses, stop that status quo and move forward in their lives.
As someone living with Chronic Renal Failure, with five years on dialysis, Julie knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity. Her story involves reflecting on times where she found herself sitting in pools of blood, experiencing massive seizures in the middle of the night and having a kidney transplant which didn’t work. Around eight years ago, Julie lost a really good job and her financial situation was in tatters, all during a period where she realised her relationship wasn’t working.
Fast forward to now, where Julie has been living with her Dad’s kidney, and her recent specialist report was that her results are actually the best they have ever been. She has started her own business, bought a unit near the beach, as well as a new car and is in a new relationship. She has set up her business as one which can be run remotely and has lived in Croatia for three months doing just that. She now feels healthy, vibrant and alive and has come to realise that although positivity was getting her through this adversity, confidence was what she needed to achieve her goals.
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One of the first habits Julie formed was establishing a three-minute morning routine which involved really looking after herself. She watched a movie called The Secret, began to understand the science behind visualisation and consequently focuses on gratitude and mindfulness. Goals are something that we need to have, life is what is happening to us right now.
It is safe to say that Julie has well and truly harnessed her confidence and stepped into the arena. She is backing herself, started raising her hand asking people to invest in her and, although she has had her fair share of setbacks, has the positive mindset to learn from them and keep moving forward. She understands that it is not always big decisions that make us move ahead, it is everyday decisions which require you to constantly turn up.
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As someone who has turned to motivational talks, Julie knows first-hand what it feels like to catch yourself being a ‘seminar junkie’ in a quest to be successful. It is easy to be motivated when someone is giving pep talks but, the moment we walk out the door the motivation can begin to fade. She is now growing her business which centres around giving people the tools to help physically move, take action and simply get started.
There are four steps involved in turning positive into confidence, the key to being stronger than my excuses, which Julie shares on today’s episode of The Culture of Leadership (TCoT) Podcast. She also explains how to overcome things such as habit loops. The brain understands it is dangerous to jump out of a plane; what it doesn’t understand is the reward of exhilaration…