A Psychologists Guide To A Meaningful Life with Dr Julie Smith
Jan 17, 2022
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Dr. Julie Smith, a clinical psychologist and TikTok sensation with over 3 million followers, discusses her journey from traditional healthcare to creating engaging mental health content. She dives into key themes from her book, focusing on motivation, identity, and meaningful living. Julie shares insights on overcoming self-consciousness in content creation and the nuances of therapy's transformative role. She emphasizes the importance of aligning personal values, navigating burnout, and reflecting on life’s purpose, encouraging listeners to prioritize joy in their lives.
Reflecting on and aligning our actions with our values is essential for living a meaningful life.
Experiencing a range of emotions, including the challenging ones, is necessary for pursuing a meaningful life.
Translating values into actionable steps requires reflection, planning, and compassionate self-awareness.
Finding evidence to support arguments and avoiding cherry-picking is crucial for creating coherent and persuasive content.
Deep dives
Overview of the podcast episode
In this podcast episode, the host interviews Dr. Julie Smith, a clinical psychologist and author, who shares insights on maximizing mental health and living a healthier and more productive life. They discuss her journey from clinical psychology to becoming a TikTok creator with millions of followers. Dr. Smith talks about the concepts mentioned in her book, such as motivation, fear, grief, and self-doubt, and how they affect our daily lives. They also delve into the idea of living a meaningful life and how values play a crucial role in determining our actions and decisions.
The Importance of Values and Reflection
Dr. Smith emphasizes the significance of understanding and reflecting on our values to live a meaningful life. She suggests regular values check-ins where individuals assess whether they are living in line with their values and make necessary adjustments. This process involves envisioning the kind of person we want to be in various aspects of life and setting goals based on our values. Dr. Smith highlights the importance of balancing different values and being accountable for how we navigate our responsibilities and relationships.
Balancing Happiness, Contentment, and Meaning
The podcast discusses the misconceptions surrounding happiness and the importance of recognizing that it is just one emotion among many. Dr. Smith explains that achieving a meaningful life involves experiencing a range of emotions, including joy, sadness, and even distress. She emphasizes the value of accepting and leaning into the challenging emotions that come with pursuing meaningful goals and relationships. Dr. Smith also highlights the significance of finding a sense of contentment and purpose in our actions and relationships, even if they involve temporary challenges.
Translating Values into Actions
The podcast explores the process of translating values into actionable steps. Dr. Smith suggests reflecting on how we have been living in line with our values and identifying areas where adjustments can be made. This reflection helps in setting specific actions to move closer to our values and purpose. It also involves being compassionate with ourselves, acknowledging that life can present challenges and choices that may steer us away from our values at times. Dr. Smith encourages regular reflection, planning, and tweaking to align actions with our values and maintain a sense of direction in life.
Importance of Finding Evidence for Arguments
The speaker emphasizes the importance of finding evidence to support arguments and avoiding cherry-picking. They compare this process to writing essays in university, where evidence and coherence are crucial.
Challenges of Bringing Ideas Together
The speaker discusses the challenge of synthesizing information into a coherent and engaging format. They express their love for the learning and discovery process but find it challenging to turn their knowledge into a well-structured piece for others.
Dealing with Impostor Syndrome and Overcoming Writing Challenges
The speaker shares their experience of facing impostor syndrome while writing a book. They mention using strategies like listening to motivating voices, reminding themselves of the valuable knowledge they have to share, and finding confidence in the process of writing.
"It's not about what happens to you it's about how you respond when hard stuff happens" - Dr Julie Smith
After practicing as a Clinical Psychologist for over a decade, Dr Julie Smith decided it was her mission to make high quality and engaging mental health education more accessible online. So she started using TikTok as a platform for therapy. A year and a bit later, Julie has built a following of over 3 million as an online educator. In the conversation we talk about her success as a creator as well as deep diving into some of my favourite chapters from her brand new book 'Why Did Nobody Tell Me This Before?' which takes a scientific approach to topics like motivation, self doubt, identity and what it means to live a meaningful life.
This episode is kindly supported by Brilliant, the best way to learn maths, science and computer science online. Brilliant focuses on helping you learn through interactive courses that work to develop your intuition and first principles knowledge, rather than just memorising methods and facts. Sign up at https://brilliant.org/deepdive - the first 200 people will receive 20% off the annual premium subscription.
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