Taking Creative Risks and the Fuck It List
Positive psychology asks us to focus on what’s right with us. What are your strengths? What are your values? What do you want?
But what if you’re not sure what’s right with you? We all have built-in negativity bias, so it’s a whole lot easier to identify what we don’t like about our lives, what we’re not satisfied with, than it is to define what is going well.
Alex Jamieson has your back. She’s designed The Fuck It List, a strategy giving you permission to honor the negativity bias and get all of the things you hate about your life down on paper. Then she flips the script and guides you in replacing the bad with a positive alternative, crafting a life focused on what you truly care about.
Today, Alex joins me to share the fundamentals of positive psychology and explain how she used its principles to create The Fuck It List. She discusses her life as a mom, describing her son’s sweetness and her own efforts to be more thoughtful of her actions. I ask Alex about her ability to set powerful boundaries, to take creative risks, and to build relationships with communities of women. Listen in for Alex’s insight around the value of masterminds in supporting women through change and learn to say fuck it as you work toward a life you love!
The Startup Pregnant Podcast Episode #053
Some quotes from the episode
- “The crux of positive psychology for me is that it helps you feel resilient. It helps you feel like, ‘I have tools. I know how to do this.’ Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going.”
- “That’s the positive psychology, ‘fuck it’ list alternative: Rather than focusing on what’s wrong and what you’re not going to do, you turn it into ‘this is what I’m going to do.’ You give yourself an option.”
- “[My son] really thrives with sweetness … and luckily he’s surrounded by people—both at school and in his family—who are not going to say things like, ‘Man up.’ I’ve witnessed parents doing that to their little boys, and it’s just heartbreaking.”
- “There’s pretty good evidence that girls who play team sports growing up are less likely to be involved in or stay in abusive relationships. You learn to be aware of your physical self.”
- “And yet, I have been terrified walking down the street by myself at night. I have been groped repeatedly by an ex-boss. I have my own ‘me too’ stories.”
- “It takes the pressure off when we realize we don’t have to get it perfect: I think this is what I’m going to need and want, but if I get into it and it’s not—it’s okay to admit that I was wrong or that this isn’t working. And that allows us to take more risks in every area of our lives.”
- “I call my life a series of successful failures.”
- “The fear that we have around change and being judged is very primal, so you do have to get support around you before you make the change—so you can follow through.”
- “[Women] really are hard-wired to thrive in groups. We release oxytocin together. Oxytocin is that amazing, lovey, bonding, cuddle hormone. When we get together, and we laugh, or we cry, the oxytocin just starts shooting out into the atmosphere.”
- “You’ve got to intentionally seek out the ecosystem that you want to grow into, so that you can have that support to evolve.”
- “The divides among women are … bullshit, and it’s keeping us from our real power.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT ALEX JAMIESON
Alex Jamieson is a best-selling author, functional nutrition and positive psychology coach, and ‘cravings whisperer.’ She has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, and Dr. Oz, among many others, and she was the co-creator of the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me. Alex’s podcast, Her Rules Radio, debuted at #1 on iTunes, and her latest book, Women, Food & Desire, was the #1 New Release in Spirituality and Self-Help on Amazon.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- The Fuck It List
- Women, Food, and Desire: Honor Your Cravings, Embrace Your Desires, Reclaim Your Body by Alexandra Jamieson
- Super Size Me
- Books by Alex Jamieson
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EPISODE SPONSOR & SPECIAL OFFER
Community makes all the difference. So, at Startup Pregnant, we are launching a mastermind program for women who are interested in going deeper around questions about parenting, motherhood and business. To learn more and apply for the beta version starting in June, go to https://startupparent.com/mastermind.
All of our sponsor offers are available on our website for you to grab the perks and discounts offered to podcast listeners: https://startupparent.com/sponsors.