Julie Smith Quotes

“Do you ever notice that when you try not to think about something you think about it even more? A much more effective strategy is to focus on filling your attention with the things you want to be focused on instead.”

“Everybody struggles at times to know what to say. Sometimes the answer is to say nothing at all and to just be silent, allowing the other person to talk.”

“How often do you say things like this?

“I’m just no good at maths”
“I’m not strong enough to cope”
“I’m not a confident person”

All of these statements reflect a fixed mindset. This is when we see our abilities and limitations as fixed from birth and generally unchangeable.

A growth mindset is when we recognise that our abilities and skills can be developed with practice, learning, and persistent effort. Here is the incredible part. A growth mindset is associated with better academic performance, persistence in the face of a challenge, and better mental health.

Those in a fixed mindset tend to give up more quickly when things get difficult, experience more anxiety and depression and lower self-esteem.

So how do we make use of this? How can we step into a growth mindset if we have spent our lives believing that talent is all that matters? One easy way, is to look out for the fixed statements, and just add one word, 'yet'.

“I don’t have the skills...yet!”
“I’m not confident...yet!”

Keep coming back to the possibility of change, learning and growth. Don’t let those fixed mindset statements go unchecked.”

“I think the key here is having negative thoughts does not mean you are failing at being happy or successful. It means you are human. We all have them. The part that we get to choose is how we respond to them.”

“In the fight against fear, action is your superpower.”

“On social media I often see a real focus on whether thinking is positive or negative. My job is not to turn a pessimist into an eternal optimist. My job is to gear them up with that pitcher. The pitcher represents the skills they need to feel confident when facing life’s challenges. When life gets tough, it’s only human to feel depleted. The challenge is remembering how to get back up. Showing people that they can, means they don’t need to fear the challenges that lie ahead.”

“Teenagers are like cats – they have important business that doesn't involve mere humans.”

“Testosterone is the world's most dangerous drug. Get one molecule on you and you're helpless.”

“When we get caught up trying to control things we cannot control, stress goes up, mood goes down and life becomes much harder than it needs to be.”

“Are you in a constant battle to feel good enough? When we feel this way the most natural response is to look outward, to others, for their idea of what we should be. But this means the goalposts are constantly moving and we are at the mercy of whoever happens to be around.”

“We all get overworked and tired every now and then but burnout is more than tiredness. Burnout is when stress becomes chronic and has a detrimental effect on other areas in your life.”

“What has been the major focus of your attention for the past hour?

The past? The future? Or the present?”

“When you have a clear picture of the kind of person you want to be, the values you want to represent, then your choices are easier to make. They are less confused by worries about how to please everyone else.”

“When you start to be unapologetically yourself, there will be people who disapprove or even leave. The ones who are left are often the most meaningful and fulfilling relationships.”

“Emotional reasoning is a thought bias that leads us to use what we feel as evidence for something to be true, even when there might be plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise.”

“Emotions are your brain’s attempt to explain and attach meaning to what is going on in your world and your body.”

“Feeling down is more likely to reflect unmet needs than a brain malfunction.”

“If we don’t do the work to develop self-acceptance, we set ourselves up to live a life in which we may need constant reassurance, get trapped in jobs we hate or relationships that cause us harm, or find ourselves living with resentment.”

“Metacognition is the process of stepping back from the thoughts and getting enough distance to allow us to see those thoughts for what they really are.”

“Our body temperature is affected by our environment, both internal and external, and we also have the power to influence it ourselves. Mood is much the same. When we experience low mood, it may have been influenced by several factors from our internal and external world, but when we understand what those influences are, we can use that knowledge to shift it in the direction we want it to go.”

“Our mood is not fixed and it does not define who we are; it is a sensation we experience.”

“Something that I have come to realize over the years of working as a psychologist is how much people struggle with low mood and never tell a soul.”

“The more work we do on building self-awareness and resilience when all is well, the better able we are to face life’s challenges when they come our way.”

“The thoughts we spend time with affect how we feel, but how we feel also has an effect on the thought patterns that come up.”

“Thoughts are not facts. They are a mix of opinions, judgements, stories, memories, theories, interpretations, and predictions about the future.”

“Thoughts are not facts. They are suggestions offered up to us by the brain to help us make sense of the world.”

“To have confidence, go where you have none.”

“When we focus on trying to fix the problem, it is easy to underestimate the power of simply being there.”

“When we understand a little about how our minds work and we have some guideposts on how to deal with our emotions in a healthy way, we not only build resilience, but we can thrive and, over time, find a sense of growth.”

“You might notice that you feel the need for more reassurance from others when your mood is low. If you don’t get that extra reassurance you might automatically assume that they are thinking negatively about you. But that is a bias, and it is quite possible that you are your worst critic.”