Speaker 1: Get everybody Sam here with another episode of the wood Off,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different episode and something that
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in hearing about. I always love these
Speaker 1: stories where someone has changed tact or done the hard
Speaker 1: yards and then reap the rewards in the end. And
Speaker 1: it's quite close to my heart as I have a
Speaker 1: little six year old just turned six, Willow a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, who is very much into her reading
Speaker 1: at the moment, and we're trying to, I guess, navigate
Speaker 1: what's the next book in the progression from both the
Speaker 1: words that she can read and she can articulate and
Speaker 1: stuff that she's interested in. And we have a best
Speaker 1: selling author today who I think books will be slightly
Speaker 1: too old for Willow for the now, but not for
Speaker 1: much longer. It's a wonderful best selling children's author by
Speaker 1: the name of Rhese Carter. That's coming up next, and
Speaker 1: that's going to kick off a whole conversation about the
Speaker 1: importance of hobbies today on the Woodline. So we have
Speaker 1: someone on the podcast today that is a nutritionist and
Speaker 1: guess what we are not going to talk about food?
Speaker 2: Well, we might I might head down that path.
Speaker 1: I don't know but we are there is no intent
Speaker 1: to talk about nutrition in any way, shape or form,
Speaker 1: because this fantastic human being is.
Speaker 2: Now not a nutritionist.
Speaker 1: He's a full time fiction writer, and he's book, A
Speaker 1: Girl Called Corpse is now a best selling kid's book,
Speaker 1: and he has a new book coming out called Lighthouse
Speaker 1: of Elston Fright, and that's out now too. We're going
Speaker 1: to get into how he made that transition. Reese Carter,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the WOODLFE.
Speaker 3: Hey, Sam, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2: So Madam, I mean this in all sincerity.
Speaker 1: You're a very different guest to one that we would
Speaker 1: typically have on this show, and I love it because
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that our paths have crossed. But
Speaker 1: I think they've crossed for good reason, because I think
Speaker 1: when we strive for wellness or happiness, and we always
Speaker 1: associate happiness with wellness or contentment or whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: we always think about, you know, what we eat, and
Speaker 1: are we doing exercise, and how much sleep are we getting,
Speaker 1: and what are the relationships that we're keeping, all the
Speaker 1: sort of the big core pillars, and so often what
Speaker 1: we do for more hours than any of those other
Speaker 1: things put together maybe outside of sleep we don't really
Speaker 1: reflect on. And I love the fact that you have
Speaker 1: taken a career change to something that you are clearly
Speaker 1: not only very very talented in, but passionate about. And
Speaker 1: from the beaming smile on your face, mate, I can
Speaker 1: see that you're pretty happy with the choice that you've
Speaker 1: made and it looks like it's full steam ahead from here.
Speaker 1: So congratulations on the success.
Speaker 2: And tell us about how how this little.
Speaker 1: U turn or left turn or right turn, whatever you
Speaker 1: call it, happened, and how long it's been going for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, looks it's funny because I don't necessarily think of
Speaker 4: it as a U turn, because I've been doing this
Speaker 4: since I was a kid myself. I was one of
Speaker 4: those kids who absolutely loved reading, and then as a teenager,
Speaker 4: so when I was at high school, I actually under
Speaker 4: the recommend day after a brilliant teacher of mine, my
Speaker 4: English teacher, recommended that I maybe try writing my own stories.
Speaker 4: You know, I fell in love with writing as well,
Speaker 4: and I've never stopped, so, you know, initially it was
Speaker 4: just a bit of fun, a bit of play, creating characters,
Speaker 4: creating worlds, starting a story, never quite finishing it, and
Speaker 4: then at twenty five, I made the decision, now I
Speaker 4: really want to give this a crack. I really want
Speaker 4: to try and write a novel the kids that is published,
Speaker 4: and sort of yeah, committed to it more fully, I suppose.
Speaker 4: But as any author will tell you, any right will
Speaker 4: tell you, especially fiction, getting your first novel published can
Speaker 4: at times feel like a real long shot. And so
Speaker 4: I did have another career. As you mentioned, I was
Speaker 4: a nutritionist, So I thought it was nutritionist by day,
Speaker 4: and then at night I was going home and I
Speaker 4: was leading this secret double life of writing fantasy books
Speaker 4: for the kids.
Speaker 1: That's actually exactly how I pitched it, you know, just
Speaker 1: this great creative outlet that was a hobby because and
Speaker 1: the only reason I call it a hobby is is
Speaker 1: not bringing any money. You know, that's maybe not the
Speaker 1: correct definition to what a hobby you should or shouldn't be.
Speaker 1: But clearly the quality of what you were writing was
Speaker 1: probably wonderful. It just wasn't being read by that many people.
Speaker 1: Yet it was, and it's taken off I'll say that.
Speaker 4: But the quality of what I was writing initially was
Speaker 4: probably pretty rubbish, to be honest.
Speaker 3: So actually I.
Speaker 4: Wrote, as I said, I sort of really sort of
Speaker 4: dedicated some time to this at around twenty five, and
Speaker 4: over the course of the next few years a number
Speaker 4: of manuscripts, none of which got published. But that's all
Speaker 4: part of the process as well. You know, I wrote
Speaker 4: three duds so that I could learn how to write
Speaker 4: a good one. And it was that fourth one, a
Speaker 4: girl called Corpse, that finally got that attention and found
Speaker 4: a publisher. But you know, again, that's just part of
Speaker 4: the gig, isn't it. Like I think we often talk
Speaker 4: about creativity or talent as if it's something that people
Speaker 4: have innately, but I don't necessarily know if I agree
Speaker 4: with that. I think that most creatives and their work
Speaker 4: is actually just the product of hard work and putting
Speaker 4: in those ten thousand.
Speaker 3: Hours or whatever it may be.
Speaker 4: So I suppose there was some rubbish writing, but I
Speaker 4: had to do that to write something that was.
Speaker 3: Well, hopefully decent. People seem to like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really do.
Speaker 1: How long did it take from when you made it
Speaker 1: a career choice to when you had any success?
Speaker 2: Was it six months? Was it three years? How scary
Speaker 2: was that?
Speaker 1: And how long did it before you went I actually
Speaker 1: do feel like I've made the right choice.
Speaker 4: I mean the moment that I was offered a publishing
Speaker 4: deal for a girl called Courts, which is the first
Speaker 4: one there, there was no question about it. I knew
Speaker 4: that I you know, that this is what I wanted
Speaker 4: to do and that I had made the right choice.
Speaker 3: But in the years proceeding that, you know, I think
Speaker 3: that happened when I.
Speaker 4: Was was it maybe I was thirty three, So that's
Speaker 4: eight years of between twenty five and thirty three, that's
Speaker 4: eight years of writing without having any success.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I say this a lot when people say, oh,
Speaker 4: what's the hardest part of being a writer, it's absolutely
Speaker 4: the self doubt. You know, there were so many there
Speaker 4: were so many hurdles to overcome, and so many setbacks
Speaker 4: along the way. It would have been very easy to
Speaker 4: decide that it was all too hard, or that it
Speaker 4: was not going to work, that it wasn't going to
Speaker 4: happen for me. It just so happens. I'm a very
Speaker 4: stubborn person, and.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't stop. Yeah. But as soon as that opportunity
Speaker 3: came along, you know, I was in.
Speaker 1: You know, we always remember the success stories, and we
Speaker 1: always forget the grit and the determination and the grind
Speaker 1: that was going on, whether it's you know, I was
Speaker 1: only hearing her, was it? Matt Damon on a podcast
Speaker 1: last week, and you know he was going to audition
Speaker 1: after audition or after audition and getting callbacks but never
Speaker 1: getting it and him Beneflete. We're best friends and they're
Speaker 1: going through this process together and then they decided to
Speaker 1: write a movie and it having to be Good Will
Speaker 1: Hunting and they won an Oscar for the writing, and yeah,
Speaker 1: like we had to be and they joke that, yes,
Speaker 1: we won an Oscar for that incredible movie, but we
Speaker 1: actually wrote the script to give ourselves apart because no
Speaker 1: one else would give us one.
Speaker 2: And you go, well, that's Matt Damon. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: But you know, like these absolute legends of our lifetime
Speaker 1: that still were doing it tough. And I'm sure everybody
Speaker 1: now goes, ah, Recee was always going to be successful.
Speaker 2: Years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can tell you it didn't feel like it
Speaker 4: was going to happen at some points, but yeah, you're
Speaker 4: quite right, like whether it be a sports person, an
Speaker 4: athlete and act because we only become aware of them
Speaker 4: once they had some degree of success, it's easy to
Speaker 4: think of that as their starting point but the starting
Speaker 4: points well before that, and I will you know, I'm
Speaker 4: sure that with Matt Damon as the example, as he
Speaker 4: said it was trying going to audition. Going to audition
Speaker 4: wasn't working, but he was determined, so he found another
Speaker 4: way to do it. And I'm sure if that hadn't worked,
Speaker 4: he would have found another way to do it, another
Speaker 4: way to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is really good.
Speaker 1: I mean, I sometimes feel a bit guilty when I
Speaker 1: talk to my friends who hate their jobs, and most
Speaker 1: well I speak to don't necessarily hate their job, but
Speaker 1: they don't like it. And I love what I do,
Speaker 1: I genuinely love it. And then when I have these
Speaker 1: deeper conversations with people that are really not enjoying what
Speaker 1: they do, I'm quite bullish in saying to them, you
Speaker 1: get one life, and if you are unhappy, you know
Speaker 1: these people I speak to that are ten years in,
Speaker 1: sometimes twenty years in. Or I've been saying to myself,
Speaker 1: I'm going to change careers because I don't even know
Speaker 1: how I ended up here, but I don't like it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't interest me. I'm not stimulated, there's nothing really
Speaker 1: keeping me here. Accept sort of fear of the unknown
Speaker 1: or fear of change. How scary was it? And what
Speaker 1: would your advice be to others that are sitting there
Speaker 1: going I'm not sure if this is what I was
Speaker 1: meant to spend my life doing. Okay, question without notice,
Speaker 1: I know, and I know it's a big one.
Speaker 4: So it's okay, And it is a big one, because,
Speaker 4: to be completely honest with you, I was so ready
Speaker 4: to leave nutrition by the time it happened. I had
Speaker 4: actually I was one of those people who hated my job.
Speaker 4: I had fallen out of love with it completely. And
Speaker 4: if you had to ask me why, I would probably
Speaker 4: say I'd grown quite frustrated with the way the industry
Speaker 4: had changed in Australia. I think it had come to
Speaker 4: a point that it was extremely fad based. There are
Speaker 4: a lot of it still prought up. It still is,
Speaker 4: absolutely it still is, and there are voices, there are
Speaker 4: great voices out there, you know, like yourself, cutting through that.
Speaker 3: But I don't think I had.
Speaker 4: It in me to do that, and I really, you know,
Speaker 4: it really took a toll on my mental health participating
Speaker 4: in this industry that i'd really grown quite disillusioned with,
Speaker 4: I suppose, And it was a really scary time for me, because,
Speaker 4: as I said, I was working.
Speaker 3: As a nutritionist.
Speaker 4: Now, my degree and my post grad study are not
Speaker 4: a particularly transferable set of skills, and I didn't want
Speaker 4: to be in that industry anymore. And I didn't know
Speaker 4: what else was really available to me, and I didn't
Speaker 4: know whether a publisher would ever buy one of my novels.
Speaker 4: So it took a real real impact on my mental health.
Speaker 4: And I was really frightened because I didn't know what
Speaker 4: I was going to do. And so you know, that's
Speaker 4: probably part of the reason why I went. A publishing
Speaker 4: contract was put in front of me, I jumped. I
Speaker 4: was really well and truly ready to make that change.
Speaker 1: And just to push you a little bit harder, if
Speaker 1: someone said to you that you never met they were
Speaker 1: inspired by your story. I've been working at a bank
Speaker 1: for twelve years. I go to work every day. I'm
Speaker 1: so uninspired. I'm so you know, I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: a creative person or whatever it might be. What would
Speaker 1: your advice be, should I quit my job? Let's say
Speaker 1: that was that direct. If they said, rees should I
Speaker 1: quit my job?
Speaker 2: What would I what would you say?
Speaker 4: I would actually come back with another question, and I
Speaker 4: would say, well, how creative are you being right now?
Speaker 4: I would ask how much time are you spending being
Speaker 4: creative right now? Because there are benefits that come from creativity,
Speaker 4: even if it doesn't become your job, you know.
Speaker 5: What I mean.
Speaker 4: And so people who say, oh, I think I'm a
Speaker 4: creative person. I would like to write or act or sing,
Speaker 4: whatever it may be, I'd ask them how much time
Speaker 4: they're spending doing it, and doing it now, And if
Speaker 4: they're not spending any time, just do it an hour
Speaker 4: a day, an hour a week, if that's all you
Speaker 4: can manage. You know, I was writing alongside a career.
Speaker 4: I didn't jump out of nutrition without without something to
Speaker 4: jump into. I just knew that it was something I
Speaker 4: wanted to do. I didn't know how long it was
Speaker 4: going to take, but I started writing. I started writing
Speaker 4: and said I will continue to work towards this. And
Speaker 4: so I suppose that that's what I would say to them.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't sort of recommend they check out their job,
Speaker 4: but I'd just start pursuing your passion.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: You don't have to leave your stable job, you don't
Speaker 4: have to do anything, just start being creative.
Speaker 1: Actually, that's a brilliant answer, and I just it just
Speaker 1: makes me think where we lose our hobbies along the way,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, work gets super busy, social
Speaker 1: life gets super busy. Then kids come along and you
Speaker 1: just you don't even know which ways up anymore for
Speaker 1: a few years there, if not a decade in some case,
Speaker 1: depending how many kids you have and what your circumstances are.
Speaker 2: I mean, I look at my wife.
Speaker 1: Sneze, who's a brilliant painter and drawer, but I've never
Speaker 1: seen her really do it unless it's making around with
Speaker 1: the kids. And she's very talented, and she talks about
Speaker 1: you know, I used to have an easel at home
Speaker 1: and go out in the garden and paint, and you know,
Speaker 1: I listen to your advice, and I think that I
Speaker 1: think she would benefit from a mental perspective and a
Speaker 1: happiness perspective enormously from reintroducing that once a week into
Speaker 1: her routine. It doesn't have to be for three hours
Speaker 1: every day. I think that's really good advice.
Speaker 3: That's exactly it. You know.
Speaker 4: I think if there's part of your nature that is creative,
Speaker 4: and I think for most people, to varying degrees.
Speaker 3: That is the case.
Speaker 4: There are huge benefits to happiness from just flexing that
Speaker 4: creative muscle and doing it and so and as you know,
Speaker 4: you made a really good point there about the fact
Speaker 4: we often lose hobbies. I think the world can make
Speaker 4: us feel quite guilty about spending time on things that
Speaker 4: aren't productive, things that we do purely for the joy
Speaker 4: of it. And so as commitments build up, whether it
Speaker 4: be work, family, you know, there's so much to be
Speaker 4: stressed about, and there's so much for us to do
Speaker 4: in our busy lives, it is often one of the
Speaker 4: things that gets swept aside or gets neglected, hobbies. And
Speaker 4: I think a big part of the reason is they're
Speaker 4: again not productive. But there's so much benefit to come
Speaker 4: just from you know, as I said, flexing that muscle,
Speaker 4: pursuing whatever that creative passion is that you've got.
Speaker 1: It's so funny you say that, I, you know, I
Speaker 1: haven't read sort of business books or you know, and whatever.
Speaker 1: At work we bang it emails. No, and that's an eyelid.
Speaker 1: But I had a mate who was meeting me at
Speaker 1: my office. It would have been a year ago probably,
Speaker 1: and I was actually reading a novel and I'll see
Speaker 1: on my couch in my office reading a novel and
Speaker 1: he's like, what are you reading?
Speaker 2: Because it wasn't clearly wasn't anything to do with my work.
Speaker 2: I said, I just realized that I'm ready and it was.
Speaker 1: And his responses all that must be nice was in like, oh,
Speaker 1: how much spare time do you have?
Speaker 3: Like what bit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like it was a throwaway comment. He wasn't being
Speaker 1: an asshole, but it was just, you know, it was
Speaker 1: a really interesting reaction to something that I'd sort of
Speaker 1: broken away a little thirty or forty five minute pocket,
Speaker 1: and it was just something that it was an escape
Speaker 1: for me. I guess, you know, when there's lots of
Speaker 1: reading as part of your work and you're always around people,
Speaker 1: it's just nice to sort of disconnect yourself a little
Speaker 1: bit and take yourself, you know, let your imagination run wild,
Speaker 1: which again we say we lose our hobbies when we've
Speaker 1: become adults. We all most our imagination our sense of
Speaker 1: fun as well.
Speaker 3: Well, well, it's one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: It's interesting to use imagination and fun in the same
Speaker 4: sentence there, because being creative or being imaginative is player.
Speaker 4: I think that's part of the reason why I love
Speaker 4: it so much. It's remaining curious about the world around you.
Speaker 4: It's being playful. It's you know, looking at real life
Speaker 4: situations and then imagining them in a different way, in
Speaker 4: my case, imagining what they might be if magic existed.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It's play and so it is fun innately, it's fun
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 1: So I've gotten to know you over the last twenty minutes. Race,
Speaker 1: what's this book? What's what's your first book about? We
Speaker 1: would have lots of parents listening to this podcast. Where
Speaker 1: did the idea come from? What is a girl called Corps?
Speaker 1: It's a fairly interesting name, and tell us a bit
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 4: So I'll start with where it came from, because I
Speaker 4: think that's the way this story works best. I was
Speaker 4: living with a made of mine in Paddington. We were
Speaker 4: in a sort of terrace style house, you know, a
Speaker 4: little bit older, a little bit run down, and the
Speaker 4: manhole up into the roof was in my bedroom and
Speaker 4: I had the strangest habit of just popping open for
Speaker 4: no reason, and so first couple of times it happened,
Speaker 4: just thought it was weird. The third time it happened
Speaker 4: was late at night, I was touched up in bed
Speaker 4: lights were off, looked up and as my.
Speaker 3: Eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw that it was
Speaker 3: open again.
Speaker 4: At that time was a little bit scary, not gonna lie,
Speaker 4: And so I started questioning. You know, I said that
Speaker 4: creativity is curiosity. I started asking myself questions, All right,
Speaker 4: who are what would be in a roof? Why would
Speaker 4: they be looking down? What would they want? What would
Speaker 4: they look like? And I came up with this character
Speaker 4: of corpse, who was a kid ghost made of wax
Speaker 4: and you know, and I sort of grabbed a piece
Speaker 4: of paper and a pen and I wrote down everything
Speaker 4: I knew about her, went to sleep, and the next
Speaker 4: day I started.
Speaker 3: I sat down and I started writing her story. As
Speaker 3: soon as I imagined her, I sort of not just
Speaker 3: saw what she looked like, but I sort.
Speaker 2: Of how she sounds, sense how she sounds.
Speaker 4: And most importantly, when writing a character, what she wants
Speaker 4: more than anything. And that's really important because that then
Speaker 4: gives you a story. You know, does she get it?
Speaker 3: Does she not? Does it look different to what she
Speaker 3: imagined it would? You know?
Speaker 4: So I can't It sounds you know, very airy fairy
Speaker 4: that this character came to me fully formed, But she
Speaker 4: really did, and it made the process of writing A
Speaker 4: Girl Called Corpse reasonably straightforward. I think I wrote every
Speaker 4: other manuscript i'd written before then took me probably two years.
Speaker 4: Each one took two years. I think I wrote the
Speaker 4: first draft of A Girl Called Corpse about four months,
Speaker 4: and then spent two months editing it and then sent
Speaker 4: it out. So that's how that came about. And the
Speaker 4: one thing I haven't actually told you was what the
Speaker 4: story is about.
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't know how much you were. I didn't
Speaker 2: know if there are any spoiler alert. I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: what she could tell with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's probably not your audience listening to my podcast,
Speaker 1: I must admit, so you can probably you can probably
Speaker 1: divulge a bit if I don't have this ter many
Speaker 1: eight to twelve year olds listening to The Woodlife on
Speaker 1: a weekly basis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that you make a good point, but still I
Speaker 4: won't give away any spoil I have heard from some
Speaker 4: enthusiastic parents who really enjoyed reading it after their kids.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 3: I like to spoiler.
Speaker 4: But it's about this kid ghost who has built herself
Speaker 4: a body made out of wax. She's got seaweed for hair, abaloni,
Speaker 4: shells for eyes, pibbles for teeth. But what she doesn't
Speaker 4: have her memories. She doesn't know what her real name
Speaker 4: was when she was a kid. She doesn't know who
Speaker 4: her family was. She doesn't know why she was snatched
Speaker 4: by witches and became a ghost in the first place.
Speaker 3: And so when she learns there's a treasure.
Speaker 4: Out there which can reunite her with all of those answers,
Speaker 4: she had her best mate, a Huntsman spider by the
Speaker 4: name of Simon, go searching for that treasure.
Speaker 1: It's like, Hunts's fine, I love it. And then Simon
Speaker 1: just stops it off, just when you think it's going
Speaker 1: to be a really wacky name. It's just Simon.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: That is gold. And so what's the How has that
Speaker 1: success been? Was the success of that book becoming a
Speaker 1: bestseller immediate or is it a pretty steady rye does?
Speaker 1: How does success in that market come about?
Speaker 2: Is it very much word of mouth?
Speaker 1: Is it through the school system, is it through publicity
Speaker 1: or was it just instantaneously a success?
Speaker 3: Look, it was a.
Speaker 4: Success pretty quickly, but that was because of the hard
Speaker 4: work of my publishers. I suppose they believed a lot
Speaker 4: in the book, and they did a lot of a
Speaker 4: lot in the lead up to its release in terms
Speaker 4: of marketing it to booksellers, getting copies out there, getting
Speaker 4: reading copies out there, building buzz about it, which is
Speaker 4: a really fortunate position to find myself in as well,
Speaker 4: so that when it was released it did well quite quickly, which,
Speaker 4: as you can.
Speaker 3: Imagine, going from having had.
Speaker 4: No success and wondering if it was ever going to happen,
Speaker 4: to all of a sudden having a book that really
Speaker 4: did strike the right note and had that sort of
Speaker 4: support from publishers, but also you know that response from booksellers, librarians,
Speaker 4: kids was really overwhelming and very exciting.
Speaker 2: I'll say two things.
Speaker 1: I love just hearing the passion in your voice, and
Speaker 1: whether or not you have eight to twelve year olds,
Speaker 1: or whether or not this is your genre, It just
Speaker 1: it really does reinforce how much you love what you
Speaker 1: do and how authentic it.
Speaker 2: Is and how passion it is.
Speaker 1: And I just think, irrespective of whatever field you're in,
Speaker 1: irrespective of your creative endeavors, that really is probably what
Speaker 1: deep down we're all striving for. And it's it saddens
Speaker 1: me that such a small percentage, you know, probably five
Speaker 1: percent or less, probably much less actually have that, and
Speaker 1: I think it's just awesome that you have.
Speaker 2: You have found it.
Speaker 1: And second of all, when does the multi million dollar
Speaker 1: movie deal come out?
Speaker 3: You know, I keep asking myself the same question.
Speaker 2: When any day now? Any day?
Speaker 3: Any day now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a TV series or movie series written all
Speaker 1: over it, mate, And I'm sure it's not.
Speaker 2: If it's when, that's that's fantastic. I just it was.
Speaker 1: It's just a really nice different guest to have on
Speaker 1: the show today. And you know, it's such a cliche.
Speaker 1: You do what you love and you never work a
Speaker 1: day in your life. And I can just see, mate,
Speaker 1: you'll be doing this for decades to come, making millions
Speaker 1: of children all over the world very very happy and
Speaker 1: making you very happy successful at the same time. And congratulations.
Speaker 1: I'm sure many of our listeners will be going out
Speaker 1: and getting it for their kids or nieces or nephews
Speaker 1: or whatever it might be. And Mate, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us today and the Woodlife.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much. Sam.
Speaker 2: There you go. Rees.
Speaker 1: What a lovely, lovely guy and as I sort of said,
Speaker 1: very unique, different to our guests that we normally have
Speaker 1: on the show, but I genuinely meant it when I
Speaker 1: sort of was mentioning to him that we look at
Speaker 1: all these different ways that we can have happiness, and
Speaker 1: your relationships as top of that list, and taking care
Speaker 1: of our health. But I think doing something for us
Speaker 1: when we spend all of our time stressing about our
Speaker 1: health and worrying about other people, when we do tend
Speaker 1: to forget about doing something just small, but often for ourselves,
Speaker 1: and having a creative outlet or a little hobby is
Speaker 1: something that is so important. And we're going to actually
Speaker 1: continue on with that theme in today's episode as we
Speaker 1: have a question from Josh that is just along those lines.
Speaker 5: Hey, Sam, I've been feeling really stressed and in a
Speaker 5: rut lately. Everyone is telling me I should get a hobby.
Speaker 5: Just doing hobbies really help to lower stress. Josh from Brisbane.
Speaker 2: Thanks Josh.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things I feel a bit guilty
Speaker 1: commenting on it because I absolutely don't have enough hobbies myself,
Speaker 1: or I'm not consistent enough with it. I find it
Speaker 1: is always the first thing to go. I sort of
Speaker 1: introduce it and I have a couple of good weeks
Speaker 1: and then and then the water levels rise with kids
Speaker 1: and work or whatever it might be, and it always
Speaker 1: seems to be the thing that gets squeezed. So as
Speaker 1: I give you this advice, please take note that I'm
Speaker 1: talking to myself as much as I'm talking to all
Speaker 1: of you. I guess is my point. But the research
Speaker 1: does show that people with hobbies are less likely to
Speaker 1: experience stress, low mood, and depression.
Speaker 2: So that's pretty damn powerful starting point.
Speaker 1: And the importance of play and activities is actually really
Speaker 1: closely linked with us getting into a flow state, and
Speaker 1: I think this is a really interesting point. We often
Speaker 1: think that we need to know what time it is,
Speaker 1: and we need to be punctual, and we need to
Speaker 1: be structured, and we need to be efficient. Getting into
Speaker 1: a state of play helps you get into this flow
Speaker 1: state where it actually is a good thing that you
Speaker 1: lose track of time. And I just I just think,
Speaker 1: when was the last time I lost myself in a
Speaker 1: creative or fun or play pursuit, genuinely lost track of time.
Speaker 1: And when you've got a lot of people responsible for
Speaker 1: you, you tend to need to know what time it is,
Speaker 1: when's your next meeting, what's time I'm going to pick
Speaker 1: up the kids from school, what time it's dinner, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah.
Speaker 2: But God, it's.
Speaker 1: Nice when you don't have to think about it. And
Speaker 1: for me, it wouldn't be unless I'm on holidays, like
Speaker 1: unless I can actually switch to your emails off and
Speaker 1: I'm playing at the beach, and the only thing that
Speaker 1: sort of tells me what time it is is how
Speaker 1: hungry I am and perhaps how close it is to
Speaker 1: lunch time. It very rarely happens that I'm not quite
Speaker 1: consciously aware of what time it is within sort of
Speaker 1: a fifteen or thirty minute bracket. So I think as
Speaker 1: a good little test to you, our listeners, is how
Speaker 1: do you find a pursuit of play and creativity or
Speaker 1: a fun activity where you genuinely lose yourself, get into
Speaker 1: that flow state and lose your sense of time. The
Speaker 1: other advice that I thought was really interesting that they
Speaker 1: give on this topic is it's really healthy to have
Speaker 1: a hobby that is for your mind and a hobby
Speaker 1: that is your body, as they both sort of serve
Speaker 1: you in very different ways, and if you cover both bases,
Speaker 1: you tend not to just gravitate towards your strength. You
Speaker 1: tend to cover both bases. The other thing that they
Speaker 1: said was try and also have one of those hobbies
Speaker 1: be something that connects you to other people, because otherwise
Speaker 1: you tend to just go inward all the time with
Speaker 1: one of these hobbies or activities that you're taking on board.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of power in connecting with community
Speaker 1: from a happiness and a well being from a social
Speaker 1: health perspective. So if you can have one hobby for
Speaker 1: your body and one for your brain or mind, and
Speaker 1: one hobby that connects you with other people and one
Speaker 1: that's perhaps more of an intrinsic individual opportunity, then I
Speaker 1: think that would be really good advice. And then the
Speaker 1: question I always get is, oh, Sam, principally, I understand
Speaker 1: the advice at a big picture level, but what hobbies
Speaker 1: could I do?
Speaker 2: Now? You can do anything.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can go to dance classes, social netball,
Speaker 1: pub qui, jewelry at home, do drawing, reading, book club,
Speaker 1: tennis lessons, learn a language. I mean, you can do
Speaker 1: it all. There's no right answer, there's no wrong answer.
Speaker 1: But what I would say is absolutely should be something
Speaker 1: that you love and that you're curious about, and it
Speaker 1: should be your thing. I think piggybacking onto someone else's
Speaker 1: hobby is why we often don't like it. We might
Speaker 1: like that person, and we might like that their company,
Speaker 1: and we might think, oh, this is a good way
Speaker 1: for us to hang out together, but you often end
Speaker 1: up heading down a path where it's not really anything
Speaker 1: that excites your interests you or is something that you're
Speaker 1: passionate or curious about. So try and do your own
Speaker 1: thing and meet new people in the process, and not
Speaker 1: worry too much about what others are doing or what
Speaker 1: others are saying, would be my advice, And let go
Speaker 1: of your expectations. I think we talk ourselves into doing
Speaker 1: these things before we even give them a try, and
Speaker 1: so often if you can go with a blank canvas
Speaker 1: and a an open mind, you'll be really blown away
Speaker 1: at how much you enjoy it. And then the last
Speaker 1: two little bits of advice on the hobby topic, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of research to show that when you do
Speaker 1: take up a hobby, you're much better at being relaxed, rested,
Speaker 1: and happy, much more so than, say, compared to sitting
Speaker 1: on the couch watching Netflix or watching TV each night.
Speaker 1: It really does achieve those things that perhaps you feel
Speaker 1: like you're achieving doing the same thing night in, night
Speaker 1: out at a much greater level. And this is where
Speaker 1: I need to take my own advice. When you do
Speaker 1: find it so that it does stick, put it into
Speaker 1: your calendar like a business appointment that you need to keep.
Speaker 1: Don't have it in there as something flaky. The second
Speaker 1: life gets busy or something else comes along, then you
Speaker 1: dismiss it too easily, because sometimes it takes a little
Speaker 1: bit of time to get in the group with these things.
Speaker 2: Josh, I hope that helps.
Speaker 1: I hope that advice carries across to all of you,
Speaker 1: because I think, as I said to Reese today, who
Speaker 1: knows where we lose our hobbies along the way, but
Speaker 1: as adults, we typically have at some point in time,
Speaker 1: and there is so much research out there to show
Speaker 1: the importance from a well being and a health perspective
Speaker 1: mentally and physically by giving them a try or having
Speaker 1: them as a regular part of our.
Speaker 2: Routines and schedules. And I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear what hobbies perhaps you've taken up
Speaker 1: in your adult life that have been game changes, or
Speaker 1: if you want to commit yourself by sending me a
Speaker 1: note on the show about what you're going to try,
Speaker 1: maybe just to keep yourself a bit accountable. I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from him with that too. There's a link
Speaker 1: in the show notes. As always and until next week,
Speaker 1: I speak to them