Think about this. How many times have you been told to just be happy in the midst of chaos, or to give yourself a break when everything seems to be falling apart. The idea sounds simple, but living it can be a whole different story. In this Quick Win episode, I sit down with musical theater star Lucy Jurak, who shares how a simple piece of advice changed her life and how she pays it forward to others. My name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium. And this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's quick Win episode, we go back to an interview from the past and I pick out a quick win that you can apply today. And in today's show, I speak with Lucy Iraq about one of the best pieces of advice she has ever received. Now, what's a piece of advice that you've received and applied that has immeasurably improved your life.

Think about this. How many times have you been told to just be happy in the midst of chaos, or to give yourself a break when everything seems to be falling apart. The idea sounds simple, but living it can be a whole different story. In this Quick Win episode, I sit down with musical theater star Lucy Jurak, who shares how a simple piece of advice changed her life and how she pays it forward to others. My name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium. And this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's quick Win episode, we go back to an interview from the past and I pick out a quick win that you can apply today. And in today's show, I speak with Lucy Iraq about one of the best pieces of advice she has ever received. Now, what's a piece of advice that you've received and applied that has immeasurably improved your life.

I think the piece of advice that I have, as I've aged, I've understood it more is just the idea of this too shell pass and that feelings are normal, and there's nothing wrong with feeling negative feelings, but that they that feeling won't last. You're not going to feel like that for ever. It will pass, and it will often pass quicker than you even realize. But I remember when I was in Mama Mia, which was my first job as a twenty year old, in my first musical theater job, and I was so excited and I ended up actually having a really hard time on Mamma Mia. But for lots of reasons, I was an understudy, and I wasn't. I'm not a very good understudy, it turns out. Actually it's the only time I ever understudied in my life because I don't have a strong enough dad's background. Anyway, that's a different that's a story for a different day. But I remember the lead, the leading lady, one of the two leading ladies was Anne Wood, who is a beautiful, amazing musical theater act at. I remember. I'm not sure if I've even spoken to her about this, but she was so kind to me, like i'd often just go in. And now having been a leading lady in musicals, I realize how patient she was with me that I sort of wander in her dressing room and have a chat, and she had on her mirror this too shell pass. And at the time I thought she must be in a bad place in her life, that's really negative or not like she must have been about. But I just did think that must be she must be going through something hard, you know, for that to be what she's she's wanting something to pass. But then as I've gotten older, I've realized that's such a good thing to come back to positive in positive and negative times or in difficult times, because it makes you be more present in the positive times. And of course every single moment will pass, and so the best bits will pass, so you've got to be really present in those best bits, whether it's you know, looking at my little kid's face, who's just so full of delight for a second, and he'll probably throw a tantrum within a few few more seconds. And the other piece of advice, again, it wasn't given to me as such, but it was I had just happened upunt it on a clip of this woman, Jane my Chef's ki. She was a contest. She was a beautiful singer, and she was on one of the Got talents, and she had had a really hard battle with cancer and she'd had a hard life, and she said something to the effect of she got the golden buzzer. So she did this amazing performance and it was so beautiful and everybody loved it, and then she said her piece of advice is you can't wait for life not to be hard, to decide to be happy. And that has really been really impactful on me in the last of years, I think because we have been going through harder times and my husband I both in the entertainment industry, and we've had to really pivot to try and support our family through COVID times when everything shut down and we don't have family support here. We've got supportive families, but they're in other states, states that we were locked out of, and we just you know, it's been tough, but we've really I feel proud of us that we've kind of and my husband's curious is he's actually really good at finding the fun. I feel like I often get really serious and get all right, this is what we're going to do, and he will find the fun and things, and often sometimes I'll be like, Oh, I haven't got time to have fun, and then I think, oh, that's not.

I think the piece of advice that I have, as I've aged, I've understood it more is just the idea of this too shell pass and that feelings are normal, and there's nothing wrong with feeling negative feelings, but that they that feeling won't last. You're not going to feel like that for ever. It will pass, and it will often pass quicker than you even realize. But I remember when I was in Mama Mia, which was my first job as a twenty year old, in my first musical theater job, and I was so excited and I ended up actually having a really hard time on Mamma Mia. But for lots of reasons, I was an understudy, and I wasn't. I'm not a very good understudy, it turns out. Actually it's the only time I ever understudied in my life because I don't have a strong enough dad's background. Anyway, that's a different that's a story for a different day. But I remember the lead, the leading lady, one of the two leading ladies was Anne Wood, who is a beautiful, amazing musical theater act at. I remember. I'm not sure if I've even spoken to her about this, but she was so kind to me, like i'd often just go in. And now having been a leading lady in musicals, I realize how patient she was with me that I sort of wander in her dressing room and have a chat, and she had on her mirror this too shell pass. And at the time I thought she must be in a bad place in her life, that's really negative or not like she must have been about. But I just did think that must be she must be going through something hard, you know, for that to be what she's she's wanting something to pass. But then as I've gotten older, I've realized that's such a good thing to come back to positive in positive and negative times or in difficult times, because it makes you be more present in the positive times. And of course every single moment will pass, and so the best bits will pass, so you've got to be really present in those best bits, whether it's you know, looking at my little kid's face, who's just so full of delight for a second, and he'll probably throw a tantrum within a few few more seconds. And the other piece of advice, again, it wasn't given to me as such, but it was I had just happened upunt it on a clip of this woman, Jane my Chef's ki. She was a contest. She was a beautiful singer, and she was on one of the Got talents, and she had had a really hard battle with cancer and she'd had a hard life, and she said something to the effect of she got the golden buzzer. So she did this amazing performance and it was so beautiful and everybody loved it, and then she said her piece of advice is you can't wait for life not to be hard, to decide to be happy. And that has really been really impactful on me in the last of years, I think because we have been going through harder times and my husband I both in the entertainment industry, and we've had to really pivot to try and support our family through COVID times when everything shut down and we don't have family support here. We've got supportive families, but they're in other states, states that we were locked out of, and we just you know, it's been tough, but we've really I feel proud of us that we've kind of and my husband's curious is he's actually really good at finding the fun. I feel like I often get really serious and get all right, this is what we're going to do, and he will find the fun and things, and often sometimes I'll be like, Oh, I haven't got time to have fun, and then I think, oh, that's not.

A very good that's not a very good way to be here.

A very good that's not a very good way to be here.

I don't think that's how I want to live my life. So he's an excellent foil for me. But yeah, but that is important, I think because again, it's just bringing you into the present moment and being like, you know, in this moment, I'm sitting here with this really amazing, intelligent woman who I really look up to, and I'm getting to have this great conversation and that's awesome in this minute. And I don't know what's going to happen in the next minute, but probably maybe something awesome and maybe not. But it's it just means I think it means that you appreciate things as they happen better.

I don't think that's how I want to live my life. So he's an excellent foil for me. But yeah, but that is important, I think because again, it's just bringing you into the present moment and being like, you know, in this moment, I'm sitting here with this really amazing, intelligent woman who I really look up to, and I'm getting to have this great conversation and that's awesome in this minute. And I don't know what's going to happen in the next minute, but probably maybe something awesome and maybe not. But it's it just means I think it means that you appreciate things as they happen better.

Now, what piece of advice do you find yourself giving to people most frequently?

Now, what piece of advice do you find yourself giving to people most frequently?

I think generally just to up, to give yourself a break and it's okay, like because I feel like I have really high achieving people around me who are usually then feeling bad if they're not like perfect every second of the day, and just reminding them of all the amazing things that they've done, like literally in the day that we're normally talking about, let alone their entire lives and just reminding people that you've done heaps and you're a human and there's that's a wonderful thing. And I think as well that sometimes those times when you're feeling like you're failing, or you know you've done the wrong thing, or you've made a mistake, you know, they're those moments that actually will help you to be more compassionate to other people down the track, because you'll have, you know, as so long as you do remember those moments, then you do think, yeah, you know, we are all trying our hardest, and we're all making mistakes, and we're all just just doing the best that we can with what we've got, and some people have a harder time, you know, do it like some people have more things at their disposal and some people have less, and so it's imbalanced. So we're all going to have different things that were better and worse at And I think that just give yourself a break, which is advice I don't take very often, but I think that, you know, often the advice you give to others a device, you probably should be giving to yourself a bit.

I think generally just to up, to give yourself a break and it's okay, like because I feel like I have really high achieving people around me who are usually then feeling bad if they're not like perfect every second of the day, and just reminding them of all the amazing things that they've done, like literally in the day that we're normally talking about, let alone their entire lives and just reminding people that you've done heaps and you're a human and there's that's a wonderful thing. And I think as well that sometimes those times when you're feeling like you're failing, or you know you've done the wrong thing, or you've made a mistake, you know, they're those moments that actually will help you to be more compassionate to other people down the track, because you'll have, you know, as so long as you do remember those moments, then you do think, yeah, you know, we are all trying our hardest, and we're all making mistakes, and we're all just just doing the best that we can with what we've got, and some people have a harder time, you know, do it like some people have more things at their disposal and some people have less, and so it's imbalanced. So we're all going to have different things that were better and worse at And I think that just give yourself a break, which is advice I don't take very often, but I think that, you know, often the advice you give to others a device, you probably should be giving to yourself a bit.

But if you're looking for more tips to improve the way that you work, I write a short, fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving truly interesting research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot code That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing part of your day with me by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool And Nation. I'm grateful for being able to work and live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios. And thank you to Martin Nimba who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.

But if you're looking for more tips to improve the way that you work, I write a short, fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving truly interesting research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot code That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing part of your day with me by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool And Nation. I'm grateful for being able to work and live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios. And thank you to Martin Nimba who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.