Do people tell you what you can’t do?
What impact does their opinion have on you?
Julie shares how she responds to the limited imagination of others in this funny and insightful conversation, as she shares Key No. 3 – Write Your Own Rules. These Keys were first created and published by Julie Woods in her first book, How To Make A Silver Lining – 8 Keys to Adapting to Extraordinary Change. If you haven’t heard the first 2 episodes, the order you listen doesn’t really matter, but please do yourself a favour and enjoy them all!
Listen below, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or find more platforms here.
Kerrie Phipps 0:00
Hi, Kerrie Phipps here with episode number three with Julie woods, that blind woman. We are talking about her keys to adapting to extraordinary change from her first book, How To Make A Silver Lining. So welcome back, Julie.
Julie Woods 0:14
Thank you, Kerrie.
Kerrie Phipps 0:16
It’s so exciting to…
Julie Woods 0:17
I came back.
Kerrie Phipps 0:19
To unpack some of your ideas and inspiration and support is extraordinary. So I’m so happy to share this with people. So Julie, key number three, you said is write your own rules. So tell us about this. I think this sounds like it’s going to be helpful for everyone.
Julie Woods 0:37
Well, it’s very, it was very easy in my early days of going blind to be limited by what other people thought I couldn’t couldn’t do. So now that I was blind, people thought that I couldn’t cook. They thought that I couldn’t use a computer. They thought that I couldn’t travel. And there were so many things, and I just found it really frustrating. In fact, my nephew one day who was around 10, at the time, was playing basketball with my son down at my sister’s and I was in charge of looking after them. And I went outside and I said, What are you doing? And they said, we’re shooting some hoops. You know, his 10 year old boys do. And I said, Can I have a go?
Kerrie Phipps 1:24
Yeah.
Julie Woods 1:25
Now my son You better not to say anything. But my nephew said, but you’re blind auntie Julie. And I just gave him that “Give me that ball” look.
Kerrie Phipps 1:37
Yeah.
Julie Woods 1:38
And he brought the ball over and at the time, I have a little little little bit of vision, which meant that I could see the backboard against the sky. So I had an idea of where to, to shoot and point. But yeah, I couldn’t really I couldn’t make out the hoop or anything. So with determination, I threw the ball up towards the up high, and it went ‘bang’ right down through the middle of the hoop. And he turned around, he said, “Wow, can you do it again?” And I just said, “Nope, I’m going away now.” Because I didn’t think that I would be able to manage that twice. But I came in and I thought, what makes a 10 year old boy think that he knows what I can and can’t do. Surely it’s up to me to decide what I can and can’t do.
Kerrie Phipps 2:30
Yeah.
Julie Woods 2:31
And then I, I just realised that I had to not be limited by the limited imagination of others, and what others thought blind people could do. And it was really important. It’s been really important because it’s up to me to show people what blind people can and can’t do or what I can and can’t do and not for them to tell me. And really, I guess it’s just been a life since then, of not putting limits on myself.
Kerrie Phipps 3:00
Yeah.
Julie Woods 3:00
Not listening to my inner critic, but accepting the opportunities that come my way in trying out things. And if I fail, then I can tell myself I can’t do them, but not if I haven’t tried.
Kerrie Phipps 3:14
Yeah, yeah. So what are some of the other things that you’ve tried?
Julie Woods 3:19
Wow, gosh, I’ve tried reading with my fingers. I’ve tried. Going down the Hydra slide. I’ve tried going cycling the Otago Rail Trail. I’ve tried a half marathon. In fact, I’ve tried 10 of those. I’ve tried traveling overseas. In fact, I’ve tried 50 countries overseas. A goal that I set myself and achieved in 2016 when I turned 50 to travel to 50 countries by the time I was 50. And then Kerrie when I started traveling people would say to me, how can you sightsee when you can’t see?
Kerrie Phipps 3:59
Yeah.
Julie Woods 3:59
So it just all happened again. So it’s like, okay, I slip into the education role of showing people how I can travel when I can’t see, I smell I hear I taste I touch and every day I’m away. I write a sensory diary of one thing I smell, hear, taste and touch. So, once again, it’s all about doing things differently. So while I can’t see I can, I can experience the world in different ways. And it’s just focusing on the can.
Kerrie Phipps 4:29
Exactly. And, you know, I just had a picture of, you know, people in touristy places. There’s all the iPhones out cameras like it was snapping away. And I wonder how much of that trip do they really remember? And how much do you remember when you’ve sensed it in so many ways?
Julie Woods 4:48
Well, I just had a conversation with my husband. He’s an artist and he’s painting the pictures of the seven wonders of the world at the moment. He’s a watercolor artist and he’s got a view of Machu Picchu with llamas in front of it. And I said, Oh, it’s great. I said, because I have in my diary entry, I’ve got smelly llamas. And he said, “I don’t remember that.” And I said, “Well, that’s because you’re a bit too busy looking.”
Kerrie Phipps 5:17
Yeah.
Julie Woods 5:20
Because our vision is so dominant that thats what happens. People do, do see things and they don’t always smell, hear taste or touch things. And he’s particularly like that, because he’s an artist, and he’s a photographer. So I would, I hope that I’ve taught him to see things in different ways as well.
Kerrie Phipps 5:40
Yes, yes. So what are some of the most beautiful smells that you have taken in that other people might have missed in their travels?
Julie Woods 5:51
When we’re in the Highlands of Scotland, we went to a whiskey distillery.
Kerrie Phipps 5:56
Oh, yeah.
Julie Woods 5:57
And the guide asked us “Who wants to put their head into the vat of fermenting barley?” And I said “I will.” So I stepped up to this vat onto the step and threw my head in, not realizing that the fumes are so overwhelming they just grip your nose and go right up your nose and literally my head went backwards.
Kerrie Phipps 6:26
Wow!
Julie Woods 6:27
And stepped back and I and she said to me – Catherine was her name, she’s a wonderful, older Scottish lady – She said, “that’s how you do it, Julie.” It’s like wow, that was like one of the wonders of the world, one of the blind Wonders of the World putting my head in that vat and getting that overwhelming sense. So it’s amazing, but of course you know, lavender and Croatia and patisseries and Rome. Coffee I’m in cafe in when we asked. Coffee, that’s not uncommon, but, you know, our nose just goes towards those places and it can help orientate blind people as well. So, can you smell to guide me around my own setting, knowing what, what shops coming up next or what I’ve just about, I’ve just walked past. That’s quite helpful.
Kerrie Phipps 7:20
Yeah. And you know, I just got stuck on coffee for a minute because there’s coffee and then there’s coffee, isn’t there?
Julie Woods 7:27
Coffee! And then theres bread. Sometimes when we’d be traveling, Ron, wouldn’t you know how men don’t always tell you that the passing the shop that they know you want to go into.
Kerrie Phipps 7:40
Yeah.
Julie Woods 7:42
Sorry, men. And so I would say, “ah, can we go and I want want to go” and in fact, we would did that when I was in New York and we walked past this biscuit shop and I said, “Can we go in there?” “Okay,” says Ron, and it was one of those, you know, cookie bakeries. And we bought two peanut butter cookies and they just come out the oven. And we walked down the streets of New York towards the Highline. eating these hot peanut butter cookies that just tasted like here, man, it was so good.
Kerrie Phipps 8:17
That’s beautiful. So you can’t capture that in a camera, can you?
Julie Woods 8:22
No you can’t capture that in a camera. You’re right.
Julie Woods 8:24
So whilst we can’t see things, we can experience things in different ways. And for me, it’s about focusing on what you can do and not what you can’t. And writing your own rules is all about doing what you know, doing what you can and just trying new things and, you know, stretching the boundaries.
Kerrie Phipps 8:45
Yeah, I remember one of one of your first trips for Louie Brailles 200th birthday.
Julie Woods 8:51
Yeah.
Kerrie Phipps 8:52
Yeah. So there’s someone who wrote his own rules.
Julie Woods 8:56
Who what?
Kerrie Phipps 8:57
Who wrote his own rules.
Julie Woods 8:59
Louie Braille, of course. Yeah, absolutely the little French boy that at the age of three, clicked into his father’s workshop and had an accident with a toll and, and then, as a 12 year old went on to create a reading and writing system that blind people all around the world would use. Absolutely Kerrie, imagine. I mean, we’re talking 1824 so we’re not talking 2020 when blind people have more freedom and liberation than they did, then it’s quite, quite different. So absolutely, he wrote his own roles.
Kerrie Phipps 9:33
Yeah, that’s such an inspiration. And yeah, and I love hearing about how you’ve written your own rules and you know, not being limited by the limited imagination of others when you said that earlier, I just thought it’s so incredibly powerful, because we can all relate to that. You know, when we when we have an idea when we have a dream and you imagine it. You spend time thinking about it, and so it becomes more clear, but as you share it with somebody else who doesn’t say it. Then if we’re not careful we can take on their limited imaginations.
Julie Woods 10:05
Thats right.
Kerrie Phipps 10:06
Yeah.
Julie Woods 10:07
That’s really important that who you share it with you trust. Once again, Kerrie if I had a dream, I’d share it with you.
Kerrie Phipps 10:16
Thank you Julie.
Julie Woods 10:16
Because I because I trust you. So it’s finding that person that you trust when you when you set goals or create, create dreams or go after things, share it with someone that you trust that you know, doesn’t have a limited imagination.
Kerrie Phipps 10:31
Yeah, do you know I’ve actually, you know, this I’ve talked about you so many times over the years and and one of the key things that I share is, you know, I, I have been coaching since 2004. And I’ve never had anyone set the exact same goals or somebody else, you know, because we have this process of really tapping into your creativity. But your goals was so incredibly inspiring and visual. And do you remember your your goal and your book?
Julie Woods 10:59
Yeah. A book with wings.
Julie Woods 11:01
A book with wings. And it really did take off, didn’t it? It’s, it’s gone to so many places around the world. And it’s, it’s given you wings too, in a way, hasn’t it?
Julie Woods 11:10
Yeah. Well, that was sort of why I called it that Kerrie. And I don’t know whether you remember but when the graphic designer sent through the draft version, he came through with it in the subject line.
Kerrie Phipps 11:25
Oh, really?
Julie Woods 11:26
Yeah. Because the Oh, the book has a bookmark or flips on the side of the book that open out so when. Yeah, and he must have looked like it had wings. And he I don’t think he knew what my goal was. And that’s what he wrote in the subject line. I thought, Oh, my goodness it that’s come true.
Kerrie Phipps 11:47
Yeah, that’s amazing.
Julie Woods 11:48
Yeah.
Kerrie Phipps 11:49
And I’m going to Paris with a splash.
Julie Woods 11:53
Going to Paris with a splash.
Julie Woods 11:54
That’s right. That was for Louie Braille’s. 200th birthday, celebrating his contribution.
Kerrie Phipps 12:00
Yeah, and well and next episode is going to be about setting goals and maybe you can reserve the third one for for that episode.
Kerrie Phipps 12:09
Ok, i will.
Kerrie Phipps 12:10
So thank you for sharing this write your own rules. Is there anything that you’d like to say to wrap up on that thought?
Julie Woods 12:17
Just surround yourself with people who are unlimited thinkers and hear share goals and your dreams and your heart’s desire with them.
Kerrie Phipps 12:27
Yeah, beautiful. Thanks, Julie.
Julie Woods 12:29
Thanks, Kerrie.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
