Christiane [00:00:00]:
Do you also feel stuck? Do you feel so overwhelmed where the weight of the overwhelm is just so heavy on the shoulders that you're wondering, I don't even know what to do anymore. No matter where I turn, there are these mountains around me. Well, this podcast episode today is going to help you get unstuck. I'm going to share my famous three step system to get unstuck. And I'm also going to share my special with you today. The introductory of founders ready for my mastermind collective. In my mastermind collective, we are going to adopt little lifestyle habits, or I call them petite practices that will help you overcome the fear of becoming stuck again and creating systems that will actually transform your life. So let's get started today with this podcast episode, and let's figure out how we can overcome some of these feelings of overwhelm.

Christiane [00:00:56]:
Well, hello there. Welcome to another episode of the happy, healthy Hustle podcast. I am so glad you're here today as we were talking about a super important topic, how to become unstuck. Yes, that totally might resonate with you already right there. We all have those feelings of overwhelm. There's just a mountain of work waiting for us. And what does it really lead to? It leads to us just wanting to procrastinate because lists are getting longer no matter where we turn, lists are everywhere. And of course, people keep asking for more things and it just seems it's never ending.

Christiane [00:01:36]:
Right. Let's maybe start talking a little bit about a system that I created. It's called petite practices. And of course, you can tell by my european infused business and wellness coaching, it definitely has some of those tips that I brought with me when I came to United States from Europe. Well, coming from Germany, I have to be honest with you, there isn't even a german word for work life balance. There isn't. I guess in Germany, people have somehow figure it out how to be hardworking, but at the same time still have that leisure balance right there. And let me share some of the things with you as I lived in Germany, of how there is a stronger boundary between our work and our leisure.

Christiane [00:02:19]:
Like, for instance, we come home from work, and in Germany, well, at least in the household that I grew up with, we kind of left the work at the door. How did we even do this? Well, we enter the house and we put on house shoes or slippers. Actually, my family, we went through a whole clothing change because those are clothing that you wore at work. And when you come home, you put on joggers or something comfortable. And, yes, it extends all the way down to your footwear. In my household in Germany, we never wore street shoes in the house. We always put, like, cozy slippers on, like, the famous Brooklyn stocks come in there, or you just wore socks. And that is actually a fun thing.

Christiane [00:03:05]:
When we had guests, our guests would put house shoes on as well. We actually had, like, a dedicated guest slipper box where guests could choose from a variety of sizes and styles and then put the slippers on. And if they chose, so they could also just take their shoes off and just wore socks around the house. But it was definitely a no street shoes in the house household. What does it really mean? Well, with the shoes that you walked around all day outside, of course you would bring in dirt. I get it. But at the same time, you would also carry your work with you, if that makes sense. Wearing the same outfit, the same shoes, the same everything is really like a boundary you're creating between work and home.

Christiane [00:03:53]:
In a certain way. You're just kind of like, transitioning buildings, but you're really not transitioning the stage or the part of your day. You're not really signaling to your body, okay, I'm at home now. I can get cozy. I can maybe think about something different when work, because you're still the same. In Germany, we really physically change into a different outfit, change into different shoes, and that signals to the body, I'm at home now. I can get cozy, I can get comfortable, and I can forget about everything. That kind of stressed my mind.

Christiane [00:04:29]:
Now, think about that being unstuck element that I talked about at the beginning of this episode. If you're really feeling stuck and you're just kind of dwelling over work and everything that there is to do, the most frequent solution to me is stepping away from it. I know, as crazy as it might sound, because you're like, but no, no, no, I have to finish this. Of course you do. Stepping away doesn't mean you're never, ever going to pick it up. But stepping away sometimes means that you are coming back with a set of fresh eyes. Stepping away might mean that, yes, you are creating that boundary. You are maybe sleeping over it.

Christiane [00:05:12]:
Maybe you're coming home, changing into your home outfit, doing something completely different, and then when you come back, you look at it with a set of fresh eyes, all of a sudden, you might be able to do it more productively, you might be doing more creatively, and you might also see that whatever you're working on before might not even be that big of a problem. Sometimes we just feel, oh, my gosh, it's just such a huge issue that I'm struggling with. And then when you come back, you look at it again, you're like, actually really wasn't that big of a deal, was it? And that is exactly what stepping away really helps. And for me, on an emotional level, it always helps to go outside and just walk around a little bit, even if it's just five or ten minutes, get some fresh air, look at the flowers, maybe chat with a neighbor that I'm passing and do something different. That when I come back and I sit back down again from my work, I'm really feeling, oh, I stepped away. And here there was a little bit break between just drawing out that work that really was not going anywhere. But nearly like, if you think about being stuck and your tires are just churning in a certain way, if you keep on pushing on the gas in a car when you're really stuck, you will not get out of whatever hole you dug for yourself. Most likely what will happen with the tires is you're just going to dig yourself deeper.

Christiane [00:06:42]:
And that's really what happens with us as well. We're just digging ourselves deeper into the stress, into the inability to get the work done, and we're really not getting out of whatever hole we are in right now. Stepping away might mean maybe you're getting a friend to help you that can maybe pull you out of that hole. Maybe you're thinking of a different solution of becoming unstuck. And if you think about that truck, there are a lot of different ways of getting unstuck when you're really feeling your tires are just spinning right there. But stepping away from it might make you see it more with a bird's eye view, because you're taking a step back instead of just sitting in the car and pushing on the accelerator. Let me maybe share with you a couple of examples from my personal life. I always knew that I wanted to do some else with my speaking career.

Christiane [00:07:35]:
I thought, oh, maybe I want to go to conferences. Well, that became really unpractical because then I had children and travel is just not the same anymore, right? But I knew that I wanted to share my message with a wider audience. So I started doing little Instagram lives. And the Instagram lives went really well. I had some amazing guests on there, and it was super fun. I really liked it. And I was like, why should do more of these Instagram lives? It was pretty simple, too. You basically just started recording, and then whoever was live in that moment tuned in.

Christiane [00:08:08]:
Then I realized I have these recordings from these Instagram lives, and even though they are really messy, the audio component is very good. Maybe I can strip the audio component and do something else with it. And then I realized there's this fantastic whole platform out there where you can share podcasts, right? Whether there's an Apple podcast or a Spotify podcast, you can actually share your audio to a wide variety of people that might not necessarily be on social media. I extracted the audio from the Instagram lives and we worked it into a podcast. And I actually thought, I'm just basically repurposing things. It's not really like I am starting something completely new recording for this podcast, but I already have content and I'm just repurposing the content that I already have. And out came the idea of really launching the podcast and just recording for the podcast. I started realizing I also record on videos, so maybe I should do something with the videos.

Christiane [00:09:16]:
You see where I'm going with this? I had an idea. I could have just played it safe and say, I'm just not going to go down that road because it's a bold dream. But it doesn't really sound like I actually really know exactly how to do this. No, no. I know how to do this because I know how to teach and I know how to give speeches. I just maybe didn't know how to do the podcast recording, but at the same time, it was pretty simple to do the Instagram live recording once I figured that out. And then that led to the podcast recording on audio, and then that led to the video podcast recording. What I broke down for you is the essence of the petite practice.

Christiane [00:09:59]:
We are breaking down steps into manageable tasks. And while these tasks immediately lead to, like, smaller little stopping points, it will reach our dream. Now have a podcast, and it's ranked highly and it's doing absolutely amazing. And it's so much fun that at the beginning, if you would have told me, Christiana, you have to start a podcast and also publish it on YouTube and create videos every other week, and you have to have guests from all over the world view them and make sure that you also make a blog post with it. And that would have been just like, are you kidding me? There is no way I'm going to do this. But doing it my way, it actually ended up leading to the same outcome. It now is a year that I'm running my podcast. I just celebrated the one year anniversary on the last podcast episode and tune in for that one, if you have not.

Christiane [00:10:55]:
323 23 is when I kick started it. And here we are one year later, and I accomplished these goals. I have guests that are absolutely amazing from all over the world. I publish the content, the bio, their amazing stories and their takeaways to the blog. And I also share this fantastic video recording on YouTube, which is where basically now my next growth spurt is going to go to share more YouTube videos. Because I really, I am a visual learner and I share and I care about that visual element. Let me share my three step strategy of going through these petite practices right here. I call it the ABC strategy or the ABC framework.

Christiane [00:11:42]:
First you have to tune in with yourself, as hard as it might sound, but you have to really kind of figure out, what am I all about and dig down deep into your attitude. What does really make you super excited. What is it where your passion really lightens up? Because that passion will fuel you when things might not go as well. And that passion is super important because others are going to feel it and they're going to connect with you. It's kind of like an atom where there's just things that get attracted to it. Like all the stars are like floating around it and you're in the middle and you just have this magnetic force where everybody just feels like, oh my gosh, this is absolutely amazing. I'm feeling so empowered by this because that person really tapped into their passion and I can tell it's kind of like in the airplane when you see the little sign with the oxygen mask and it says help yourself and then help others. You have to put your own oxygen mask on and then you're going to put on the one for your children or people around you.

Christiane [00:12:53]:
It's just like that. You have to figure out what is it that you really want to do. And then once you figure this out, you can help others. If you feel stuck, maybe think a little bit about the bigger picture, take a step back and say, what do I really want to do here? Do I really need to do all these things? Or do you need to learn how to set boundaries, how to maybe take that work off and leave it at the door? Maybe say no to a few of these projects right there, because I don't feel the same passionate as I feel about this one project right here. And you have to identify it. A all about your attitude, your aspirations, your goals. What is it really that you want to accomplish now? B is what are you best at? And this ties in with your skills. Yes, for sure.

Christiane [00:13:49]:
We kind of like tend to do lots of different tasks and there is just always something else to do that we are so hard on ourselves and we strive for perfectionism. Well, that's not really the goal. The goal is just to do the one thing and do it really well, and then everything else might actually not happen. That's all right. Don't be so hard on yourself. You don't have to do it all. But at the same time, maybe you can just do them to a smaller extent. Think about the petite practice word, right? Go for your aspirations.

Christiane [00:14:21]:
Figure out what are you best at. And lastly, c is what do you care about? And that is so important. I really love speaking. I really care about sharing my message, empowering others and letting them know what worked and also what really didn't work for me. Right. Because it's something about the more authentic I share what worked and what didn't work, the more others actually feel inspired and doing the same thing. And it's not just about putting our best selves out there at all times. It's also about caring and sharing and letting them know, you know what? That didn't work.

Christiane [00:15:01]:
And hobbes? Yeah, I shouldn't have done that either. Totally fine. Because when you care and you share, you've quickly realized that it actually attracts more audience to you than only sharing. The highly polished and highly glossed, over edited versions of everything from the beginning, when I had those Instagram lives, do you think that those are versions where the video is actually amazing? No. On the video you can see the Instagram Live comments. It's actually kind of funny because people wrote little comments and messages while we are doing the Instagram live. And this is not top notch video quality, but I still posted it because the audio is really good and that really doesn't matter to me at that point. I'm not going to go back and re record them.

Christiane [00:15:54]:
I already have the content, but I'm sharing them because I care about the message of the interview more than I care about. Is this like looking picture perfect? Is this something somebody could have recorded in a studio right there? That's not the point. By sharing my attitude, aspirations, the a, my what am I best at? My b and then the c, which is what do I care about? I really break down that road that leads to my dreams into something that becomes much more manageable, which is what petit practices are about. They're the tiny habits, the little things that keep you going, and they keep you also maybe going on days where things are not working well because it's something that in Europe, or more particularly in France, we just say, oh, cel Avi, that's life. Celebi. Maybe it didn't go as well. Oh, well, just wave it onto the site, put it in a filing cabinet, put it in a drawer, and just close it and say, well, that was an experience. And this morning, I actually was laughing about myself, about how I recorded my podcast at the beginning.

Christiane [00:17:15]:
Back then, that seemed like the very best thing to do. But you know what? Now I'm looking back and I'm thinking how far I've come, and we don't do that enough to where we celebrate our small wins, where we kind of look back and we're like, high five. To me, I really did a good job right there. We're just only looking at, all right, where else do I need to go? Where else do I need to go? And while that's great to make plans for the future, every so often it's kind of nice, actually to sit down and take a look back. Maybe what you need to do is create a day for yourself once per month. Sit down and just kind of look through the calendar of the past month and see how I had three podcast recordings. I connected with friends here, I went out with my husband, and there I connected with my children. We played games.

Christiane [00:18:07]:
That's important. You need to look at your month as like, a little variety of experiences that you collected. And each experiences add a little piece of joy for your life, like the little petite practices that make our life so meaningful. My main target audience is females that are in the intersection between going the safe route that they have always been doing and I'm sure they're amazing at, or going the more unknown route where it might not necessarily be completely clear. That path might look a little bit muddy and there might even some little potholes along the way. But that's the path that will go towards the dreams. I empower women. Go for the bold decision, go for your dreams and start doing it today.

Christiane [00:19:00]:
With me in my mastermind collective, I'm currently running a special founders where I'm inviting people. Come in. We have a whole parlor of petite practices, and I'm going to help you tackle whatever you're trying to go for and break it down into manageable steps. I also have a whole portfolio of little wellness videos as well as handouts where I'm basically sharing. While we are going for your dreams, we're not going to put our self care on the back burner. We are still going to put that in there and it's small, little pieces hit heat practices right there. And to make the whole thing even more fun, I gamified it. We are each month gamifying it.

Christiane [00:19:43]:
There are finishers. We are celebrating it. There are awards. There are prizes we will be giving out. And of course, it wouldn't be fun if I would share everything ahead of time. There are not a lot of things in life that are still surprises, and in my mastermind, I'm really emphasizing that element of joy and surprise and suspense. I would love to connect with you about this. And of course, right now I'm inviting you to start thinking about your dreams and what are you having on your back burner that you always wanted to go for, but you might not feel empowered or bold enough to really tackle those dreams.

Christiane [00:20:21]:
I would love to help you with that. Reach out to me. There is my contact information down there in the show notes. And of course, course for today, think about that ABC framework that I created for you right now here, and take a look at putting little breaks into your day, even if it starts with coming home and putting on the house shoes. Kind of like that Mister Roger Jacket right there. I hope you had fun today. Tune into the next episode. And until next time on the Happy Holthe Hustle podcast.