Christine Hassler | How to Achieve Major Goals without Burning Out Along the Way

Show Notes

Christine Hassler is a best-selling author and a former Hollywood agent who left her career to pursue a career that she is passionate about. She joins us to teach how to achieve major goals without burning out along the way.

Text “Christine” to 444999

Website: ChristineHassler.com

Book: Expectation Hangover: Free Yourself from Your Past, Change Your Present and Get What You Really Want…

1. Christine, I’m honored to have you on the show! How are you Ms. Christine?
2. Christine, I would love to start by asking you about your childhood. My understanding is that you were prescribed antidepressants at a very young age, will you share with us about your childhood and what that looked like?
   1. There has been lots of bottoms but a lot more ups
   2. I was born and raised in Austin Texas
   3. I struggled with belonging and fitting in. I struggled most with being social.
   4. I would constantly be made fun of so my solution was to become an overachiever.
   5. This helped me because all of the adults and teachers loved me. It helped me in my adult years because it helped bring me success.
   6. The only thing was that I still had a huge void of insecurity that I was trying to fill.
   7. It didn’t matter how much I achieved or who I was in a relationship with, the hole just kept getting bigger.
   8. I quit my job, I had many health issues, my husband canceled our wedding six months out and much much more.
   9. That was my rock bottom. I read every self help book out there.
   10. The thing I found is that this was all happening for a reason.
   11. As a young kid, I was prescribed antidepressants. That’s just what you did at the time. I felt very depressed and had many insecurities. I went to the doctor and they said I had depression. So they gave me the pills for this diagnosis.
   12. They were helpful for me at the time. I was a sponge. I was very sensitive. The medication helped my brain get back on track from my constant negative thoughts.
   13. At the time I was going through the motions of life. I didn’t feel lows or highs.
   14. I was told that it was a chemical imbalance and that I would have this depression for life. Until I found my coach, I thought I was stuck here for the rest of my life. My coach thought different.
   15. Four years later, I am drug free.
   16. Drugs have their place and time but they weren’t for me.
3. Christine, I’ve heard you mention on other shows that you were always an overachiever. What drove you to be an overachiever?
   1. I was awkward in all social environments so my solution was to overachieve.
   2. This got me ahead in so many different areas. As a kid, my parents loved me and so did my teachers.
   3. As an adult, this helped me as well but I still had a huge hole in my life.
4. Christine, what first attracted you to Hollywood and working as an agent?
   1. It sounds way more glamorous than it actually is
   2. When I was a kid, my parents got me into acting school that wasn’t involved with my school at all.
   3. I was actually scouted and moved out to hollywood at a fairly young age.
   4. I did so many tryouts and got rejected over and over so I decided to get onto the other side of the camera
   5. I got a job as an assistant passing out mail in the office. I somehow got a job at a desk and skipped years in the mailroom.
   6. It was an intense job but I got the job working 12-13 hours per day.
   7. Next I got a job at paramount studios assisting someone else
   8. Then I came back and worked my way up.
5. Christine, when did you decide that it was time to leave Hollywood and to pursue a different career?
   1. One day I was in the elevator with a top executive. I felt so much anxiety in the elevator that day. I walked to my office and everything felt like it was in slow motion. I started to have an anxiety attack. I went downstairs and walked around. I realized I needed to quit.
   2. I wanted to do something but I wanted for someone to tell me it was okay. So I called my dad.
   3. He said, “I can’t make the decision for you but whatever you decide, I love you.”
6. Christine, how did you support yourself after you quit your job and quit getting your Hollywood paychecks?
   1. I worked as a personal trained, taught spin classes, did a few commercials, taught yoga and a hand model.
   2. I was also racking up debt.
   3. Thee were stages. My first book was about my own struggles and came out a year and a half after I quit.
   4. It didn’t sell much but I got some awareness about my personal training.
   5. A year after that I got a full time job at a production company for a year. That was the last time I worked for someone else.
   6. By then I was all in. From there it has been a steady climb.
7. Christine, throughout your career you’ve written multiple books, but I would like to really dive into your newest book, Expectation Hangover: Free Yourself from Your Past, Change Your Present and Get What You Really Want…what first inspired you to write this book and what’s it really all about?
   1. Expectation Hangover:
      1. When things don’t go according to plan or a disappointment.
   2. You can actually leverage your expectation hangover to change the way you live.
   3. We are in autopilot and this is a wakeup call.
   4. This is the disappointment that we typically try to numb ourselves from. Really, we should actually learn from this experience.
   5. I used my divorce, which was an expectation hangover, to make the decision to never make specific mistakes again.
8. Christine, why do you think that the Expectation Hangover has resonated so well with readers?
   1. It is giving people answers.
   2. There are so many self-help books out there that are all theory and don’t actually promote change.
   3. This book really helps you navigate all of the aspects of yourself as a person.
   4. It teaches you how your brain is wired and how to change that wiring.
   5. I teach you how to update your behavior so you are choosing how you act instead of taking action unconsciously.
9. Christine, in Chapter 3 of your book is titled, What Does Not Work:
   1. Distraction
      1. It temporarily works but distracting yourself with anything is like holding a beach ball underwater.
      2. The more you distract yourself from something, the more momentum that it gains.
      3. Social media just numbs you
         1. Psychology Today
   2. Numbing the Pain
      1. The way we usually try to this never works. When we try to numb the pain, we always have to up the amount that we do.
      2. The numbing always has to increase as you become desensitized to them.
      3. They numb and numb and numb until they’re addicted.
   3. Pep Talks
      1. It just tries to get us out of the feeling.
      2. It is lying to yourself saying “Shake it off” and sometimes you shouldn’t just shake it off.
   4. The Next Big Thing
      1. This is trying to find a “Feel Better”.
      2. Anyone who has done any sort of personal growth knows this doesn’t work. Your solution isn’t out there. It’s inside of you.
   5. Spiritual Bypass
10. Christine, I would like to go over all 5 of these moves that don’t work one by one if we can.
    1. Distraction – Why doesn’t this work?
    2. Numbing the Pain – Why won’t this work?
    3. Pep Talks – Why can’t this work?
    4. The Next Big Thing – Why does this move not work?
    5. Spiritual Bypass – What is this move all about?
11. Christine, I’ve heard you talk about breaking through limiting beliefs on other shows. I would love for you to really break down how to break through limiting beliefs for our listeners?
    1. Limiting Beliefs:
       1. Something that we believe is true but is actually not true
    2. One that I formed is “There is something wrong with me”
    3. They are a result of what our mind makes it mean. That is where the beliefs come from.
    4. When I was teased, I felt sad and depressed and this nurtured the thought of “There is something wrong with me”.
    5. Eventually we wake up to the fact that “Perhaps these thoughts aren’t true.”
    6. It has become part of my story and my mission. I really had to look at the relationship with myself.
12. Christine, what do the first four hours of your typical day look like?
    1. Wake up and have time with my fiance at 6:30 AM
    2. We meditate
    3. Light stretching and moving
    4. Make my bulletproof coffee
    5. From 8:00 – 9:00 am I Write
    6. Gym time
    7. I start my work day at 11:00
       1. I have an office with a standing desk
       2. I work outside, at my kitchen table, on airplanes and many other places.
13. Christine, you come across as a very well-read person, what are 1 or 2 books that you would recommend that all of our listeners should read?
    1. The Power Of Now – Eckhart Tolle