Ep #64: How to Get Un-Stuck

episode summary

Ever felt completely stuck and unable to move forward in life?

Many high achievers experience moments where they feel paralyzed and unable to make decisions, especially during major life transitions. My client Marci felt this way when she started coaching, and today we'll give you the scoop on how to get get un-stuck so you can spend your time in a way that aligns with what you really want.

In this episode, you will learn how to:

Use simple time management techniques to decide where to spend your time.
Say "no" to things that don't align with the life you're trying to create.
Create a supportive network of women.

Ready to get unstuck and move forward with clarity and purpose? Listen to this episode now and start your journey to a more focused and harmonious life!

Featured on the podcast:
The Good Life group coaching waitlist

Listen to this episode on Apple or Spotify!

For the full show notes and transcript, head over here.

If you are sick and tired of feeling overwhelmed, I can help. I coach clients on 1 on 1 to create a more calm, relaxing, intentional life. The first step is to set up a complimentary discovery session right here.

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Want to learn more about me or my work? Head to my website at www.michellegauthier.com

Discover practical strategies to overcome imposter syndrome, manage time effectively, and cultivate a calm and positive mindset while setting boundaries and combating negative self-talk in high-stress jobs, all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the 'Overwhelmed Working Woman' podcast.

Music Used: Pop Guitar Intro 01 by TaigaSoundProd, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-licen

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CHAPTERS:

2:24 - Retirement Overwhelm

4:14 - The Thought Model

7:17 - Women Helping Women

Michelle Gauthier: 0:00
What are my priorities? Where do I really want to focus my life? And then, how much time am I putting into those things?
Michelle Gauthier: 0:11
You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less. I'm your host, M ichelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach. On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences, and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life. Hello friend, thank you for joining and listening today. Today we have my former client, M arci, and Marci is an overachiever, as most of us who listen to this podcast are, and she found herself stuck in life, which was very strange for her because she is a mover and a shaker who makes things happen. So when she came and joined my group coaching program called T he Good Life, she was feeling really stuck and in this episode you'll get to hear how she got unstuck. She used some time management techniques to decide where she really wanted to spend her time. She started saying no to things that just didn't align with the type of life she was trying to create, and she really depended on the women in the group for support and offered support in return to them, and the combination of those things is what you're going to hear about today and what got Marci to the point where she is now, which is feeling completely unstuck and aligned in her life. Thank you so much, M arci, for being here.
Michelle Gauthier: 1:38
Oh, I'm thrilled to be here.
Michelle Gauthier: 1:40
Well, I just have a few questions for you, and the first one is how did you feel before group coaching and or why did you decide to join? Those might be two different answers or the same.
Michelle Gauthier: 1:52
So the biggest thing is I was completely stuck, which is very unlike me.
Michelle Gauthier: 1:58
I have been in corporate America for 30 plus years. I was type A manager, tons of people, make decisions, go go. Everything was fine and I was just - like. I was literally stuck. I wasn't making decisions, I couldn't move forward, I was just overthinking everything. It was very frustrating for me because it was very unusual for me. Because it was very unusual yes, I have had the great fortune of being retired and what I say is then moving into my third
Michelle Gauthier: 2:36
But that became overwhelming because I really wanted - now that I didn't have somebody telling me what to do and I was in charge of my whole life, my whole day. What was my priority? I just shut down.
Michelle Gauthier: 2:49
It makes so much sense. It's like too many options. It can be anything you want it to be, and I also think
Michelle Gauthier: 2:57
it's really common for people who I would say you're exactly like this, have it all together, are very successful, etc. The reason that people often come to me for coaching
Michelle Gauthier: 3:07
is because someone like that, who usually can solve their own problems, feels stuck and they're like wait, this
Michelle Gauthier: 3:12
is
Michelle Gauthier: 3:12
out of my wheelhouse, I don't know what to do here.
Michelle Gauthier: 3:15
Exactly. A and so I was familiar with your program. I know you, I you, you and I thought you know what. The best thing I can do is get a perspective that is not in in my circle of chaos, and so I thought you would be the perfect person to help me try and figure out just what the heck is going on here
Michelle Gauthier: 3:41
. Ah, good, well, thanks for trusting me. So, that being said, once we started the group coaching, what would you say is the most important thing that you learned
Michelle Gauthier: 3:52
I really loved the thought model. In my years of working, I've heard certain things, but b Being reminded and then taking through that again and then really trying to live that instead of just be familiar with it,
Michelle Gauthier: 4:18
.
Michelle Gauthier: 4:14
I think that that was the difference, to really put it into practice, yes, and so just to explain that to anybody who's listening, the thought model is the basic idea that the thoughts you have create the results that you get in your life, and there are a few steps in between. But what we do in group coaching is we work all the way through that. So, for example, if Marc's thought about her post working life, where she went into retirement, was like I just have no idea what to do next, that's going to create a feeling of confusion that then will create the result of knowing what to do next. That's going to create a feeling of confusion. That then will create the result
Michelle Gauthier: 4:51
of not knowing what to do next. It kind of keeps you stuck in that. So, as an example, I don't know if this was really your thought, M arci I'm just suspecting. Maybe you had a thought, a new thought of I'm going to take one next step. Yeah, and then you did one. You know one thing, and that created a different result. So I don't know if you have a specific example, but I'm just trying to explain in general sort of how that helps.
Michelle Gauthier: 3:16
Exact;y. Absolutely, well, you had a lot of tools that were great beforehand to say you know, like, what are my priorities, where do I really want to focus my life? And then, how
Michelle Gauthier: 5:22
much time am I putting into those things? Because. Truly, all know there are good things and there are great things, and so many others will try and put their desires on your time. But you really have to be strong and clear, focused on what are those true important priorities that only I can do? And where do I want to focus that time and energy? And then how can I use my thought to make those great things? Where I'm putting my energy to build a
Michelle Gauthier: 6:01
great life for myself? And I thought that that was amazing. Yes, yes, that's so amazing, I think, especially for . someone
Michelle Gauthier: 6:08
like you, where, when you're suddenly available, everybody wants you to be on . their board, - wants you to help with s omething in church. You know your family would love to have you do things for them too, and so it's - n compliment slash challenge to really get focused on what you want. What is the way that you want to spend your time? Absolutely, exactly, exactly, exactly. Okay, yeah, so it's a 12 week program.
Michelle Gauthier: 6:37
If you had to guess, I'm sure you too, know the exact day, but witsh how long do you think it took until you started feeling better? Not solve the problem entirely, but started feeling better. Oh, it was in the first couple of weeks Truly the first couple of times that we met, because I had a feeling I'm doing something positive for me and that helped at least to relieve a lot
Michelle Gauthier: 6:59
of the stress. So not that I had to solve anything,- but I knew - was taking action to make things better, and just that Even, to know, a ton of stress and clear my mind. Yeah, that helped to relieve a going to solving the problem and that took off the pressure. That's
Michelle Gauthier: 7:18
What was your favorite part about group coaching? The other attendants, the other women I have. I always love to be around I'll just say top performers, and in that I mean people that are looking to get better
Michelle Gauthier: 7:34
want to. None of us are perfect, but we're all trying to do a little more or be better or have a happier life. - nd just to be whack. And I can take radical responsibility, as T ladies like that was really fun. I enjoyed it and learned so much from everybody else that it was great. Yes, that's one of the things I love too is that the coaching that somebody else gets you can learn something from it, and I thought that group was so cool because people were at all different stages of life and so I felt like you
Michelle Gauthier: 8:07
could help people who were early in their career and somebody else had experience with something else that they would share. I loved that. I think that's great. I did too, and even though we were in so
Michelle Gauthier: 8:18
different you made that point. I just I love being able to learn from everybody. Even you know their interpersonal relationships with a mother-in-law because start to get out of w I am a mother-in-law. So how am I? Interpersonal relationships with a mother-in-law because I am a mother-in-law. So how am I? Yeah, I could take that and try to learn from that. And so no, it was, it was wonderful. Yeah, oh, good, good, I love that part too.
Michelle Gauthier: 8:42
So how would you say, once you finished up the program and all the work that you were doing on yourself in there, how does your life feel different now than compared to the stuckness that you felt before? That? I think I just have a much deeper sense of calm. I have a tool that I know I can go back to if I you said in your class for the results that I have in my life, and by doing that, that gives me empowerment to be able M arci to set myself up for a lot more success and a lot more feeling of joy and happiness and calm, or whatever those things are that I'm looking for. Health is a big one. .
Michelle Gauthier: 9:32
Instead, of what am I doing? Yes, such a waste of your precious brain to be thinking what am I doing now you can just be like OK, I know how to figure out what to do. I can use this tool and c do that. Ok, that's wonderful.
Michelle Gauthier: 9:48
Okay, two questions that I ask every guest on the show. The first one is what's something g o o w
Michelle Gauthier: 9:52
you can do to make yourself feel over, not overwhelmed, less overwhelmed? What's your quick go-to if you notice that you feel overwhelmed? Moving my body. So it's taken me a long time to recognize that I am worth the time and energy it takes to be healthy. I would do that for another person without blinking an eye, but to do it for myself has actually taken effort. - i
Michelle Gauthier: 10:18
So either go for a walk or I love to go and exercise. I do jazzercise five, six days a week just because it's fun, and it's got a whole bunch of fun, ladies. But moving my body to get my yaya's out, yeah s and doing that with a group of other people. I do the same thing and I think it's so nice to know they're sort of expecting you, like if you didn't show up for a while they'd be like, hey, where'd you go, arcy? I think that's really helpful too, like accountability partners in a way, absolutely. So that has helped a lot. Just to make exercise something that is truly, in my mind, non-negotiable. That is great, and when it gets to be that solid in your life, it's just a habit. You don't have to think about it, you just know you're going to do it. I think everyone aspires to that, so that's great, that you have that Wonderful.
Michelle Gauthier: 11:15
And then my second question is what's something you do consistently to save time or do less? I'm a planner and I know other people that do this as well, but on Sundays or sometimes Mondays because Sundays I try to do Sunday dinners for my family, so Mondays I have the luxury of having that day available I will plan out my menu items for the week. I plan out my schedule for the week so that I've done it and I know what's coming. So by doing my menu planning and I'm not rigid, like on Tuesdays we're going to have tacos, but I just, I literally have a spreadsheet or and I was more rigorous when I had a family but I had a spreadsheet of like 20 different dinners and I would just rotate that on a basis, so I didn't have to think about it it would just be these five things are what we're eating this week and then usually one day was leftovers and one michellegauthier. com day was eating up. But those five things just go through the 20 things and then start over. That's so great. Yes, and I'm sure, I'm sure a bunch of teenage boys were just happy to have food on their plate, absolutely, absolutely. But just, I'm more of an. If I can make things automated, then I don't have to go, I don't have to think that hard again. Yes, that is such a great point. I love how you said that you think hard one time to create the thing and then you can just use that over and over and over again. Exactly, yes, and I love how you gave the example that sometimes you just would put eating out on there, because I think people put a lot of pressure on themselves to have like a sit down dinner every night and that's just not feasible sometimes, maybe lots of times. So that's great, I love it. That's a great tip.
Michelle Gauthier: 13:04
As you could tell from listening to this episode, M marci was part of my group coaching program called the Good Life. In the Good Life, we start off by defining what the problem is that you're trying to solve, and in Marci's case it was. She felt stuck and by the end she solved it. And we walked through it week by week, tool by tool. You have each week videos assigned to learn new concepts. You do work in your workbook. You come to group coaching. You get group coaching from me, you get support from the women who are in the group and I promise you we have knocked out all types of problems.
Michelle Gauthier: 13:42
I would love to have you join this group. There is going to be registration starting in July, but right now you can get on the waitlist, which I really encourage you to do. The group is small and I keep it that way on purpose. So when you join the waitlist, not only do you get to register early and be the first one in the door and secure yourself a spot, but also you get a bonus. The bonus that you get when you are on the waitlist and register for group coaching is a one-on-one coaching session with me that you can use at any time. Those are normally $250. So that will be yours for free when you join group coaching from the waitlist. So get on the list now and start thinking about what problem you want to solve. Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com. See you next week.