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079: Dream big and plan smart with Kristina Karlsson
3.5k Plays1 year ago
Much loved the world over, Swedish-born Kristina Karlsson is the Founder of kikki.K, Founder & Creative Director of Dream Life, author of bestseller Your Dream Life Starts Here and host of the Your Dream Life podcast. which has over 2.5 million downloads in more than 160 countries.
In the episode, Kristina:
- discusses how her journey began when she moved from Sweden to Australia, searching for her life's purpose. Her partner's suggestion to write down her dreams led her to create her own business, Kikki.K, which offered beautifully designed stationery products.
- emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals and dreams. She advises people to start with a dreaming exercise to determine what they would do if they couldn't fail, if they had all the resources, and if their health and energy were at their peak. From there, she encourages breaking down those dreams into actionable steps.
- suggests creating an ideal week or time-blocking your schedule to allocate time for various activities, whether personal growth, work, or family. She also emphasizes starting small, dedicating just a bit of time each day or week to work on goals.
- advocates for having a dedicated home for everything. She believes that this simple practice can save a lot of time that might otherwise be wasted searching for items.
- discusses how she combines both paper and technology in her organizational approach. The key is to find a system that works for you/
- talks about the power of rituals to create a productive and fulfilling life. She suggests incorporating morning rituals, like spending even just 10 minutes on personal growth activities, to set a positive tone for the day. She also recommends having dedicated time slots during the week for working on dreams and goals.
- regularly reviewing and adjusting your routines and systems is essential to staying on track and improving productivity.
- her perspective on achieving work-life balance, emphasizing the importance of avoiding burnout and focusing on self-care.
- that daily self-care practices, such as meditation, writing morning pages, and going for walks, play a crucial role in maintaining balance. Kristina's morning routine involves meditation, writing, and taking a walk, which helps her find clarity and inspiration.
- that she doesn't view work-life balance as a strict separation but rather focuses on integrating her passions into her daily life.
- her interest in health and longevity, mentioning that she's studying to become a health coach and is passionate about inspiring others to pursue their dreams and live healthy lives.
- the significance of creating space for oneself, mentioning that she dedicates Sundays to unplanned activities and relaxation, which allows her to recharge and cope with life's challenges more effectively.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money and improve your household harmony.
00:00:13
Speaker
I'm Dinara Roberts, an operations manager who's been a big fan of Kiki K for such a long time and was so excited for this conversation. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who can admit that at certain times, Kiki K stores are my go-to happy place, like Holly Golightly hanging out with Tiffany's.
Interview with Christina Carlson
00:00:31
Speaker
Yes, in this episode, we interview Christina Carlson, founder of Kiki K and Your Dream Wife.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. Before we leap into today's topic, we're so excited to reveal an offering we've been dreaming about for a very long time. Listeners, we're thrilled to let you know first about the launch of our new online course, Life Admin Foundations.
00:00:55
Speaker
Now you can take your learning to the next level with our immersive online short course that helps you set up the game changing life admin tools and processes to drop your mental load. Here the word we hear most often when it comes to life admin is overwhelming. And we know that setting up the right tools and systems makes the biggest impact in getting it under control. So this course provides you with a step by step learning experience that has been developed for an international audience.
00:01:21
Speaker
The course helps you set up foundational digital and organizational tools, such as a shared digital calendar and a dedicated life admin email address, to-do lists, reference lists, checklists, cloud storage for essential files, a password manager, time management and scheduling, and, crucially, for those in a relationship
00:01:41
Speaker
reducing and sharing the mental load.
Life Admin Foundations Course
00:01:44
Speaker
The Life Admins Foundation course is the perfect choice for you if you learn best by doing with a combination of video modules, practical activities, links to our recommended apps and websites, and downloadable templates and quizzes. So you're actively applying the concepts and strategies to your own life admin challenges. The course content drops once a week over six weeks to keep you focused at a sustainable pace. It's a structured learning path with clear milestones, keeping you on track,
00:02:11
Speaker
and accountable to your goals. So if you are ready to take the next step, transform your life admin and reclaim your headspace, enroll now at life admin, lifehax.com. So done. This was a fun interview. Yes.
Christina's Journey to Entrepreneurship
00:02:25
Speaker
In this episode, we chat to Christina Carlson, who revealed how she combines stationery and digital tools to optimize her admin, the power of dreaming and goal setting, and how she thinks in years and quarters and weeks to plan and break down the path
00:02:40
Speaker
to achieving her dreams. Much loved The World Over, Swedish-born Christina Carlsen is the founder of Kiki K, founder and creative director of Dream Life, author of bestseller Your Dream Life Starts Here, and host of the Your Dream Life podcast, which has over 2.5 million downloads in more than 160 countries. Christina won the hearts and minds of People The World Over as the creative force and personality behind
00:03:06
Speaker
what was the genuinely authentic founder and purpose-led brand, Kiki K, driven by her own personal philosophy, personal purpose, and Swedish design aesthetic. Kristina's new venture, The Dream Life Store, presents a curated collection of beautiful, customizable products.
00:03:21
Speaker
With deep personal experience of the power of dreaming and then doing, Christina's big crazy dream is to inspire and empower over 101 million people just like you to write their own dreams on paper and set about bringing them to life to help make the world a better place. Christina's a sought after international speaker
00:03:40
Speaker
coach, a passionate learner and self-improver, and the proud mother of two children with her partner, Paul. Ah, listeners. Now, listeners know that we have name-checked Kiki K products countless times on this show and in our book, Life Admin Hacks. So we were so excited to meet you last year, Christina, and wish you a big welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks.
00:04:01
Speaker
Thank you so much and thank you for your support over the years but also for having me. I couldn't think of a better way of starting the morning with a coffee and have a conversation with you guys. It's exciting to be chatting to you all the way from Sweden today. Your entrepreneurial journey and how did it come about? Was it sort of a necessity as the mother of invention kind of thing or what really drove you to create your first venture?
00:04:26
Speaker
Well, I grew up in Sweden and then I met my partner Paul in Australian ski resort and I moved to Australia, but I didn't actually think about that as a life-changing trip, but I actually stay, I was thinking I'll be there for a year and see how I go and loved it and I've been there for a long time now.
00:04:45
Speaker
divide my time between both countries, mainly Australia. And when I came to Australia, I was young, I had no idea what to do with my life. So I was actually whinging and complaining a lot. I asked anyone who would listen, what am I going to do with my life?
00:05:01
Speaker
And one morning at 3am, I woke up my partner Paul, I think for the fifth time, asking, what am I going to do with my life? He was a bit over it. He turned on the light and said, why don't we write down what is important to you? And this is when I wrote down my dreams on paper for the first time.
00:05:17
Speaker
And on that list, I had that I wanted to drive to work every single day and loving it. I wanted to have business on my own. I wanted to work with Swedish design because that's one of my passions. I wanted to have a connection with my country, Sweden. So I felt like I could have my life in both and not to choose. And then I wanted to make $500 a week.
00:05:35
Speaker
So that was my dreams. And to make a very long story short, eventually I looked at that list and I thought, if I'm going to have my own business, I have to have a beautiful home office. I love organizing. I love beautiful designs. I went out to buy some product. This is a long time ago. There just wasn't anything on the market that I wanted to put in my home. It was a bit of a price-driven category. It's very different.
00:06:00
Speaker
in today's world. So for anyone listening might not agree with that, but you know, 20 plus years ago, there was just nothing around. And so I didn't get depressed. That's not the right word, but I got really down thinking, this is so boring. And then I got excited thinking, this is my calling. So I decided to design some products that I wanted to have in my own home office. And Kiki K was born and Kiki K is my nickname. I have nothing to do with Kiki K now, because I have started a new business called Dream Life. But that's how that started.
00:06:30
Speaker
So it clearly had some pretty powerful goals there and some people find, you know, setting goals quite daunting can be kind of overwhelming. So what advice do you have for listeners on staying motivated, setting goals and meeting those long-term objectives?
Goal Setting and Planning Techniques
00:06:45
Speaker
So I think the first step is actually not thinking about the goals, but the first step is actually to do a dreaming exercise. Like I did, you know how I said, Paul inspired me to write out what's important to me. And that will change over the years. That might seem a very simple list back then. It was like,
00:07:01
Speaker
all the things that I wanted. So I would start with asking yourself, what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? Because a lot of us are really afraid to fail, so we don't even put that on as our goals. And a lot of us are inspired or influenced or perhaps even forced by parents, well-meaning parents, of course, and well-meaning teachers and even our peers. So we might be good at something and then we study that and we become
00:07:25
Speaker
really good at that, but it's not really what we're passionate about. So asking yourself, what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? If you had all the money and the resources that you needed, and most of us don't have that, but if you had it, what would you do with your life? And then
00:07:39
Speaker
What would you do if you had your health and energy? Because a lot of people are really tired, overworked, and don't have that work-life balance. But if you did have that, what would you do with your life? And that's where I would start. And then I would break it down to work on three dreams, depending on the size of the dreams, of course. But you might just want to do one dream. So for example, if one of your dreams is to start your own business or completely change career, maybe one is enough, and then break that down.
00:08:05
Speaker
Big planner so i love planning and i love breaking it down so i actually now i set a plan for the year but then i break down that year in quarters and i actually almost focus a quarter as if it's a new year a lot of us get really excited at the beginning of the year and i'm sure you can relate to that i'm sure all the listeners gonna relate to that
00:08:28
Speaker
And that January is so exciting or even December could be exciting thinking about the new year and then life happens and all the things that we, you know, the everyday stuff has to be done as well. So planning out the year first, having that clear vision, you know, your goals very clearly defined and then break it down. So just focus on one quarter at a time. That makes a big difference in terms of making it happen. Yeah.
00:08:54
Speaker
I can relate to that because usually I make plans and goals at the start of the year. And then this year, my job circumstances changed. And so I'm like, okay, I had a whole bunch of professional goals that aren't actually relevant anymore. And I've had to do my goal planning and goal setting again in July, which just feels so weird, but I'm like, why not? And so during the school holidays, thinking about this next term ahead, I'm like, okay, I'm starting from a note as if I have a blank slate, you know, fresh, clean couple of months ahead of me.
00:09:24
Speaker
I've gone through that goal-fitting exercise for the rest of the year and it's been fun. Absolutely. And I think for anyone listening, because you will have listeners listening later on any time of the year is good. Don't wait for the new year or don't wait for the next Monday or the next month or the next quarter.
00:09:39
Speaker
you can start today and i think we don't wanna waste time because life is short so you want to make sure that you make the most of it and you can start at any anytime so that's a really good one and good luck with that that's exciting i think there's nothing nothing better than you know restarting rethinking and starting again.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yes, I think one of the things that people often say is they just don't have time to do this kind of planning. And I know that one of your coaching programs really focuses on your sort of how people can achieve their dreams. So how can individuals incorporate this kind of dream planning and goal setting into busy schedules and and really manage those aspirations?
00:10:18
Speaker
We all have 24 hours when I say that people disagree, but of course we all do have that. That's one thing that all of us have. It's really how we use that. Everyone is different and we're all in different seasons of life. If you just have a newborn or going through a very challenging year, it could be grief, it could be
00:10:39
Speaker
you know, a challenge with career, you know, teenagers could be anything. So when I give advice, it all depends on what season in life you're at. But we all do have 24 hours and we have to choose what we do with that. We might need to do these things that we always done
00:10:57
Speaker
But we'll always find a little bit of time for ourselves if we want to. Could mean getting up a little bit early. So I'm a big believer in if you start the day right, you are more likely to finish the day right and also have a really good day. And even if you didn't have a good day, at least you had a really good morning. So for anyone who has really time poor, I would encourage everyone to maybe perhaps start a morning ritual, even if you could only spend 10 minutes working on your dream life or your goals.
00:11:27
Speaker
then that would be a really good start. I encourage people to even think about, could you have one night a week for you where you work on your dreams and goals, even planning it out. And even if you just had one hour, even after kids gone to bed, or if you don't have kids and you
00:11:43
Speaker
you're working extra at night or whatever. Even if you could just have one hour once a week, like I have my dream life coaching program and that's on a Monday night. A lot of us don't have things on Mondays. They just join in on the Monday and we do whatever we're doing. But that could just get you started for a really inspiring and productive week. So having a morning ritual or having one hour or a night a week will be a really good start.
00:12:10
Speaker
Even a Saturday morning, a lot of us, depending on where you are in the world and also depending on if you have kids sports, Saturday sports, et cetera, you could potentially get up a little bit earlier and spend an hour in the morning on a Saturday at work on your personal growth or your personal development or your dreams and your goals. And then once you start doing that, you are hopefully very inspired to keep going and have that as your regular thing.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah. Do things come to mind as you were saying that? I was thinking about when Dinah and I wrote our book, Life Admin Hacks, and people asked, you know, how did you find the time to do it? I did take the, I'm just going to get out an hour earlier each day. And I knew it was just for a certain time period. I knew it wasn't forever because I
00:12:52
Speaker
not particularly morning person. And I just did it for several months and I got up and I got so much done like that. It was sort of a calm, you know, peaceful time of day. The other thing I wanted to ask you is whether like a few months ago we interviewed Laura VanderKam, who's a productivity expert, and she regularly like maps her hour by hour with what she's doing. She gets the spreadsheet out and she does time tracking for herself. Have you ever done that? She did it to find, you know, where am I actually wasting time?
00:13:22
Speaker
Where is time being fritted? Yeah, I have.
Time Management Tips
00:13:25
Speaker
I have. And it's a really good way of actually working out where you spend your time. But for anyone listening, I think one thing that most of us are doing, me included, is spending way too much time on our phones. So if we just start with
00:13:39
Speaker
tracking that because I don't know about you guys, but often if I'm waiting for someone or if I, you know, if I have some, some spare time, it's also, you know, you get a bit of a dopamine hit. So it's an easy thing to do just to go to your phone, but looking at tracking how much time you spend on your phone, you can find a lot of time just there. But I think of tracking time is a brilliant way of doing it, but I like to almost like reverse it. So it's a good way of working out if you have no idea where you spend your time and
00:14:09
Speaker
often we get surprised thinking, gosh, we spent so much time on other people but not so much time on ourselves. But I think having what I call a dream week or you can call it an ideal week or a non-negotiable week, whatever title you like to make you follow it is a good thing. But having an ideal week is where you spend certain things
00:14:33
Speaker
that you do all the time on a specific time and day. So you can almost batch it. So for example, I have a day where I spend most of my time on creating content and working on my podcast and thinking about podcasts. So even though on a Monday, I might think about the podcast, I will just then write it down and then say, okay, I'm going to deal with that on Thursday because that's where
00:14:55
Speaker
I spend my time on thinking about podcasts. That frees up a lot of time in terms of not wasting time on going in with lots of different things. I can think of the podcast, I can think about what the kids are doing, admin stuff.
00:15:10
Speaker
If you do that every single day, all at once, when it comes up, then you fill your day pretty quickly versus if you are saying, okay, Thursdays is for podcasts or for your career or whatever. Admin, what time of day and what time of the week is that best suitable?
00:15:29
Speaker
I think that's a really good way of doing it having that kind of generic week and i've done it for so long so i can take it for granted it's only when people ask how i get so much down that i'm like that is really valuable to actually spend focus time so if you someone here who who are listening and perhaps i want to put something out of social media every day not thinking about that every day but actually watching that and
00:15:51
Speaker
can you come up with seven posts or seven reels or whatever you do, seven stories in one time and then just have that ready to go. You use that time much more productively. Yeah. We're big fans of the hour of power for regular life admin power session and that idea of the default week as you called it. When you have all those foundational activities and tasks that need to happen,
00:16:15
Speaker
or that you will find important just baked into your schedule and time boxing the other activities around it. You mentioned sort of batching activities and time boxing. What are some common mistakes people make when it comes to productivity and organization?
00:16:31
Speaker
In terms of organization, I think a lot of people waste a lot of time looking for things and I've been there myself and that's why I've been working on productivity. Like productivity is probably one of my, I love reading productivity books and I love listening to podcasts like yours just to kind of get a few tips all the time. But I think in terms of organization, if you have a home for everything, it's so much easier to keep organized and actually,
00:16:58
Speaker
know where to find things when you need it. Because often if you have an idea like, oh, I'm going to spend, let's take your example, like you did before with writing a book. If you had to find all your bits and pieces that you needed, like the computer, or maybe you had some ideas that you thought of during the week, if you didn't know where that was, you would spend all that morning that you had planned out by finding things. And I see that way too often.
00:17:24
Speaker
So having a home for everything. And even like, you know, I'm not just talking work, I'm talking home as well. So for my kids, they grow up with having a home for everything. And when they're looking for things, it's like they don't even, well, they still ask me, but very rarely because they know what I'm going to say. Did you put it in the in the home? And you know, when did you last use it, etc. So it's like, if you just have that, and then it's not just creating the home, but actually using that in terms of
00:17:53
Speaker
always putting it back in the right place. So that's for in terms of organization and that goes with digitally as well as physical things. And then in terms of productivity, I think having that time block is just foundation for everything.
00:18:09
Speaker
And I also think that having a review once a week to work out what is working and what's not working, because we all go off track, me included, and it's the review and thinking, what can I do differently? So for example, if someone listening and they don't have
00:18:25
Speaker
meal planning at the moment. That's one thing that I think saves so much time. And if you could have that once a week, but then of course we might be somewhere else, we might be traveling and everything goes through a night. And that's absolutely understandable and absolutely fine. It happens to all of us.
00:18:42
Speaker
but then have once a week, reviewing the week, what went right, what did go wrong, and how can I improve it? It's about that constant improvement. I think everyone will relate to different productivity and organizing systems, and it's really finding what works for you and try different things. I think
00:19:01
Speaker
that's why it's so brilliant to have a book like yours or your podcast where the listeners can say, okay, I'm going to try that. Does that work for me? And then review it. Nah, that didn't work. And then maybe try something different. And eventually you will have your own kind of system. That's how I now have like, I planned the year in January and then I plan every quarter and I have a system around that. And that has come over years of trying. So
00:19:25
Speaker
I think that's the most important thing is to actually try different things and see what works for you because we're all different and we all like different things. Yeah, that's a really important message for listeners that it is this constant iteration because of the different toolkit, the things, the processes, the tools you can be trying.
Tools for Organization
00:19:45
Speaker
But also as you move through different seasons of life, you know, something that might work for a couple of years will stop working when you stop working or you go back to work or you have a kid or you move or you decide you're going to eat paleo and then your whole cooking thing changes, not speaking from experience there. You know, meal planning is one of those incredible things where you hear it, you hear it talked about, and then once you start doing it, you can't believe the impact it has in terms of saving time and giving you peace of mind.
00:20:13
Speaker
So all of these things are worth giving a go if they're things that you have not yet tried. Now, Christina, your dream life and the Kiki K products are known for this beautiful stationary and organisational tool. So what tips do you have for our listeners on using stationary effectively? And we have talked about this before, about when you use stationary versus digital, you know, to manage your life and tasks.
00:20:37
Speaker
Well, you are talking to a paper lover here, but that does not mean that I don't love technology as well. I think I found a good way of combining it, but it's a constant trial and error. Not everyone loves paper as much as I do, but I certainly do love a journal and I do love my planners
00:20:57
Speaker
I create everything that I need. So I'm in a very privileged situation where I change, I can change the products. That's what I do and that's what I always try new things. But in terms of using paper versus technology, I find that obviously I used, when you guys book this today, that came via email, it was in my calendar.
00:21:17
Speaker
you know the link is there so I use a calendar system 100% for all the things that I do work wise and even privately I put it in there but what I find I'm a real visual person so sometimes I find digital quite hard to see the overview so I use first I have a world planner so I put all my key things so I do a lot of public speaking
00:21:38
Speaker
I do a lot of traveling. I put the kids' kind of school holidays and school terms in there. So, if you ask me over to join you for something or do podcasts, I can quickly really see if I'm traveling, if I'm doing the main things. So, I'm a real visual person. I also have that in a journal. So, I use a system where I just put all my yearly things that I have on my wall calendar. I also have in my journal. I have my journal with me.
00:22:08
Speaker
at any given time. It's an A5 journal, so I don't use that when I'm going for a walk. So I have the same system set up on my tech. So the same folders, the headings that I have on my journal, I have as my email folders, but also on my notes on the computer and on my phone.
00:22:26
Speaker
So I think if you are a person who loves both paper and technology, you just have to combine it and use the same kind of system. As things evolve in terms of new apps coming, new things that you want to try, you just have to work out how that works with paper. But I find that the way I plan, the way I write, I think on paper as well. So I often do my brainstorming on paper. And then if that then goes into a system in terms of a spreadsheet or in terms of
00:22:56
Speaker
content that I create for my co-tube program. Obviously, that's all digital. So I think I have found a really good way of using paper and technology. And I find we're just about to launch. And by the time this is out, the 2024 diaries will be out. And I always think
00:23:13
Speaker
are people still using it? A lot of people are using both tech or digital diaries as well as paper diaries. Also, paper diaries can be used for so many different things. I love looking back of the day, writing down what you've done and looking at all the things that you
00:23:30
Speaker
achieved for the day but also you can just write down in a paper diary about three things you're grateful for if you don't want to use a gratitude journal and combine it with other things. So there are so many ways of combining paper and digital if you want to and I think it's actually a really beautiful ritual to have a bit of time with paper because I think
00:23:51
Speaker
You learn so much better if you write it down in terms of something new, new ideas, et cetera. You wire the brain in a very different way. And also it's, we spend so much time on take. So writing, you know, your gratitude on piece of paper versus, or in a journal, this versus in an app. It's a very different experience. It's good to get away from phones and iPads, et cetera.
00:24:15
Speaker
Diana, what paper are you using these days? I still have my meal planning on the meal planner on the fridge together with the shopping list. I must admit, Christina, when Kiki K had a particular one that I liked, I bought I think 30 of each and I just put them on a shelf.
00:24:33
Speaker
I didn't use my very last one. So I'll obviously be hitting up your dream life soon. My meal planner, but I have had those for years. So definitely still use those. Cause I find that that helps with the kids and my husband being able to add to the shopping list, but also to know what what's cooking and who's cooking. So everyone knows what's going on. And I think that's really helpful for our family to be where the cooking happens. But other than that, I'm completely, you know, everything's digital except at work every single day, I still write down.
00:25:02
Speaker
on a piece of paper what I'm going to do that day and I cross them off and get them from my various systems and I cross them off so that then at the end of the day I can feel like I've crossed everything off I can go home. Yeah absolutely. Yeah what about you Maisie? I still have a big wall planner so when we were sort of experimenting with going digital for calendars that was probably sort of a term or a whole year overview
00:25:26
Speaker
That was the hardest thing I found to adjust to. So I still have a wall planner on the wall so I can see holidays and public holidays and sort of where we're at. For recurring activities, there's nothing like doing that digitally. I also have like a little box full of note paper that I use to write notes and ideas that come up. So there is something very satisfying about ticking off things at the end of the day. And as you said, Christina, you do think differently when you're writing. There's something about the creative process and just, you know,
00:25:56
Speaker
a pencil, getting a pen and writing, it frees up ideas in a different way. I can't brainstorm onto a blank screen with a tan on a page. I don't know what it is, but yeah.
Work-Life Balance and Self-Care
00:26:06
Speaker
Absolutely. Kind of curious, like, you know, as an entrepreneur and business leader, you've got family life, you've got
00:26:12
Speaker
You've got your business life. You know, there's responsibilities in both camps. Do you feel like work-life balance is a thing? Do you do the leaning in, the leaning out, the tilching? How do you walk that tightrope that so many of us need to walk with the responsibilities in those different areas of your life?
00:26:29
Speaker
I am super fortunate to do what I love. So for me, it's a big blur. So when people talk about work life balance, I'm mainly focused on not burning out. So I've been really privileged to not burn out ever.
00:26:44
Speaker
I do believe that that is to do with my self-care. I'm really, really focused on that, so I'm putting myself first. That doesn't mean that I don't work a lot. It doesn't mean that I'm not stressed. It doesn't mean that I have the schedule
00:27:00
Speaker
in a perfect way because none of us have that. There are differences in our life where we work a lot and then you have children and the balance goes the other way. And so I think self-care has been the key for my work-life balance. And when I say self-care, it's like always have a bit of time
00:27:20
Speaker
for me every day. So not just this, like, I'm waiting for this spa treatment end of the month, or I need that holiday, you know, in six months time. That is great as well. And I love all of that. But I think it's the daily that makes all the difference in terms of not getting burnt out. And for me, that was to start my morning ritual, which I started before. So I meditate every day. So for anyone who's not meditating and think that's a challenge, actually, you can just start with two minutes.
00:27:48
Speaker
sitting in silence or do a guided two-minute meditation. It doesn't feel like a lot, but it all adds up. And it's really all about creating that habit versus, you know, the length of it. And you can always add to it. So I meditate every day. I write morning pages every day, which is three pages where I just get everything out of my head onto PayPal. And this is something I don't actually save. So it's not like it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be on a specific journal.
00:28:15
Speaker
It's not something I go back to. For people who want to try that, you could, but I've done it for, I don't know, 25 years now, so I don't save that. It's just really to empty my head, and it's amazing how much clarity I get doing that. Then I'd go for a morning walk.
00:28:32
Speaker
I love my morning walks so much that I rarely miss them. And of course, when you travel and you have a sick child or something that's different, but I go for a walk every single day because it just makes me feel so good. This is where I get all my ideas. This is where I get all my clarity. This is where I really feel like I'm back to myself. So when you're an entrepreneur or a leader or a mother, you just give and give and you're always there. And then that walk just gives me that space for me.
00:29:01
Speaker
I assume you're walking, Christina, without any sound. Are you walking with a phone, with Spotify, or with nothing? Both. I never listen to music. I'm here in Sweden at the moment. Nature here is just unbelievable because I'm an early person. It's hardly anyone around and it's beautiful.
00:29:19
Speaker
But I do that wherever I am. If I'm in a city or if I'm home in Melbourne or if I'm traveling, I always go for a walk. But depends on, so if I feel like I have a really busy day ahead, I might just go for silence. But I listen to so many amazing podcasts. I listen to so many amazing books. I just get so many ideas. And sometimes I do, I always start on silent because I feel like I need to kind of ground myself and get
00:29:43
Speaker
myself together. But then I often listen to something and I'm also, I'm starting to become a health coach. That's something I'm not going to actually coaching this for myself. And so I do a lot of that listening because I'm really passionate about health and inspired by that. So self-care is key in terms of work-life balance.
Inspiring Dreams and Coaching
00:30:02
Speaker
And then, as I said earlier, I'm really privileged to do what I love. So for me, listening to a book when I'll go for a walk,
00:30:08
Speaker
It's also work related for me because I have a book club. It might be a book that we're about to read or I'm thinking maybe be a good book for the future. And also my dream is to inspire 101 million people to write down three dreams and then go and chase them. That to me is like, I think about that 24 seven. So I think about work all the time, but it's something that I really love. And that's the beauty of knowing what your dreams are, knowing what your purpose is, knowing what your values are and doing something you
00:30:36
Speaker
really passionate about. Regardless if that's for someone else or in your own business, that makes a big difference because I love it. But it doesn't mean that I want to do it all the time. And another really key thing that I think have made a big difference in my life over the years is that on Sundays, I do not book anything. And when I say I don't book anything, of course there are some birthdays and some
00:30:59
Speaker
Of course, there are some kids things that comes in. But most of the time and even yesterday, which was a Sunday, I just didn't have anything booked. So I could get up in the morning and there is nowhere to go, nowhere to be. It doesn't mean that I don't do things. So I might catch up with family friends. I might do something specific that people feel like that must have been scheduled. But that's something that I do schedule on the day. So having one day a week and it might not be possible to start with.
00:31:28
Speaker
But that's something that I've done for a long, long time because when I started my first business, I worked seven days a week because I loved it and it was necessary in a startup. And that's absolutely fine. But it got to a time where I felt like I needed a day off. So that was Sundays. And because I work with my life partner and my business partner, we work together. So I don't want to talk. I don't want to wake up and
00:31:51
Speaker
he has an agenda of talking retail stores versus I'll be like, I want to speak about something that I want to help with. So we had a policy that didn't always work, but most of the time worked. There's no black and white in life, but it was just really about a day where we just disconnected from work.
00:32:09
Speaker
And saying that, I still did a lot of work, but not planned. And it's so nice to have a day where you wake up, where there's nowhere to go, nowhere to be, and you can just choose whatever you want to do. And that's something I encourage everyone to do, because then if you have that, you can cope with so much more.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that buffer is so important. I totally relate to that. Last year I did this a similar thing. I called them full stop Sundays where I wasn't going to schedule anything unless something fun came up spontaneously. And I thought, yeah, I had space for that. I just needed one day that was free, free, free, free. And I have to circle back. So you're talking about the podcast you listen to or books you listen to. What have you been listening to lately that we need to know about? What are your favorite podcasts? What books have you
00:32:56
Speaker
lately when you think our listeners would get into. Yeah, gosh. So, I'm starting to become a health coach focusing on longevity. So, that's something I'm really passionate about. One of my dreams is to live to 120, but not just like live that long. 120, Christina, not just 100, 120. Yeah, I like to go big. I like to dream big.
00:33:18
Speaker
It might not happen, but it's just a really good way of thinking about health. If I'm going to live that long, what do I need to do? What do I need to focus on? A lot of my dreams are really big. One of the dreams that I have is to inspire 101 million people. That's a lot of people. I'm not focusing on that number. I'm just always thinking, when is there an opportunity to help more people?
00:33:41
Speaker
So if I get to that number, if it's my age or to my dreams, it doesn't really matter. It's more just to have that kind of mindset. So one of my favorite books ever that I often really listen to, and I'm really listening to it now when I'm here in Sweden, because I've got much more time now to walk, is The Wealthy Gardener. He's been on my podcast, Your Dream Life. I can listen to that book
00:34:05
Speaker
over and over, and I can read the book over and over. It's called The Wealthy Gardener with John Sephoric. It's a half-fiction, half-nonfiction, and it's really just about making the most of your life. It's about financial freedom, it's about finances, but it's also about setting goals and making your dreams happen. So it's a beautiful book.
00:34:25
Speaker
I think for your listeners to get into. A lot is about health, so I listen to a lot of health podcasts. I listen to Dr. Steven Cabral a lot. He has a daily podcast about health, so I just choose. I can't listen to that every day, but I just choose what I think is relevant for me. Dr. Hayman, great one in terms of longevity and I mean to holistic health, not just conventional medicine, so I listen to a lot of health podcasts.
00:34:52
Speaker
I was going to compare notes afterwards because I've got some longevity ones, I think. I decided this year that I need to live to 100. I've got quite going for 120 just because I realized, you know, I'm coming up to a milestone birthday. My kids are still so young and I'm like, I want to be around to see them into older adults and have grandchildren. And I pretty much need to live to 100 to do that. So I totally understand.
00:35:20
Speaker
So, Christina, it's probably a good place to end our conversation today in terms of talking about longevity and living for a long time. What's next for you and your ventures? Have you got any other exciting projects other than longevity on the horizon that you'd like to share with our audience?
00:35:36
Speaker
There's two projects that I'm currently working on that I can't see that I will ever stop. One is the Dream Life Coaching Program. So many people, you know, go with their dreams in their heads or might not have people around them that are encouraging them or don't know where to start. So I started this program last year called the Dream Life Coaching Program. It's basically just a 12 month program that anyone can join at any time. And it's really a chance for me to share everything that I learned creating my own dream life.
00:36:05
Speaker
and it's a really inspiring journey. So I can't say that I will ever stop that because it's not like you set your dreams in your early or goals or dreams, it doesn't matter which term you use, but in your early twenties and you achieve them and you're happy. It's like
00:36:21
Speaker
you always evolve as a new person. Things change and as you get older and hopefully a little bit wiser and also with much more experience, you might completely change and your focus change. So I will work on my dream life for the rest of my life. That's why I decided to have this program.
00:36:39
Speaker
that anyone who wants to join that, being around like-minded people and also needing some support because we, even if we're really clear on our dream life, we all fall off the wang and we all need some inspiration and motivation and support. And especially if we are pursuing dreams that we haven't done yet. I have so many people coming in and saying, I don't know if this is possible for me. And I'm like, absolutely it is. You just need to work out
00:37:03
Speaker
how you're going to do it. I haven't seen a dream that is not achievable. It's often that we have that imposter ourselves and can't see it, but if you are then guided by someone, you are able to pursue your dream life. And the other thing that I'm working on and that I can't see that I ever stop is my book club. I love reading and I love personal growth and personal development books. I just read so much and not all my friends are into those kind of books.
00:37:27
Speaker
So I decided to, so I have a private book group with my friends who are into that kind of books, but I also have a virtual one that anyone can, can join. So I go live every Monday and we read one book a month. I just love it because these are people who are like-minded, who join from all over the world who are interested in this, in the same books that I am. And we, I go live every Monday, people read, we divide the book up in
00:37:53
Speaker
over four weeks and you can just read a little bit each day and then you come in and discuss it. And for anyone who wants to join, it's basically just a book club that sometimes got pear-shaped in terms of other discussions, but it's about life and it's so good. I just love it. So that's what I'm going to focus on, really growing them and being hopefully able to be a support and an inspiration for a lot of people out there that might not have that in their own life.
00:38:20
Speaker
Oh, fabulous. We'll definitely be linking to those in the show notes. So anyone who wants to join Christina's coaching program or book club, you'll know where to head.
00:38:29
Speaker
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and ideas with us today, Christina. It's been a total pleasure. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And thanks for all the amazing work that you guys are doing. I think if you get life admin sorted and you follow your book or system or course, then you've got so much more time to pursue your dreams. So I think what you guys are doing is amazing and I love it. I'm really grateful to be part of your podcast. So thanks for having me.
Resources and Social Media
00:38:57
Speaker
Thank you.
00:38:57
Speaker
Where can our listeners find you if they want to hear more? I think for coaching or the book club, your dream life starts here.com, the store for any journals, for anyone who's interested in combining technology and paper, but there's so much more than just journals, cards and books, et cetera. It's the dream life store.com.
00:39:17
Speaker
But for everyday things, I think I'm active on Instagram. So that's my handle is Christina Dream Life. For anyone who wants some daily motivation, I often actually now take a minute and share something on my daily walk. So for anyone who kind of needs a little bit of inspiration on their walk, they could just listen for that for just one minute. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeandminlifehacks.com. And if you're a fan,
00:39:45
Speaker
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