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In my last blog, I shared the Top 5 Dynamic Women Podcast Solo Episodes of 2023. We ended the year with a total of 240 episodes released since we started in 2019! We were joined by 25 wonderful dynamic women who shared their expertise, stories, and tips on different topics that you can you in your life and business. Now, let me share with you the Top 5 Guest Episodes! I’ll count them down from 5 to the number 1 Podcasts of 2023! If you haven’t listened to them yet, then I encourage you to check them out and subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes in 2024!
Don’t miss:
Special thanks to our guests:
Don’t miss:
Are you a business owner who's trying to build a successful business? Well, how about building it to the point where you are number one in Canada? In this episode, Missy MacKintosh talks about exactly that. Don’t miss:
Top 1: DW190: Let's Get Fired Up and Be Ready to Shift with Linda Mae Edgecombe with Linda Mae Edgecombe
Listen to this episode as it will help you get fired up and be ready to shift. There you go! Those are the Top 5 Guest Episodes of 2023. Tip: Our guests shared some freebies for you! Make sure to check each episode’s show notes to grab them! You can catch the Dynamic Women Podcast on Captivate, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other podcast streaming apps. Make sure to subscribe and leave us a review so we can help more women. When you do leave us a review, please send to [email protected] a screenshot of the review and your mailing address so that we can send you a little something in the email. ⠀⠀ If you want to be a guest in the podcast and inspire a global community of women, please email my team at [email protected]. Read my other blogs:
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In 2023, the Dynamic Women Podcast celebrated its 4th anniversary! We ended the year with a total of 240 episodes released since we started in 2019! For this blog, let me share with you the Top 5 Solo Episodes of 2023. In these episodes, I share only the best tools, stories, and strategies that will help you in all areas of your life! It may be weird to have an episode all about how I lost 20 pounds. But there's a lot in this story… in this struggle. Listen as I share:
Are you sitting on a course, a product, or a service because your limiting beliefs are telling you:
Then you need to listen to this episode as I talk about:
Have you been thinking about wanting to speak to grow your business, but you’re not a professional speaker? In this episode, I talk about the three ways you can speak without being a professional speaker or having any past speaking experience. This is part of a series. This is the 1st of 4. Don’t miss:
It’s the 4th Anniversary Episode of the Dynamic Women Podcast! Today, the tables are turned as I will be interviewed by our guest podcast host, Michelle Abraham! Michelle and her team at AmplifYou helped me launch my podcast four years ago. In this episode, I answer some hard questions from Michelle. Don’t miss:
It sucks so bad when you feel stuck.... like you can't get out of the muck. No right turn showing itself. You just want to make progress, but why are you sabotaging yourself?! I went live in my Facebook Group, the Dynamic Women Global Community, and talked about ditching the stuck feeling for good. Listen to know:
That’s it! Those are the Top 5 Solo Episodes of the Dynamic Women Podcast! If you listened to these episodes or any episode, thank you. I am very grateful for the support. This 2024, I am going to continue providing you with helpful topics, so if you have any topic suggestions, feel free to reach out to my team at [email protected]. Tune in to the Dynamic Women Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Captivate, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other podcast streaming apps. Make sure to subscribe and leave us a review so we can help more women. If you leave us a review, please send a screenshot to [email protected] with your mailing address so that we can send you a little something in the mail! Read my other blogs here:
Have you been feeling like you're a little bit off track, and you don't know which direction you should be pointing yourself to go? Maybe you've been sitting here doing a whole bunch of different tasks and you don't see how they can all be united into one path? Today, I’m going to talk about finding your North Star. What is a North Star? Metaphorically speaking, we can think of it like a symbol. A thing that acts as a life guide or a reference point for you. It's really named after the North Star, the Polaris, because it's been fixed in the northern sky and it aligns with the Earth's spinning.  Now, you don't have to remember any of that. But basically, back in the day, right back before we had all the really cool GPS systems and the technology and the electronics that we have today, sailors used to figure out which way they needed to go based on where the North Star was. You can just imagine how important it was to be able to know “Where am I?” and “Where am I going?” The concept of a North Star in personal development When we look at the North Star with your personal growth, you may just think, “Oh yeah, I have a career plan” or “I pick goals to go after” or “I have a theme for the year or word for the year.” Well, basically finding your North Star in personal development means you're figuring out what really matters to you. When you look at different aspects of your life, how are you going to point those in the right direction? It is like a symbol. It helps you make decisions, set goals, and deal with challenges with a sense of direction. It's going to give you some clarity. It's life's GPS, your soul’s GPS, maybe also your business or career’s GPS. It's your personal north star that is going to help you navigate the journey, so if you wonder, “Am I off track? Well, where's your North Star? Oh, it's back over there. Okay, I need to pivot. I need to change how I am going, make different decisions, have different goals, whatever it may be.” Picture this: maybe someone is all about making their community better. That's their North Star, like everything has to be helping their community be better. If they're doing something that's not helping their community to be better, then it's not a fit for them. Maybe their North Star is around their family and the legacy they want to leave. If they're looking at other aspects, and they're thinking, “Wow, this is not in alignment with the legacy I want to leave my family,” then it tells them, “I'm off course. I need to make some changes.” Everything they do, their decisions, actions, and goals, are all aimed at making their community better, their family better, whatever it may be, whatever that North Star is, making it better as the end result. You're probably thinking, “Okay, that sounds really cool. Yeah, maybe I want a North Star,” or “I have all these other things instead.” Well, I want to let you know that if you don't have a clear North Star in your life, it can lead to feel like you have a sense of aimlessness. You're wandering around with a lack of direction. If you have ever thought, “Oh, yeah, I've done this. I've done this. I've done this, but I haven't really felt like I've moved ahead, or I haven't really felt like there's a big alignment in what I'm doing,” then you're going to have struggles. There are going to be some potential consequences. I'm going to go through them now because that's going to tell that saboteur, “Shut up. We really need to get our North Star in place.” Then at the end, I'm going to give you those three questions that you can ask yourself to kind of get that first step towards figuring out what your North Star is. The consequences #1: Lack of focus I hear this all the time that clients and people I meet, they're like, “I’m just feeling unfocused now.” Without that North Star, you may find it challenging to focus on your specific objectives, your specific priorities. You're not going to have the drive you need to stay focused, and instead you’ll say, “Oh, whatever, I'm just going to do these other things”. When you know what your North Star is, then you can confidently say, “Okay, I’ve got to do these things. I got to do these steps because I know that this is going to get me closer to that North Star.” #2: Decision paralysis Have you ever sat there and been like, “I don't know what decision I should make.” But when you're North Star is super clear. It's your guiding light. It tells you where you should be going. It makes decision-making so much easier. There's going to be no issue with you making an aligned decision or an aligned choice. #3: Uncertainty and anxiety Sadly, a lack of a North Star may contribute to you feeling uncertain and worried about the future. Really, with no clear vision or purpose to work towards, you're going to get in that place of feeling uncomfortable with it and feeling like, “What am I doing? I don't know. I'm not sure.” You don't want to be in that place because that's when you lay awake at night, and you worry, “I don't know, am I doing the right thing? Is this a good idea for me? What should I do here?” You do get into that uncertainty, and that can cause you to have less confidence in yourself in a new path.  #4: Real difficulty in setting goals The next piece is you're going to have real difficulty in setting goals because if you're going to set meaningful and fulfilling goals, it's too hard without that overarching direction to guide your aspirations. Instead, you're down here in the everyday asking, “Okay, what am I going to do? What steps? What priorities do I have? Where do I need to focus?” If you don't have that overarching North Star to be able to guide you, it's going to be super unclear. You're not going to know which goals are a priority, and which goals you should even make, which then gets us into the next one. #5: Lack of motivation Your North Star gives you your clear purpose. It also will then create more of a passion for you. It serves as a really powerful motivator. Without it, you're really going to experience a lack of motivation and inspiration in your endeavors, your opportunities, and your goals. Lack of motivation makes it so much harder, then you have to build energy to do things, which means a delay or a complete lack of results. #6: Feeling like you’re wandering through life Life might feel like a series of random events because there's no unifying principle. When you have the North Star, it's going to lead you to a sense of accomplishment that you're hitting your milestones. Otherwise, you're going to be in that place of feeling like you're drifting. You're wandering without a purpose. When you don't have a purpose, you're also going to lack motivation. You're not going to feel that sense of urgency to get things done. You're going to be more apathetic. #7: Limited personal growth I hope you care about this one. When you have this North Star, it will help you to have continuous personal development. But without it, there will be a lack of intentional growth and self-improvement. You're not going to see the things you need in order to move forward. My North Star supporting high-level women to stop flying under the radar, to have more balanced lives and reach the success that they're wanting. I want there to be more female leaders in the world. We're only going to do that by empowering women. So one thing I did was take a stand-up comedy class. I saw how it was going to serve me in helping me give better speaking keynotes, help me with my trainings and my workshops with my clients. The quality of your personal growth will increase, rather than you paying all this money for things that aren't in alignment with your North Star and aren't going to help you to move forward in the right direction. #8: Difficulty overcoming challenges You're also going to have difficulty overcoming challenges. A guiding principle can provide strength and resilience. When you see that North Star, you're going to be like, “Okay, I can get through these challenging times.” Without that North Star, overcoming obstacles may become more challenging, more stressful, and really drain you of your time, your energy, and your peace. #9: Strained relationships You might think of this as like, “Well, this is my life and my North Star”. But really a lack of personal direction might affect your relationships with other people, as it may make it really challenging to communicate your values, aspirations, goals, and desires to them. When you have that clarity, it's going to be really easy for you to be able to explain why things are important to you and be able to make decisions in your life that would have negatively affected them, like you're not going to go partying or you're not going to go on that trip because you have other priorities and values you want to be in alignment with. #10: Reduced satisfaction and fulfillment Without a clear purpose, without the guiding principle of the North Star, there may be a reduced sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, even when you do succeed. That's why some people get to that success point, and then they go,
When you are in alignment with your North Star, when you're moving forward in the right direction, you will feel satisfaction and fulfillment. What I hope people realize is, life should be measured by satisfaction, not just success. The 5 questions Now that you’ve read those 10 consequences, I'm sure you're feeling like, “Whoa, that is a lot, Diane. This is really showing me that it's important to have a North Star.” Here are five questions you can ask yourself that are really going to help you to start to open up this exploration of figuring out what your North Star is. Another way that I talk about it in coaching is around your personal statement. Or it's your your passion. It is the main goal, your vision for your life, your mission, the movement you want to have. Finding that North Star is such a personal journey. I've taken a lot of clients through it. I just received a lovely email from a client I had years ago, who is following her North Star. In the email, she thanked me for the coaching we did that gave her confidence, helped her unlock her values and know which direction she really wanted to go in. Here are five questions you can ask yourself. With these questions, I hope you write them down and put your answers and then ask yourself again, and then write the answers and then put what else? And then write the answers and see which of the answers to these questions starts to really get into that soul place. #1: What do you really care about? You can think of all areas of life, but first look at life in general, what do you really care about? You can also think about, “What is it that fires you up?”  #2: What's important to you? If you haven't listened, watched or read yet about my journey and how my coach shifted me and how I'm going from the work boots into the sparkly shoes, the sparkly shoes for me is the soul work. It's what's really important to me. #3: What do you want to achieve in life? #4: What was the purpose of you being on Earth? #5: What's the legacy you want to leave? A way to find your North Star The Dynamic Your Program is open. This is a really great way for you to have a North Star for this year. By making that one-page plan, that dynamic life blueprint, that is your North Star for the year. If you want to talk more about, “How do I find my North Star for myself?” or “Okay, Diane, I've done the questions. I got the answers, but I really want to explore this more.” Sure, send me a message at [email protected]. We can talk about how I can support you to really lock in your North Star and give you the clarity, so you can implement the right actions into your life. Wrapping Up I’m not going to say much more about the topic. You now know what the North Star is. The importance of it and the definition of it. You also know all the different reasons why you could have negative consequences of not having a North Star, and really all the amazing benefits to having one. For this personal journey, I gave you some questions that you can use, that are really going to help you to get things started with that North Star. I'm putting together right now the topics for 2024. What do you want me to talk about? What are the things that you're struggling with? Or what are some things that you wish you could learn and ask me about? Please send them over to [email protected]. I would love to hear from you. Stay dynamic! Read my other blogs:
Happy New Year! Happy 2024! Thinking about how to start off the year on the right foot? I've got seven tips for you.  By going through these different pieces, it's going to prepare you to:
Basically, all the things you're wanting, especially after the way the past few years have been. As I go through these tips, take some notes, and write them down. I'm going to give you different tips for you to implement. Also, in case you missed it, the doors are open for the Dynamic Year Program, that’s definitely how you’re going to not only be able to set a really great foundation for 2024, but also create your dynamic blueprint. The plan includes your theme, your goals, and all the other pieces, needed to have the dynamic year that you deserve. So check it out here. Tip #1: Make yourself a priority and organize your space This is actually two-fold, and it's more about yourself and your space so that you can really get into all the other six points. The first one is to make yourself a priority - your self-care. Now is the time to be able to take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. This could include things like:
Or whatever it is to really recenter yourself. Give yourself that rest, relaxation, and recharge that is needed to start the year right. I know you've been really busy probably over the holiday season, and we want to ease in and ensure we're all set to go. Get organized is the other piece of it. Starting off the new year with a clean, organized space can really help you to feel more productive and be more focused. Take some time to declutter. You can donate a bunch of stuff or sell things off, and do a general cleaning of your home and work space. If you’re worried that, “I’ve got to get down to business, Diane, it is chaos in here!” then I have one recommendation. Go to your local store and pick up some bins or get some cardboard boxes. If your desk is a mess, throw stuff in it. If the side of your bed is a mess, throw stuff in it. Do this if you don't have the time to put things away properly right now, and you need to start working instead. Empty those spaces so that you have an opportunity to have clarity, and then set time in your calendar when you'll focus on emptying those boxes, maybe 10 minutes every day, moving forward. Tip #2: Take some time to reflect Now that you've got yourself recharged and your space ready, we want to have some time to reflect on the past year. This is something that we do in the Dynamic Year Program. I have a really amazing, proven step-by-step formula in order to take you through this. Let me just explain what it is so that you have that in your mind right now. Take some time to think about every area of your life over the past year. What worked well for you and what didn't work well for you, and you're going to use this reflection time to educate yourself. In our process, we grab the wisdom, and we do all the steps so you can use this to create your goals and priorities for the next year. Reflecting on the past year is not just about what were the good and bad things, it's more intricate about what got you there, who were you being, and what were you doing. Tip #3: Celebrate your successes Don’t just look at what went well or bad in the past year or what worked and didn’t work, and figure out what you’d do better next time. Instead, when you capture the great things that happened, spend some time to celebrate them. It's really important that we celebrate our achievements.  I see so often that high-achieving A-type of clients of mine, they're like, “Yeah, achieved that. Check. Next. Yep, achieved that. Check. Next.” They don't spend time to celebrate. If you have listened to me talk about the motivation mountain, it's so important to celebrate these successes when we're at the top of the mountain because at some point we’re going to have to run down the mountain, and then up the next one. That process can be tiring. As you go towards another goal, you can get tired, but when you celebrate your achievements, you can actually feel what it's like to be on top. You feel those moments of success, and it's going to help you to get through the hard times when you say, “I need some energy, inspiration, perseverance. I need to know I can do this.” The motivation and confidence from celebrating can help carry us to the top of the next goal. So celebrate the successes at the high points, to get through the lows. It's also going to help you feel good about your progress, and feel good about yourself. Celebrate all types of achievements, big and small. Tip #4: Set specific and achievable goals Once you've done those steps, it's time to start setting some goals. There are a few more steps that I do in the Dynamic Year Program before we make goals, like setting your theme, values, guidelines, and new paradigm, but for this I’ll share about setting specific achievable goals for the new year. Obviously, we want SMART goals. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound) or I like to add the E and R as well. E is for Evaluation, and R is for Review and Redo if needed. When you make your goals, create them for all areas of your life. I use the Wheel of Life - a professional coaching tool. My wheel has 10 areas on it (If you want a copy of it, please send my team an email at [email protected] or email me at [email protected] with the subject line “Wheel of Life Please”) and that's going to help you create specific goals in every area of your life, like your career, your personal development, your health, and your relationships, etc. without going against goals in other areas. When you have clearly defined goals, SMARTER goals that are written down, it's going to give you direction, and it's also going to give you motivation. Tip #5: Reach out for support In going through all of these tips, you might have thought ‘Oh, that's a lot to do on my own’ so the next tip is to reach out for support. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for help or support. It's actually a smart thing to do. How many people out there who are in sports just try to do it all themselves? They don't. They have coaches. They have trainers. They have different people that support them, and the same goes for your goal setting. This will help you have a process for the end of the year, going into the new year, and even creating goals.  Don't be afraid to ask for help or support when you need it. Maybe it's from friends, from family, or from a professional (like me), but having someone to talk to and lean on can be so helpful in achieving your goals and staying on track. Smart people get support. How many CEOs out there are doing everything on their own? If you're a small business owner, you're probably trying to do it all on your own. But Fortune 500 companies, big companies, and successful multi-billion dollar companies have support to get things done and for strategy. Tip #6: Create a plan for achieving your goals A lot of times people make goals and that's amazing. If you write them down, they get closer to being living goals, but if you don't have a plan for your goals, you probably won't be able to achieve them. If you do, it's based on luck, or a fluke, or you're not going to be as efficient as you possibly could. Personally, I love making dynamic goals. One goal that, if planned properly, will help you achieve up to five goals. Doesn't that sound amazing? I'm all about efficiency and productivity, and that's the way to do it. I do that with my clients in the Dynamic Year Program. When you do look at your goals, how can you plan to focus on that one goal and have it help you to achieve multiple goals? It is possible. With your plan, it’s really important to break your goals down into actionable steps. A lot of times goals feel way too big, but if your goal is to make an extra $100,000 this year, and you're feeling like, “How am I ever going to do that?” Well, you're not going to do it by January, but what you could do is make $9,000 every month, that works out to an extra $2,000 a week. Could you do that? Now it's starting to sound more possible. So what are the steps and the actions to get there? Does that sound a little bit more achievable and doable? That's why we want to break them down and have a plan to get there so that in November and December, we're not in that crunch time and super stressed about not being able to get there. It's not just enough to have the goal, you need to know how to make it into actionable steps. Tip #7: Let go of negative habits and thoughts As you're going through all these steps, I'm guessing you've heard limiting beliefs, the saboteur, or little gremlin on your shoulder, saying negative things to you. My last tip is to let go of negative habits and thoughts. As you do these steps, if you hear something, write it down because if there are negative habits or thoughts that are holding you back, you have to make a special effort to let them go. If the negative thought is, “How can I ever achieve that?” Write that down. Now, you need to answer that, "How can I ever achieve that?” or “I'm not smart enough”. Okay, well, what will make you smarter? Do you need to do research? Do you need to hire someone to help you? Do you need to read a book about it? What is going to help you to get there? If you have bad habits, like procrastination, scrolling through Facebook, or any social media platform endlessly, hours at a time, or even minutes at a time when you want to be doing other things. Maybe another bad habit is not eating right, not drinking enough water, or not sleeping enough. We need to let go of these negative habits in January, so that we have a chance for the rest of the year, to be able to really push through and get everything done that we want to achieve. The key thing is, I want you to get to the end of the year and look back and say, “Wow, that was the best year ever. I thought last year was pretty good. But this year was amazing.” To get to the end of the year and have no regrets, “I was so good. I did what I wanted to do.” I know that sometimes you set certain things to do, and it doesn't pan out how you wanted it to, but there'll be other things that you’ll achieve along the way and if you are able to do these seven things, I promise you, you're going to have a better year. If you can do these things in January, even better, set some time in your calendar to be able to go through and do these. Wrapping Up I hope that these seven tips are going to help you start off the new year on a positive note. I'm trusting that by going through these tips you're going to have an even better year. Now, if you want to have a dynamic year, I encourage you to check out the Dynamic Year™ program. Come join me and a bunch of other dynamic leaders to not only coming up with your goals, but being able to properly review the year to grab the golden nuggets and create your Dynamic Life Blueprint. I have a bunch of tools in the dynamic year plan will help you as the year goes on, to make better decisions, to be more confident to have a better plan in place, and then to have quarterly check-ins throughout the year to keep you accountable. That's what the program offers. Check it out. I really would love to see you in there. Until next time, stay dynamic and have a wonderful happy new year! Take care. Read my other blogs:
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