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Hint: The people who have the results you want are probably delegating. They're not doing everything that you are doing, and it's helping them to get further faster.  How do I know that the people who have the results you want are probably delegating? There are only so many hours in the day. When you look at small or big companies, the difference between a solopreneur and them, or even if you have a team of employees, the way to get ahead is by leveraging other people's time. Especially other people's time who are going to do the things that you don't want to do. They're going to do the things that maybe you have been doing, but they're going to do it better. They're going to do it faster. They're maybe even going to do it with more passion than you have for it. Now I'm going to go over a little bit about my journey with hiring support, and how I have been delegating. I also encourage you to show up on Friday, January 31, to my free training that's going to be talking more about how to delegate, what to delegate, and how to build your business and reach your goals with the help of a virtual assistant. What is a Virtual Assistant? A virtual assistant is someone who works virtually, and the benefit of is they can be from anywhere in the world. The ones that I match with my clients and the ones I use personally for 40 hours a week are from the Philippines, and there are many benefits to that. What my VAs do for me The thing that might be in your head right now is, “Well, I don't know what I would delegate.” I'll give you a brief overview of the things that my VAs do for me. Presentation design, handout creation, audio/video editing, putting it together for a course or a program, landing pages, email sequences, CRM management, email responses, research, tech, website updating - there are so many things that my two main VAs, Kristine and Karissa, do for me. They are amazing, and it's allowing me to not only have the results I want in my business because I have time to do the program development or to work with my clients, or to travel for work, and then they get to take care of all the backend stuff. I record a video every week, a Zoom video so you can watch it on YouTube because my team edits it and posts it on YouTube. You can listen to it on the podcast. You can read it as a blog here because my team transcribes it and puts it into a blog format and adds photos and then publishes it. You can get connected to all of these pieces through my newsletter, which is also put together by my team. Then how about my social media? My Facebook posts, LinkedIn, videos, short-form videos, stories, and carousels are all created by my team. Social media content creation, social media scheduling or posting, also social media management, are all taken care of. People say to me, “Diane, you're everywhere. I see you everywhere. I see all your posts and all the things you're doing.” The thing is, I'm NOT everywhere. It's just that I'm leveraging the content that I have. I'm repurposing this one video into all the different pieces. A key thing here is a lot of people go and hire a copywriter and a digital content creator, and then they say, “Diane, how do I get them to be able to speak or write like me?” Well, they're not you, and they don't have your expertise, and unless you're going to be able to transplant your brain into their head, they're not going to be able to write exactly like you and have the knowledge like you.  Now, the workaround is the repurposing of your content. Because then everything is coming from you, and all the video is you, but it only is a 10 to 15-minute video. The other thing is, I have found copywriters who have been able to write like me. The crazy thing is, I read my posts, and I would say, “Oh, was that their post or my post? I don't even remember. Is that my words or their words?” I have no idea. But the problem is, they were getting paid at such a high level, and that rate kept increasing, increasing, increasing. While they were amazing, I'd have them, and then I'd have other contracted people and eventually I've got like 10 people I’m contracting. That's 10 meetings and 10 invoices to pay at North American rates. I have such joy being able to meet with my VA clients and ask them, “What are your goals for 2025? What are your goals for the next quarter? Let's have your VA do tasks to help you reach those goals faster. Increasing your results, or to free you up so that you can go and work towards these goals.” What you can delegate You may think, “Well, what would I pass off so that I could go and work on other things?” Well, how about many of the things I just suggested? I used to do my own blog from start to finish. It was like five hours every week. It was pretty ridiculous, but once I put this into place, the time has been cut down drastically because I only have to approve it. Side note: please make sure you approve everything that goes out for your business. If you’re still reading, then you’re probably realizing that his is why people are getting results that you're not getting in their business. You;re trying to do too much. You're doing tasks that are below your pay grade. You're leaving money on the table because you're not able to serve as many clients or customers or sell as many items because you're stuck doing these lower-end tasks. Not only tasks you need to delegate, but decision-making you need to delegate. If you're like, “But Diane, I have a team of people.” Well, do you have those people working optimally? Could you have those people that you pay a high rate to (because of where they live or their expertise) - could you have them create a wish list of tasks that they want to delegate to a VA? Do you see where this is going? If we continue to leverage not only our time but the time of the people that work with us, we are able to get more results. Plus, how many times have you been Googling or YouTubing, how to do some sort of tech thing, or you're learning a new platform and you're watching all of their training videos? Again, this should not be you. It should be your VA. Getting results not just in business but also in personal life Why else and where else are people getting results that you want? Maybe in their personal lives? This will be my last podcast where I'm doing it the week of because the next two weeks I'm going to be in Mexico. I'm going to pre-record my video that my team will put on YouTube, my podcast, and my blog for the next two weeks. I'm going to pre-record them before I go and know that the content will be taken care of. Will I have to approve some things? Yes, but will I have to record when I'm gone? No. Will I have to do all that work when I'm gone? No. The key thing is, I get to wake up on vacation, feel like I'm on vacation, go and sit by the pool, be anywhere, do anything I want, without the worry of “What am I posting today?” or “Oh, I have to make that handout.” I know that even if something comes up that doesn't need me, I can easily pass it off. Not only am I getting the results that I want in my business - and maybe you're seeing that in other people - but I'm getting the results I want in my life. I do Pilates twice a week. I am able to go for walks during the day and do other things that are important to me. It's not that I'm not busy, but my time is filled with things from all areas of life. In the middle of the day, I had to go and drop something off to my daughter. I had the time to do that. I was able to do that. If you are looking at other people in your life or other people online, and you're saying,
If you want any of these things and more, either the process of them or the results of them (results being maybe clients, sales, customers, more opportunities, more invitations, better relationships in the business) - if you're wanting any of that, this is the year that you delegate, ideally to one person who can be there for you in many different facets of the business. That's why we hire general virtual assistants so that they have a wide range of knowledge, anywhere from social media content creation, scheduling, and management to the video/audio editing and research and CRM management and email sequences and landing pages and more. They've dabbled in all of it so that they can be that go-to person for you. You’re Batman. You need Robin. You need someone there to help you and help you with all the things. A “yes” person who says,
At a fraction of what you would be investing if it was someone local because the cost of living is different. Wrapping Up I'm going to plant that seed for you: if you are busy, if you want to attain more, if you want to have more things happening for you in your business that don't rely on you, if you want a more relaxed life, if you want more sleep, if you want to be able to actually take a vacation, then this is the year.  This is the message. This is me, hard truth, telling you you have to delegate. You have to delegate to someone. You have to delegate more. I'll tell you, when my clients start working with a virtual assistant, and they're like, “Oh, okay, I'll pass off this, and I'll pass off that,” they eventually get to a point where they're like, “Oh, that's cool. I want that done, and I want this done, and I want this done.” I do that all the time. I'll screenshot things or send ideas and new platforms because I know that my team is there to support me. It doesn't all fall on my shoulders. As I wrap this up, if you are wanting to have the results that you see other people get, it's time to delegate. If you want to learn more about this, I encourage you to attend my session this Friday. It’s called “Build Your Business & Reach Your Goals with the Help of a Virtual Assistant”. I'm going to talk all about what you can delegate and share our hiring process with you so you will learn more about that and can feel more comfortable. I'm going to answer your tough questions about:
I'm going to show you the super simple processes that we use and how I give you a lot of my systems and processes, a lot of my IP as a coach, a speaker, an event facilitator - all the things that I'm doing across all my social platforms and all my content creation. I share all of these as training videos and checklists and all that. I'm going to share that with you on Friday about how you can get access to all of those. Now if it's beyond Friday, I encourage you to reach out to [email protected] and ask for a replay. We might have a replay, we might not. If you're reading this later, that's fine. We'll see if we can hook you up to get you access to that, or reach out to me at [email protected] if you're serious about getting a virtual assistant, and we can have a conversation about Virtual Assistant Made Easy, where I connect you with a virtual assistant that I've already vetted, that we already know has the skills and the abilities, and that you can just easily move in, copy and paste a lot of my training videos and my checklists and start working with them with my support. Read my other blogs:
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Today, I’ll share about why high achievers self-abandon and how to stop. This one is near and dear to my heart because not only do I coach people to not self-abandon by putting tools into place, but I also have suffered over the years with a lot of self-abandonment, not realizing really what it was because I have been praised for the perceived positives of self-abandonment. What is self-abandonment? It is ignoring your own emotional, mental, and physical needs to gain approval from others, meet the expectations of others, or avoid conflict.  For me, as I've become more confident, more outspoken, and felt permission to do that, what I realized is it wasn't necessarily to gain approval - I just didn't want to rock the boat. Maybe you've been there too. Maybe you're asked to do things, and you say “Yes” to the request because it's a fair request. But the problem is, normally, you maybe could say “Yes”, or it would be natural or good for you to do this because it's your skill, or you've volunteered before, but at this point, you're exhausted. Or there are times when you silence your opinions because you just don't want to upset others, and so it's like you're choosing to keep the peace, but then you're silencing your own opinions. You're choosing a good path; however, you're self-abandoning, which causes a lot of harm to yourself. Why do high-achieving women self-abandon?
We are, as high achievers, super driven, and so we're more prone to this because of things like, perfectionism. We want things to be perfect, and so we're just going to keep pushing and keep going, which means we'll self-abandon in order to have it be perfect.
2. People pleasing In people pleasing, we’re not doormats, but we can put other people's agendas before our own. That also comes from the fact that we're probably leaders, we’re caring for others, and we’re responsible for a group or responsible for the family, and therefore we put other people's agendas, other people's needs, before our own. Even though we know that we technically are supposed to put the oxygen mask on ourselves before helping others, it's just so hard to do because it seems like we can hold a lot of responsibility and everyone needs us all the time. 3. Fear of failure Another reason is fear of failure. By admitting defeat, or by taking a more gentle or gracious approach to yourself, maybe we won't reach success. A lot of times, we're proving our worth because of the desire for external validation since our worth comes from the things we achieve, other people's belief in us, and other people's opinions of us. Then, having to prove ourselves causes us to push through, even though we don't want to do something or don't have the energy to do it. We start to overwork When we overwork, we get into that place of exhaustion and we take on too many responsibilities, or we start neglecting our personal health for our professional success.
Probably - I've been guilty of these for sure. I hear so many stories from high-achieving women who have missed out on important events in their lives and their families' and loved ones' lives because they were pushing for a result. Then the thing is, society backs that up. There are cultural pressures as well. Being that I am Caucasian, my parents are British, there are not as many cultural pressures on me. I'm quite privileged, and I will admit that, but there are many cultures where you have to honour your family, you have to give up your goals, your desires, your education, for the care of your family members, to do what your partner says, or your parents say, or whatever it may be. My own experiences of self-abandonment I'll share how I used to self-abandon, how I’ve grown, and how it still happens sometimes. On the past, workshops, or trainings, I’d often focus on helping others instead of my own progress. When I caught on quickly, instead of asking questions or deepening my learning, I’d help struggling peers. This left me behind and forced me to catch up later, and it wasn’t my job to help—it was the organizer’s. At conventions, I prioritized supporting friends, even attending workshops irrelevant to my goals, instead of choosing sessions that advanced my personal or professional growth. I’d also engage in hallway chats, missing keynotes or activities because I felt bad cutting conversations short. I used to skip breaks, even when drained, choosing to support others over recharging. As an empath, I’d absorb others’ emotions which left me depleted and not get the needed rest. Now, I’ve learned to prioritize alone time, taking breaks to recharge and reflect. Finally, I used to rush home immediately after events, leaving no time to decompress. Now, I arrive a day or two early and leave a day or two later to allow space for rest and integration. These changes help me stay present, achieve my goals, and still support others—just in moderation. The negative effects of self-abandonment Negative effect #1: It takes an emotional toll when you're self-abandoning This could be self-abandoning once, many times, or just a life of general self-abandonment. This can give you chronic stress because you're not having downtime. You're not listening to your needs. You're not getting what you need to nourish and support you. Chronic stress, anxiety, burnout, and these are big ones: feelings of emptiness or resentment. When I think of emptiness, I also think of depression. Let's just dive off of that. If you're feeling any of that, you are unable to achieve what you want to achieve. You're unable to be going for the things you want to go for, to believe in yourself, to have confidence. This is going to start to erode so many foundational pieces of you, and you don't want that to happen. Negative effect #2: Physical effects Things like fatigue and exhaustion. You're going to have sleep problems because you're thinking about these things, or you don't get enough time to sleep, and other health issues that come from neglecting self-care.  You might get sick more often. You might not be healthy because you're not moving your body and you're not doing the things that you need to nourish yourself. If you're not eating properly, then you're not getting the right amount of energy. There are so many different consequences like high blood pressure and having cortisol spikes. This can lead to so many other things like diabetes, and we can go on and on and on. I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to go into it, but there are so many others. I even had a client whose retinas detached. There are so many things physically that can happen to you from self-abandoning, which is really sad. Negative effect #3: Your relationships Also in relationships, when you're consistently self-abandoning, it can hurt you in two ways. First, you self-abandon for other people's needs, and then they take advantage of you, and then there's resentment. That's not a positive relationship. It can also strain relationships. People close to you may become frustrated if you constantly self-abandon for others, feeling like you’re choosing them over your loved ones. This can create a sense of double standards and lead to a loss of authenticity, especially if you become a people-pleaser or fail to speak up for yourself. I saw an example of this at an event last weekend. One of the wives seemed to have given up asserting herself. Her husband was behaving ridiculously—drinking too much, acting macho around his friends—and it was clear she had stopped speaking up. She had lost her authenticity in the process, which was really sad to witness. Negative effect #4: Personal identity is affected When you self-abandon, you're telling yourself you're not worth listening to your own needs and wants. You aren't allowed to speak up about what is true for you, what you need to be able to put boundaries on things. It's really eroding your self-esteem. That's huge for confidence. It's going to leave you disconnected from your true self because your true self is going to be like, “Well, anytime I speak up, I'm not listened to.” Eventually those voices, the self-awareness, the intuition, they start to quiet down, because it's like, “Why bother? I'm not even listening to myself so why would I bother speaking up?” My recent self-abandonment experience Recently, at a convention, I brought my family along. While this time went smoother than a previous chaotic experience—thanks to clear boundaries and communication—it was still intense managing their needs alongside mine. To recover, I planned two days of solo downtime after the event. However, a situation arose that challenged me. Someone had no place to stay and was prepared to sleep outside. My values of care, safety, and belonging made it impossible for me to ignore them and their situation, even though I desperately needed my space to recharge. Initially, I tried to honour my boundaries, but as the night went on and no one else offered them a place, I let them stay in my room. While they weren’t very grateful and tried not to be disruptive, the lack of sleep and loss of my personal space left me emotionally drained and teetering on burnout. I realized I had self-abandoned to honor my values, which led to feelings of resentment and frustration with myself. This experience taught me how tricky it can be when values drive self-abandonment. It's a hard lesson, but I’m learning to balance honoring my values with taking care of my own needs. How to stop self-abandonment These are all the things that I do normally to not self-abandon, the things I go through with my clients to help them as well. #1: Set some boundaries Gracefully say no to people. You can protect your time and energy. You can set some boundaries around how things will be, and that's probably what I should have done here—really set some super clear boundaries. #2: Reconnect with yourself  Do things like journaling, meditation, take alone time for yourself, so that you know what you need and what you desire. I had to talk to a couple of friends about this afterwards to just understand what happened. Then I was like, “Oh, shoot, what happened, and why I feel so bad is because I self-abandoned. I didn't listen to what I really needed,” and that kind of hurt, and so the next day, I had to super honour that boundary of needing my room to myself so that I could have one night to recoup. #3: Practice some self-compassion Practice some self-compassion if you do end up self-abandoning. Don't criticize yourself. Just give yourself some kindness. I had to do that in this case, just like you would to a loved one, someone you care about. What would you say to them? Then come up with a plan for the next time. #4: Prioritize self-care It needs to be in your schedule. You have to put “me time” in there. I love honouring the Sabbath. Sunday is my day. I get to do the things I want. Oftentimes, it's sunny. I go for a walk. I go to church. I do some journaling. I do my devotional. Maybe I cook. I do the things I want—that's my “me time”. Get really good at prioritizing self-care by asking for help from others so that you do have time. It doesn't have to all be you. You are not the martyr of everyone around you. Delegate tasks, including mental load tasks, and decision-making tasks. #5: Challenge your perfectionism If you feel like you're super driven and you like things done a certain way, what is that costing you? You can let go of perfectionism. It will help you to get more done more quickly and not burn you out in the process. You don't have to sacrifice who you are and your well-being to have things be perfect. Trust me, if you feel like you're suffering from perfectionism, your eight is probably other people's ten, right? Or your six is someone else's ten, and your eight is someone else's fifteen out of ten. Think about that. Wrapping Up If you're good at not self-abandoning, will you never face a time when you self-abandon? You probably will. You might not be calling it self-abandonment, but just take a look at your life and moments and situations and ask yourself:
That's why I went to people's workshops when it wasn't even the topic I wanted because I wanted to seem like I was a good friend or a good supporter. When I learned later, so many of their friends never came. Then I was like, “Why am I doing this?” You get to decide how to live a life that is both successful and satisfying. We want to have both, not just one, not just success. We want to be satisfied, and so you deserve to be prioritized in your own life. You deserve to be on your list of priorities. I'm not saying that everything needs to change today, but what if you just made one small change this week that would eventually lead to big transformations? One percent, one percent, one percent to the point where you look at your life and you say, “I'm not self-abandoning anymore.” That's what I want for you. Want help to do it? You have a few options: The Breakthrough 2025—is a great place for you. I can promise you, I will never let you self-abandon in those sessions when we are going to go through your Breakthrough Blueprint. That blueprint is going to keep you on task. There are tools in there that will not allow you to self-abandon. It’s a group program with many benefits like having like-minded people, learning from other people's blueprints, and listening to me coach others. If one-on-one is more for you and you'd like support with self-abandonment, or to have this be your breakthrough year, then reach out to [email protected]. Until next time, everyone. Stay dynamic! Read my other blogs:
Happy New Year! We are in 2025 now, and I'm glad you're reading this blog today (or you can also watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to my Dynamic Women Podcast).  You know, the incredible energy we feel at the beginning of the year, that excitement to make big things happen? Many of us say, “This is going to be THE year”. But let's be real - that motivation can fade really fast, and now that we’re in the third week of January, a lot of people have already given up on their resolutions. Today, I'm going to share with you three of my favourite strategies for keeping that New Year's motivation alive. Also, it's going to help you avoid burnout and make some real progress on your goals. I'm also going to share how you can stay focused and on track all year long. Importance of New Beginnings There's something really powerful about a fresh start. There's the nice newness and the ability to just say, “Screw last year! Last year is gone”. We get a clean slate. It's a chance to let go of those old habits, old goals, and maybe old people that aren't serving you, to step into something new for a whole new year. I've experienced this firsthand myself. Some years, I'm excited to see the year-end, saying “good riddance,” and other years, I reflect, “Oh, that year was so good!” But no matter where I'm at, when I can get intentional in the new year about what's coming up - when I sit down, map out my goals, and stick to the plan - that's when things really change for me. Having that really clear blueprint. But here's the thing: starting strong is one thing, but keeping that motivation going forward is what makes the difference. Maybe you're thinking, “I've started off strong. I did the plan. I am ready to go. I have a lot of motivation.” The truth is that it's really easy to start strong, but it's not easy to keep that motivation going. That's really what makes the difference in your results. That motivation to keep going and the motivation to reach your goals. I'm sure you've heard now, and I mentioned it a little bit earlier, about how so many people have already failed at their New Year's resolution, and we're only just three weeks into January.  I know that when I used to be a bit of a gym rat (meaning I was at the gym all the time, all year, many times a week because I was doing a lot of training for rugby and soccer), I hated going to the gym in January because all those people were there who made their New Year's resolutions. Good for them, but for all these new gym-goers, it made the gym really busy, and I couldn't use the equipment I wanted when I wanted. I was really happy that by the end of January, most of them had fallen off. But as I got into more goal setting and into being a life and business coach, I thought, “I really want them to succeed and reach their goals and continue the motivation towards achieving them. I don't want people to drop off from that New Year energy and motivation. I want the motivation to be sustained throughout the year. Three reasons why motivation fades Reason 1: You get overwhelmed by the big goals If we look at the goal of going to the gym, “I'm going to go five days a week,” and then that quickly turns into being too many, and you're too sore because you’re just starting out. When you're doing some of those activities for the first time, it really can be painful for muscles that haven't been worked. When we set really ambitious goals, New Year's goals, or just goals in general, it can feel exciting at first, but the sheer size of the task or goal can lead to overwhelm. If you say, “This is the year I write my book,” or “This is the year that I'm going to launch my new website,” or “This is the year I'm going to plan this trip and that renovation,” and there seems to be all these massive goals - and that's great, and you should have really great goals - but then people don't know where to start. Then they procrastinate, or they just do what they can, but they get stuck, and eventually they give up. We're overwhelmed by big goals, and that is if they've actually made the right goals. I've said in previous blogs about a lot of times people make the wrong goals because they don't go through an actual process, similar to the process I take people through in The Breakthrough 2025. Reason 2: They have a lack of clear direction. Without a clear path, it's easy to lose focus. Maybe they start strong. They have this goal. It might even be a big goal, but then they're not even sure what the next step is. How do I get there? How do I do it? They feel stuck. Have you ever put together a piece of furniture, like a bookshelf, but you've lost the instructions? Oh my goodness, yes, it's so hard! This happens when you move, and you'll naively say, “Oh, I'll remember how to put the bed back together. There are only five screws.” Then you come to put the bed together, and it's a nightmare. You don't know what the next step is. If you don't have a clear direction or a clear plan, you're going to feel stuck. You're going to lose motivation. That's just how it is. Reason 3: You lack immediate results. It’s hard to have lots of motivation when you don’t see the results quickly. Let’s look again at the gym example, if you're going to the gym three times in the first week because it's a short week. Then, the second week, you go five times, and you come into your third week, and you go twice, and all you've felt is pain, and you don't see yourself getting stronger yet. You don't see the difference in your body yet. It's so natural to be motivated by that instant gratification in the beginning, but big goals, or even small goals, require consistent effort over time. We know that, but even still, when the results aren't immediate, motivation will fade.  Practical steps You're like, “Okay, Diane, so if these are three of the big common issues why motivation fades, then how do some people seem to go forward? How do some people seem to stay motivated all year? How do you stay motivated?” Well, while I've given you three ways that motivation can fade, there are so many more. These are the top ones that I'm seeing, at least at this time of year. Here are some practical steps. You need to build in some routines to support your goals Obviously, if we go back to the problems, instead of getting overwhelmed by the big goals, break them down into smaller goals, manageable steps, focus on the micro wins, build your self-confidence and maintain your progress. You need a map. Instead of have a lack of clear direction, you need a map, or as I like to call it, a blueprint, like we have in The Breakthrough 2025. We have the Breakthrough Blueprint, and that's going to help you to provide clarity and help you to know where the next step is. (Side note: you could still join The Breakthrough 2025. I can still help you to come up with that blueprint, that plan, if you don't have it yet, and you're going to be able to get the support you need to have the right size goals and the right focus and the right path.) Rather than thinking of immediate results, focus on that process rather than just the outcome. Instead of feeling like you lack immediate results, celebrate those consistent efforts. Maybe it's not, “Oh, the book's written,” but it's, “I wrote two thousand words today.” If every day you could write 2,000 words, depending on how fast you want to write your book, how big the book is going to be, that's going to help you build the trust in yourself that you can attain this goal and build motivation. Building routines to support your goals Let me go back now to the building routines that support your goals. For example, every day, I spend five minutes in the morning before I get into everything just to review what are my priorities for the day. I look at my blueprint:
I've seen this work really well for my clients. Those participants in The Breakthrough 2025, they tell me all the time how these small habits, these tools - like having their guidelines, having their values, having their theme, and their new paradigm, along with the breakdown of all of their goals, have really helped them to be able to prioritize what they need to do. It's helped one of my clients, I know for sure. She was like, “Wow, this helped me achieve more in one month than I used to do in six months.” Monthly check-ins The other piece that’s really going to help you (they're the practical steps) are monthly check-ins. Because how many times - if these people at the gym in that first month had had more check-ins, more knowing that they were going to have to report to others and say how they did, that would help them. Check-ins also give you accountability because if you know that other people are going to be looking at your goals, looking at your plan, to see if you did it. Are you sticking with it? Yes! Then to have them celebrate you at those monthly check-ins, to be like, “Wow, so good!” We've done like air high-fives or Zoom high-fives before, to acknowledge their results, “Wow, look what you've accomplished! That's so amazing!” That increases the motivation as well. Monthly check-ins with accountability because if you know that by the end of the month you have to report on how you did in that accountability, you are more likely to be motivated by external reasons, and the results and acknowledgments give you more internal motivation. What does this mean for you now? You now know that you want to maintain, you want to keep that motivation throughout the year. That spark of the new year, the new beginnings. You now know the areas causing you to lose the motivation, and you see some ways that you can boost the motivation and sustain that moving forward. Now, the easiest way is to join The Breakthrough 2025. If you're feeling like you could use extra support to stay on track, if you don't want to muster the motivation, then this program is exactly what you need. Probably over 10 years ago, I remember seeing Brendon Burchard, and he said, “Do you know power plants don't have energy? They make it.” It's just like motivation - you don't always have the motivation; you have to make it. But what if someone else could help to boost your motivation? In The Breakthrough 2025, you're going to get a clear, actionable blueprint. It's going to help you map out your whole year with tools to help you combat a lack of motivation and to help you achieve the goals. You're going to get accountability, as I said, and support from amazing, like-minded women, and you're going to have tools to track your progress and adjust when life throws you curve balls or takes away your motivation. Also, coaching and strategy from me. One of my favorite success stories is from a participant who went from feeling completely stuck and feeling like, “I don't think I can do this” and not having much motivation to reaching her goals. She ended up hitting one of her biggest goals within just a few months of joining. She had a massive goal in the first 30 days, and then every month thereafter, she was reaching and clearing off her big goals right away. That's what happens when you have the right framework in place and the right motivation. Wrapping Up You know motivation is something that you need, and the New Year's motivation, the new beginnings motivation is where the magic happens. There is an opportunity for you to carry that forward all the way through the year. Break down your goals, celebrate your milestones, your wins, and stay accountable. Small actions every day, planning every day is going to help you to move forward. I encourage you to take a small action today. What's one thing that you can do to keep the motivation going? Maybe it's writing down that top goal. Maybe it is reaching out to me about The Breakthrough 2025, and if you're ready to go all in, I encourage you to check out The Breakthrough 2025. Do you have questions? Email me at [email protected]. You don't want to miss our first monthly check-in this year so that you can meet the group and have some really great momentum towards your goals and your plan for 2025. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. Let's make 2025 our breakthrough year together. Until next time, stay dynamic. Read my other blogs:
What an incredible journey the Dynamic Women podcast has taken us on 2024! We closed the year with 293 episodes and also celebrated our 5th anniversary!  As I look back at 2024, I'm still amazed by the raw honesty and powerful insights our solo and guest episodes have shared. You've told us how these stories have touched your lives, changed your perspectives, and even inspired you to take bold new steps in your own journeys. Let's revisit the episodes that you, our wonderful listeners, couldn't stop talking about! Have you been wondering if you're a trailblazer and looking for different descriptors of how you could be one or tips and tricks in order to step into being a trailblazer? Then this episode is for you. Diane Rolston, our host, is joined by three Trailblazer Secrets Collaborative Authors to share with you what makes someone a trailblazer. Here are some questions they answered:
Have you felt the power of other people cheering for you? And have you also felt the disadvantage and the annoyance of people competing with you? If so, then you're going to want to listen to this episode and share it with friends so that you can both be cheerleading for each other. In this episode, Diane Rolston shares five ways you can cheerlead others more because the more we cheerlead for each other, the more room there is for everyone to succeed. If you listen to the last episode about the benefits of accountability, our host, Diane Rolston, mentioned that she would do the flip side. In this episode, she talks about the bad side of accountability and the five things you should avoid. Don’t miss:
In the previous episode of the Dynamic Women Podcast, I shared with you Author Panel 1 of the Trailblazer Secrets Book Launch Party. Now this week, I’ll share Panel 2 with you! The moderator, Tanya Steele, who is also a collaborative author, asks some burning questions to our panel members, Barbara Wallick, Cora Naylor, and Jeanine Becker who are all authors in the Trailblazers too! Don’t miss:
Have you been thinking, “It's a new year. I need to make a plan. I need to make some goals and resolutions. I need to do all the pieces in order to have the greatest year”? In this episode, Diane Rolston talks about how to map out your successful year and what you need to do first because the way you’re doing it may not be the most ideal. There are some crucial pieces that you could be leaving behind. Don’t miss:
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 doing a whole bunch of different steps and you don't see how they can all be united in one path. In this episode, Diane Rolston talks about finding your North Star and its importance. Don’t miss:
Have you been thinking about making your goals? Then you're going to want to listen to this episode because Diane Rolston will talk about the art of goal setting. Don’t miss:
Have you been wanting to be a trailblazer, but you missed out on our Trailblazer Secrets Book Launch Party? Well, you get to listen in on one of our panels today in this episode. Listen as Paula Kent, our moderator, asks some burning questions to our panel members, Leah Grant, Tina Collura, and Ashley Mckie. They are all collaborative authors in the newly published, Trailblazer Secrets Book. Don’t miss:
Have you been feeling like, “Oh my gosh. I just have too much going on right now” or “Life is moving at a really fast pace”? Then maybe you need to make your own snow day. In this episode, Diane Rolston talks about how a consistent “Snow Day” could be what you really need.
Have you been thinking that maybe you need to be a trailblazer? Well, in the latest Dynamic Women Podcast, five Trailblazer Secrets Authors joined our host, Diane Rolston. Listen up to this episode as they discuss the importance of trailblazers in society. Don’t miss their answers to these questions:
Wrapping Up: There you have it - the episodes that made us all stop in our tracks, hit pause, and really think. But honestly? Picking just ten episodes feels almost unfair because every conversation we've had this year has been pure gold. To our amazing listeners who make this community what it is - thank you. Whether you're catching these episodes for the first time or taking a second listen, I hope these stories continue to light that fire within you. Because that's what Dynamic Women is all about - real talks that spark real change. You can tune in to the Dynamic Women Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Captivate, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other podcast streaming apps. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and leave us a review - it helps other amazing women find these powerful conversations! Plus, do you have any topics that you want me to tackle this 2025? Send them through [email protected]. Here's to many more powerful conversations ahead!
Are you frustrated that you keep losing momentum? In this blog, I deal with this very common problem so that you don't have to be frustrated by it anymore and I would love for you to steal my strategy for not losing momentum.  Losing Momentum As you may have seen, I recently launched The Breakthrough 2025, and we just had the first big session where I took my clients through the phases to be able to create their own Breakthrough Blueprint. Then we have monthly calls now moving forward to make sure that plan gets into place. Before joining, one of the women told me, "Diane, I think this is the right option for me because, you know, I get going, and I start doing some stuff, and then I lose momentum." Have you ever felt that way? Losing momentum is the worst when you've already got a little bit of movement going. Getting that motivation in the beginning can be so hard. First, it's about believing that you can go for something. Then it's putting the right pieces into place, staying inspired, and then being motivated to go for it. Well, it's so easy to lose momentum and motivation. The sad thing is, if that continues, you're going to lose confidence that you can actually do the thing you're set out to do. I want you to be able to steal my strategy so that you don't lose momentum. Now, do I lose momentum? All the freaking time! I do, but there are things I have in place that really help me be able to continue things and keep going. Why we lose momentum Reason 1: Burn out Sometimes we go too hard, too fast, and we burn out. If you could imagine running a race, even a 5K race, and you decide the first kilometer you're going to sprint the whole way - probably you won't even be able to sprint a full kilometer - but you decide to sprint, and now you're like, "This is too much. Can I even finish?"  That's often what happens when people go for goals. They're so inspired, so excited, they've got this surge of energy, and they try to do it all, and they start neglecting themselves and their needs. If I'm going to keep my momentum going, I need to make sure that I am properly fed (I get hangry), that I have the right amount of sleep, that I'm caring for my emotional needs, whether that be by doing my daily devotions, praying, journaling, walking, phoning a friend, whatever it may be, so that my emotional and mental needs are being met. Super crucial. Reason 2: You get stuck At some point you get stuck, and then you go,
You're stuck in the place of, "This happened, and I'm stuck, and I'm here, and I don't know how to move forward." I encourage you to adopt a "How can I?" approach. Now, it's not always easy to have the "How can I?" approach when you're by yourself. Because you're in a silo. It's like if you think of a field with a tree in it, and it's windy, and that tree is being battered because it's by itself. The key thing for momentum and for being able to figure out those times that you're stuck, is to have others around you. Have others for the strategy. Then you can say, "Hey, this is where I'm at. How do I move forward?" Have others for the support and the cheerleading, so they can tell you," Come on, you can do it". Also, have people around you for accountability. Because how many times are you feeling stuck, but you're not really stuck? Maybe there's some sort of limiting belief holding you back. You need others there to be able to call you out and be like, "Get over it. Let’s go. Get it done!" Also, when you are in the first stage, when you go too hard too fast, you need people around you to remind you:
Reason 3: Negative self-talk Another piece is you start to believe the negative self-talk. If you are burnt out or you're stuck for too long, the negative limiting beliefs are there as well. How do you manage that? Well, there's so much we can do with coaching. But what I do, even before all of that, is I make sure when I'm winning, when I'm achieving, when I've checked things off my list, that first I am celebrating my accomplishment. Second, that I am being witnessed by others because I'm sharing with them what I’ve done, and third I'm pulling the wisdom from each win. This is a crucial piece of my year, and a crucial piece of every time I accomplish something. Now in The Breakthrough 2025, when we went through the reflection process - boy, did people perk up. Being celebrated by sharing and having other people acknowledge them was huge. Later on, you’ll be able to use the gained confidence as momentum to get past the lack of motivation or inspiration. At any point when we feel we have run out of the confidence to keep going, we can look at past successes to help you to continue on. Motivation Mountain Years ago, I did another blog around the Motivation Mountain and the importance of celebrating successes at the top of the mountain, at your achievement, at your peak, rather than climbing all the way down and up again. Because a lot of times it's the down, it's the valley, it's the stuckness, where we lose motivation, confidence, we get into our limiting beliefs and we get burnt out. That's when we need the momentum from the celebration, from the achievement, from the learning, from the golden nuggets.  That's what we did at the kickoff session of The Breakthrough 2025. This client who joined, who said, "Every time I get going, I just seem to lose focus, and lose momentum". That's not going to happen for her now. Why? She's not going to be burnt out because we have a plan for how she's going to move ahead with a Blueprint of tools, values, themes, guidelines that are going to help her stay the course. She's not going to feel like a silo. She's not going to be stuck because she's got my strategy, the cheering of the group, the accountability of a structure and these monthly calls. Even better, in VIP, where you get one-on-one calls with me, laser sessions and additional mastermind Hot Seat times every month. She's not going to lose momentum, motivation, inspiration, or confidence because she followed my process of reflecting, redefining and realizing. Wrapping Up If you want to fully steal (or let’s say use) my strategy, I encourage you to show up for The Breakthrough 2025. Yes, our main session is complete, but you have access to the recordings. You have access to me through a private online group, and you have our monthly calls for support - to make sure that not only do you not lose momentum, but you actually get to hit the accelerator button and go even faster. While you may think, "I missed out. I missed the boat of the Jan 6th session," think again. We've got 12 months, girl! We've got 12 months to do this together. Do you want to invite me to plan with you, to support you, to cheer you on and give you strategy along the way? Then make sure you click the link to pick up The Breakthrough 2025. You definitely will be grateful to yourself that you did, and you get to join an amazing community of women who are planning boldly, living intentionally, achieving purposefully, and they're going to reach all their goals with tons of momentum. Read my other blogs:
Let me guess: you've worked hard, you've checked the boxes, you've achieved so much this year, and yet, if you're being honest, every year feels the same. It's not that the same things are happening, but it just feels the same - not that amazing, or it was amazing but just feels a little bit empty.
speakers, high-achieving women, go-getters, driven, A-types who have the promotions, the achievements, the family milestones, and are being acknowledged for a job well done, but they still feel like something is missing. I’ll tell you a little story about a client of mine. We're going to call her Marianna, and she came to me at the top of her career, doing exceptional. She said, "Diane, basically, I have plenty of money. I have a great career. I have achieved so much this past year, and I have many other accomplishments, yet I kind of got to this point and I think, 'Is this it?' What else am I missing?" This was in, November - and she says, "I look back at my year, and I think, what is missing? What am I missing that will light me up? That's going to make me feel different. It's like it's Groundhog Day, over and over and over again. Yes, there are new successes, new achievements, and new projects. But there's something missing inside," and if you have been feeling like something inside is different or missing, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. There's this emptiness that can come. High-achieving women like us, we often fall into this cycle of doing and doing and doing more rather than ‘being’. I'm not just talking about ‘self-care being’. Let's just sit and let's go to the spa and let's meditate - no, like the being of really being present, listening to our emotions and feeling them, and being in that place of being able to hold space and not jumping ten steps ahead, and being in enjoyment and being where you can listen to your intuition. You have self-awareness. There's so much more here on the being side. But you see, high achievers, we are pushed by the external and the achievement, and that's amazing, and that's why we are so successful, why we've got to where we are, but that also can lead to things like burnout, loss of purpose, and a feeling of stagnation. You wouldn't necessarily say, "I am stuck," but you’re not moving as much as you want, and the year feels like the last year. They start to blend together, even though you might say, "Well, that was the year I accomplished this," or "That was the year I had that happen." You may set goals like
But the goals are just that - they're goals. They feel almost uninspired. We can feel disconnected from them and disconnected from what really lights us up. What lights you up? I was asked this years ago when I was on stage at a program. "What lights you up, Diane?" I was like, "Oh, what lights me up is when my clients have a breakthrough." They responded, "Really? You have a young child. I thought you would have said your child lights you up." I was like, "Oh, right," because I went into default answer.
I was disconnected to what really lights me up, which was the moments of joy on my daughter's face, that wonder of a child, or the giggle of my son when he was a baby. These things are not just around children or people who light you up, but what things light you up? For me the other ones are playing soccer, being at the beach, travelling, my faith and so much more. I can remember working with a client who was working probably 80 hours a week, extremely successful, confident in what she does, and yet felt really nervous about taking time off. She said, "I just don't know what I like anymore. What will I do with my time off? What do I like to do for fun?" The deeper issue here is that when we live by default and we're going towards our goals and our achievements - as great as those are - we start to move away from intentionally designing our life and our year based on our deeper, true desires and values.  We don't have time for those because as we're busy doing the achievement piece, we can drift further and further away from our desires, our values, what lights us up, what puts us in resonance, that energy, that flow - the things that you could do for hours or for days. We love it so much we don’t think about eating or taking a break or anything. What is that for you? I know that when I am facilitating, when I'm leading, and I love when I'm leading I don’t need anything because I’m in such resonance, I even forget about going to the bathroom, even though when I'm at my desk by myself, I probably have to go every hour or more. When we think of it, how much of our lives are we spending in that joy place, in what lights us up? Why this happens Why does this happen? Why do we get into this place? Now, I shared a little bit about because we're doers, I shared a little bit about because we're driven. We're going for the achievements and the goals. But a lot of that also comes from societal pressures. The pressure to be good, the pressure to achieve, the pressure to be everything to everyone, all the time. The…
Let's just continue with all the roles we have, right? There's a lot of societal pressure. There's no real push or pressure from society saying, "Connect with what you really love and go do that," at least not in this North American style. Then there's fear of change. Especially as we're getting older. I'm 45 now, but I find there's more of a fear of change because we get set in our ways, and we know that when we change things majorly, it can affect those around us, especially if we have employees or staff, spouses, or children. There are a lot of pieces that are already put in place. It's not that we can't adapt to change - we do, we're very flexible. However, we get to that place of asking ourselves, "Do I have it in me? Do I have it in me to change? I don't know if I do." Then these problems also happen because we have a lack of clarity. After all, we're not necessarily spending the time, investing the time to ask ourselves, "What do I really want?" Then sitting with that and the being so that we know exactly what's coming forward. When I ask myself questions, it's so hard for me to just sit, and I find that so often in my clients. They're like, "Here's the answer, here's the answer, here's the answer." Instead, let’s pause. I know it’s so hard as a doer, to not be doing. But if you can percolate on it. Sit with that question and come back to it a few times, you’ll get so much more clarity. I have to take myself for a walk in the forest when it comes to getting clarity on things. Or I need to pray about it, I need to sleep on it, because otherwise, I will just make a quick decision. Or simply, we just don't have the tools. We don't have the process to reflect and plan properly, and I'm going to tell you how you can do that. But here's an example: Most of us, we set our goals based on what we think we should want, or what we think is next in our path, not what truly fulfills us in that resonance piece, that energy piece. That's why so many New Year's resolutions fail. They fall flat because they're not based on deeper wants, deeper desires. We say, "Yes, this is the year that I organize my house, and this is the year that I lose 10 pounds, and this is the year that I make more money, and this is the year that I buy that new car I've always wanted." But it's not coming from this deeper place. The Solution How do we break this cycle? Well, there is a process that I've been doing for 14 years now: Reflect, Redefine and Realize. Every single year, I go through process which is now a proven process because not only have I done it for years, I took two other coaches through it, and then I moved it over to working with clients and taking clients through it. In the past, it was called Dynamic Year, and now it's called The Breakthrough 2025.  I take you through my three-step process. Reflecting - We're looking back at the past year to take golden nuggets from it so that we can move forward. Redefining - Setting the foundation for the next year by using The Breakthrough Blueprint process, so that your plan is really rooted in intention, authenticity, and your purpose. Not just the doing, but the being. So it helps you to be super confident in life and with what excites you. Realizing - It's great that we make the plan, we look back and we reflect - but then we need to be able to realize it. We turn that Breakthrough Blueprint into reality with inspired action and intentional steps. This final step is the one that helps you throughout the year to be able to take consistent action, purpose-driven action, and having the coaching and the tools to help you get there. Too many people just go, "Boom, here are my goals." Or "Here's my vision board," and they let the magazines, the images in the magazines, or the images they pull online dictate what will be on it. Or, as I said in my last blog, "Oh, this word, this is my theme for the year." They haven't actually gone through a process of being - a proven process - to get these pieces, to get their theme, their guidelines, their values, their new paradigm, and their goals. These five key things that need to be part of their blueprint - they haven't actually gone through a proper process to do it. It's all great, and you can have some success with it, but the depth of success, the impact of those things, is far higher when you've done it through a process. Wrapping Up My lovely readers, reflect right now about your past year. What would you change if you could? If you're really ready to break the cycle, or if you're just ready to be like, "Actually, my year is good, but I want to be better," or if anything that I said today resonated with you, then I do invite you to join The Breakthrough 2025. Because really, it's time to stop spinning your wheels, and design a year that you love rather than a year that is made by default. This process that I go through every single year is the reason why people say to me, "How have you had so much success?" or "How do you do all you do, even with young kids? I see you everywhere, and you're doing all these cool things - you must be so busy." I am achieving, but I'm not too busy because I am content and I can achieve my goals faster with my Blueprint. I invite you to check it out. The Breakthrough 2025 is a full-year coaching, and accountability support program. We do the kickoff on January 6th. This is your year. This is your year to have a change. This is your year to break through. This is your time. Let's make 2025 your year of the breakthrough. We're going to plan boldly. We're going to help you to live intentionally and achieve purposefully. Share this blog with a friend, as we know sharing is caring, and if you really want to lift others up around you in 2025 to the level that you're at, or at least to make things better and easier for them as well, then share these blogs with them. Until next time, stay dynamic! Read my other blogs:
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