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I'm going to share about designing your breakthrough year and how you can start now. We don't want to wait until we're well into the new year. We want to get a jump start on it right now!  Imagine waking up every single day in 2025 feeling clear, confident, and completely in control of your life.
Many times I talk to people in my day-to-day life, or at events, and they tell me about the goals they want to achieve. Then I see them again, and they haven't achieved their goals yet.
I'm going to share the things you really need to do if you're going to have 2025 be THE year - the year for you, the year for you to have that clarity, confidence, and control, for you to reach your goals, for it to be an amazing year. Then you’ll get to the final day of the year, and you’ll say, “Oh, I don't think I could have squeezed anything else into the year. I don't think I could have achieved anything else. It was such a fulfilling, big year for me - this was THE year!” First Piece: You don't want to miss out on that motivator, which is achievement. A lot of times, I see people having the same problem. They wait for the perfect time. How many times have you told yourself, 'I'll start planning' or 'I'll start doing things” or “I'll start reaching my goals when things calm down, when things ease up, when I'm not so overwhelmed or busy”? But here's the truth: there's never a perfect time, except right now, to get going on things. It's important that when you choose to do plan, as I mentioned before, we want to make sure we have the right process, the right 3-Phase Process to go through. Don't wait for the perfect time, and then don't just willy-nilly make goals or a plan without a proper process and reflection. I’ll share more about the process that I go through and have been going through for 14 years, and one that I take my clients through. It’s crucial. Reflection and intention are so important. Otherwise, we just do the same things over and over again, and most people rush into the new year without reflecting on the past year. That's why so many resolutions fail - because they're not the right ones, and they're not rooted in clarity, not rooted in purpose. If you don't have clarity and purpose, you're going to choose the wrong goals, or you're going to choose the goals, and then you don't have enough motivation behind them to have them work. Reviewing my year is always the first process that I do, and people say to me, “Well, Diane, why bother reviewing? It’s a new year, new you.” It helps us to celebrate what we have achieved. You don't want to miss out on the greatest motivator, which is… achievement. As adults - and I see this in my clients or the women in the audiences that I speak to, and I see it in my friends, people I network with - we have successes, but then we skip past them to get to the next task or the next goal. We don't celebrate at all. When we don't succeed, or we don't do it exactly how we want, we'll dwell on our failures. We're reviewing our failures. We're beating ourselves up because of these failures, and we can't seem to get going again. People who are successful and satisfied (key thing: successful AND satisfied) - and companies that are doing extremely well know the benefits of reviewing your year. I don't just mean reviewing your financial statements, your fiscal year, your target numbers and such, but reviewing more about it, like how it felt, what you were proud of and even the soft skills. Second Piece: You don't want to make the same mistakes again. The biggest wasted resource in learning is not learning from our mistakes. We’ll often finish a project, an event, a launch, and we'll review that process. We'll review what we did to see where we can do better next time, but we don't always learn from our regular everyday experiences or the culmination of the whole year and all those experiences along the way. Instead of capitalizing on this wealth of knowledge, it just seems to slip through our fingers, and it's usually just forgotten. Often we just jump into the next year. We set up some big goals, and we end up making the same mistakes again, and we wonder why we have similar results. If you're saying, “No, I reach all of my goals all the time, no problem.” Okay, well, what would be the next level? Where could you actually get to if you put in the time to review? The 3-Step Results Process If you want 2025 to be like THE year for you, your breakthrough year, then you need a three-step results process. It's the one I follow, and this helps me to create my plan every single year. Step 1: Reflection I talked about reviewing, but we're going to use the word 'reflect' so that we're not coming at it from just an analytical space. Reflection brings in the emotions a little bit more, so we're going to be able to gain some clarity by looking back so that we can move forward more intentionally and powerfully.  We're going to look at,
We're going to acknowledge the achievements, the wins, the lessons learned. Then acknowledge the disappointments, the lessons learned. We're going to let those go. We're going to uncover patterns and let go of anything that no longer serves you. Now, the purpose is this is to give you clarity, and self-awareness, to build a strong foundation for your breakthrough year. Step 2: Redefine Many people create goals by default, like whatever just comes to them, rather than actually redefining what's most important to them. We need to do this to be able to set the foundation for your breakthrough year by redefining your vision of success. A lot of times, people just look at success as achievements - what they get, what they earn - rather than satisfaction. I want to create a plan that has both. I want to be successful AND satisfied. In the pursuit of my success, I want to be satisfied every single day on the way to success. Does that not sound better than just being satisfied on the days that you actually have success? This step is going to help you create the pieces. That's what I go through with my clients, to create all the pieces for your Breakthrough Blueprint. Theme: We start by creating a clear, bold theme for your year to set the tone and direction. Now, a lot of people, what they do is they go, “I like that word,” or “This word came to me,' or 'That's my favorite song, and I like that word that the song is titled.' That is a stupid way to come up with a theme. I'm sorry if this is how you do it, but these are really lightweight, surface-level themes. What you really want is a bold theme that has come from doing the reflection in the first section that's going to help to set the tone and direction for your whole year. Guidelines: Then establishing some clear guidelines - these are personal rules and boundaries. They're going to support the theme, and they're going to support all the other pieces that you put into your breakthrough blueprint. Now, a lot of times with guidelines, people are like, “These are things I need to learn. These are boundaries I need to create.” But they haven't come from that reflection process because, as I mentioned, most people don't bother reviewing or reflecting - they just jump into the creation process or the planning process, but they've missed out fully on this bit before. Values: When you get to do this, you start redefining success on your own terms. I guide you through uncovering your core values because they help you make authentic decisions, stay motivated, and build confidence in what truly matters to you. You're aligning your goals with your values. Paradigm: We now have theme, guidelines, values, then we need to support ourselves by having a new paradigm because otherwise, going towards these goals, and wanting to honour the rest of it, the limiting beliefs are going to step in the way, and they're going to break up your chances of being able to achieve your goals. Having that new paradigm is going to help you to not only break free from old beliefs that have been holding you back but let you grab the reins again so that you're in control so that limiting belief isn't really focusing or pushing your decision-making anymore and limiting what you can do. Creating Goals from all areas The fifth and final piece is creating our top goals by looking at all areas of life. Now, we're not creating 100 goals, we're creating like three-four goals, but we look at all areas of life. Otherwise, my business owners, you're probably going to create 10 business goals. Or, my high achievers, you're going to create 20 goals that you want to achieve in just a couple of areas of life. We don't want to do that. By doing this redefining process, this really ensures that the plan is rooted in intention, authenticity, purpose, so you can confidently pursue a life that excites you. I'm done with people having dull lives! I don't mean that people are boring, but what if we took a stand for having things in our life that excite us - more passion, more purpose, more resonance? That's the type of life I want for all of you. Step 3: Realizing After we go through the reflection, the redefining, creating that breakthrough blueprint, we're going to go to the third phase. Now you might think that this is like, “Well, now I'm going to get results.” Okay, hold on - it's more that realizing is the process through which you achieve everything on this blueprint. You're going to turn the vision that you have, that we've created for the ideal life, with inspired and intentional steps, rather than just, “Here's the next thing I have to do, here's the next task I have to do.”
 When we can set some actionable, meaningful goals, they're going to align with our theme, our values, our new paradigm, our guidelines, and we can use this breakthrough blueprint to create a step-by-step plan that prioritizes your progress towards your goals. Key thing here: without overwhelm. Because these other pieces are like tools, supporting the goal, helping you to get there. Then in order to realize your goals, we can't just stop at making that plan. We have to have some accountability. A lot of times it comes through coaching, community support, regular check-ins, so that you not only just say what you have done or haven't done, but you get to celebrate your wins. You get to course-correct when needed. Did you know that a plane is off course 95% of the time? Course correction, course correction, course correction. You need multiple course corrections throughout the year to make sure you're staying the course and to make adjustments for things that come your way. Planes are adjusting to wind, weather, storms, and other planes. The same thing happens to you. You need to course-correct when needed. Sometimes you know that yourself. Sometimes you need a coach to call you out on it. Now, in this realizing stage, the main purpose of it is to help you to take consistent, purpose-driven action to bring your breakthrough year to life. This plan is a living blueprint, a living plan, they're living goals, meaning they are going to continue to change and grow. Do you know what's really cool? As you up your confidence, as you have more clarity, as you have more achievement, oftentimes, what is possible and what this blueprint can do for you - it expands and grows and stretches so that you actually have more success than you thought, in the beginning, you could achieve. Pretty cool! Wrapping Up I'm announcing a special invitation: if you're ready to stop waiting, start creating your breakthrough year, I invite you to join me for The Breakthrough 2025, and together, we're going to plan a life that feels bold, intentional, purposeful. We're going to get you not only to be at the end of the year feeling really good about what you've accomplished but feeling good every single day - with clarity, confidence, and feeling like you're in control. You're taking action to get the results because of the three-phase results process. Got questions? Email me at [email protected]. Otherwise, join The Breakthrough 2025. I hope to see you there. Make sure you don't willy-nilly create your plan this year. Make sure you start now because I know that it's possible for 2025 to be your breakthrough year. Read my other blogs:
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If you're feeling like you're reacting to life rather than actively designing it, then you may be falling into the trap of being reactive rather than proactive. Today, I'm going to talk about how to go from reactive to proactive, basically allowing you to design a life you love.  If you’re reacting to life, then you’re not actively designing it. This matters so much because living proactively lets you focus on what truly matters: YOU - what you want, what you need, your desires, your passions, and the legacy you’re meant to leave in the world. This topic came up because just this week, in the last quarterly session of the Dynamic Year Program (now called The Breakthrough 2025), we worked on what I call the Dynamic Life Blueprint (now called the Breakthrough Blueprint). That’s your theme, guidelines, values, new paradigm, and goals for the entire year. The feedback I got was incredible—women shared how much better they were able to focus and achieve their goals because they were proactive in designing what they wanted their lives to look like. I'm going to go through some main points around the problems of reactivity, the power of being proactive, and how you can shift from being reactive to being proactive, and what that would look like for you. Now, I mainly speak to high-achieving women, success-driven women, and women who are easily or maybe just through hard work, are able to get so much done and achieve so much. Then they get to a point when they meet me, and they say,
There are so many things that come up, and a lot of times it's because we are dealing with being reactive. The Problem with Reactivity Now, the problem with reactivity is we are constantly responding to oeoples’ needs, wants, agendas, and goals, without prioritizing our own Many times, when I'm speaking on stage, doing a keynote or a workshop, We go through an activity where I get them to write down all the things that are a priority, they name their kids, their work, their marriage, or even their pets. I hear people say, “I'm not even on my own priority list.” Sometimes, they add in their health or spiritual life—but rarely do they put their own name on the list. That's because we're often being reactive to what society wants for us, or making us like that whole “should” idea, or it is that feeling of the pressure of “I have to be the greatest mom, the greatest wife, the greatest neighbor, the greatest daughter, the greatest friend etc.”  In being reactive to those pressures of society, we start to forget, or we don't even look at the pieces that we need, want and desire. When you're being reactive, you're going to feel out of control in your life. You've given up the reins. A lot of these women have taken back the reins, and that's how we move into the power of proactivity. Being proactive because if we're not, the default will be work. Our default will be other people's agendas. You may be like, “No, I get a lot done, and I put my needs above others.” I once had a client who really wanted to go away on the weekends, and her daughter felt like she didn't have much of a life, and so she was constantly asked to dog sit. She then felt like, “I can't go and do things because I have this dog to take care of.” Then, on the flip side, I've had clients who have grandkids and then their kids expect them to take care of the grandkids or because you're not perceived to have a very stressful life, even though you're working, but they see you around, they think that then you can take on all these board positions or these other rules where it's just too much, and you don't realize it's too much until you've said yes, yes, yes, yes, and that's when you're being reactive. The Power of Being Proactive When you're being proactive, you're defining your priorities, your needs, your wants, and then you're able to put those things ahead of others. I'm not saying you're a parent and now neglect your kids. No. If we think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the need for a secure and safe environment, food and water, and then we get into love and other things, once your kids are fine, once other people you’re responsible to are fine, you get to step into that place of being proactive for your own desires. But if you’re most often saying “yes”, or you don’t know what's important for you and then saying yes to everything else, how are you ever going to create space for yourself? The power of proactivity gets you to a place of creating space for yourself that aligns with your goals, with your values, and with the things that are most resonant or energy giving for you. Sometimes, when we fall into reactivity, we're saying “Yes” to things that are causing us dissonance, lack of energy, a little bit of friction, and we only have so much time and so much energy and so many resources to give. When we are being proactive, we're actually able to get the things that we want done. Shifting from Reactive to Proactive When we think of it this way, that shift from being reactive to proactive, it's so crucial to be able to take the time to pause and to look at:
Without thinking, “Well, this is realistic. This is what other people have.” It's like, what do YOU want? What does that look like for YOU? Once you are able to measure your satisfaction in life, this is something I do in my one-on-one sessions, in my special Satisfaction Shift Strategy Sessions. It's also something I do in Dynamic Balance. When you do that, it's going to be so clear as to where you need to put your time, your energy, your resources. In Dynamic Year, I was talking before about how we create your theme, your new paradigm, your guidelines, your values and your goals. Again, when you have that and when you have the wheel of life with the wants and needs for six months or a year from now, you're going to be able to start each day with a plan of what to focus on.  Rather than sitting back being reactive, waiting for others to set the agenda for you, you're in this really sweet place of “I already know what I want.” I get to not only be proactive in this, but I get to implement things at a pace that's going to have me be even more successful and even more satisfied. Having that plan is really going to help you to set some boundaries, protecting that time that you have, protecting your energy, keeping you in resonance and really protecting your resources, because we know that we only have so much time, energy and money to go around. These are the key things. These have been game changers for me as a high achieving woman who's been constantly driven to do and do and do and do some more. I find that there come moments where…
If you're suffering from any of those, then it could be that you’re being a bit more reactive in your life, and you're not really able to fully design a life you love. When designing a life you love, you’ll face realities about what life is, and you can't put everything in your control. But what if you could grab back the reins? Because maybe you're feeling like, “I'm on a runaway train, and I don't know where this track is going, and it feels completely wrong.” Or you're in a bus being driven by someone else, and you want to get off, but you just can't. When you get to be proactive, create your own plan, and create what truly matters to you. life will be different Not only will you be able to satisfy your needs, your wants, your desires, and your ideal life, but think of the legacy that you're going to leave. Think of the impact you're going to have on others. I knew I’d be limited if I was to drop everything for everyone else all the time. If I were to say “yes” to everything that came across my desk, I'd have no time. We are only given so much time on this earth. I hope that today you're going to be thinking about, “Am I being reactive? Am I dealing with other people's shoulds, other people's agendas, other people's priorities? or is there time, space, energy and resources for me and myself?” If this is something you want to go through, the Wheel of Life and measuring your satisfaction and coming up with your Breakthrough Blueprint, reach out to me. We have the NEW program called The Breakthrough 2025 coming up soon. Email me [email protected] if you want to be on the waitlist. If you prefer to do it 1:1, please feel free email me [email protected] I'm happy to talk about how we can go through this together. I hope you switch from being reactive to proactive. Even if you're like, “I'm super proactive and I have a plan”, there are things that you can really evaluate to see if you are fully, completely on the right track for you. Stay dynamic! Read my other blogs:
In my previous blog, I shared about one of the core beliefs that sabotages your happiness - “I am not enough”. In this blog, I’ll walk through the second core belief, which is “It’s never enough.”  You might say:
Scarcity Mindset You get into this place of achievement addiction. You might not even be aware that you are addicted to more:
It creates this never-ending chase. The goalposts keep moving, and every milestone, every goal that you achieve, you’re not going to celebrate it properly, and it’s going to feel hollow. You’re addicted to the achievement. You’re chasing that high. This, maybe, is moving you into the "It’s never enough" zone. It brings you into that scarcity mindset of hoarding your resources, holding on to them, holding on to opportunities, not fully going for them because you’re afraid that they’re going to run out. When you’re in scarcity, you’re not sharing, you’re not collaborating, you’re not connecting with others in the same way because you’re holding on. You have a lot of reluctance, not only to celebrate but to enjoy these successes. The sad thing is, the success feeling is fleeting. It’s not a long-term satisfaction or happiness. These two beliefs--I am not enough and It’s never enough—they will sabotage your happiness if you haven’t already sabotaged it. Comparing yourself to others The "It’s never enough" also brings in constant comparison: comparing yourself to others:
and comparing yourself to your past achievements.
It’s tiring comparing yourself to others. It’s so tiring. Overworking The belief of "it’s never enough" can also take you to a place of overworking, and overextending yourself. You keep working tirelessly over and over and over to somehow earn some satisfaction. But it’s not enough—or it’s never enough—is this thief of joy. Because even though you’re trying to earn the satisfaction, it’s at the expense of something: health, relationships, your joy, your confidence, your relationships with family, your partner, kids, friends. It goes on and on and on.  When you’re overworking and overextending, you have such a difficulty delegating to others. That also comes in from before, when I spoke about perfectionism. It has you not being able to trust other people to help you. When you’re keeping everything close together, just like with a scarcity mindset, it brings you to a place of isolation or feeling like you’re alone, even though you’re in a group of other people. What happens? What happens to you in this case? Well, it takes you to one of two places.
Rather than just, "How do I want to chill? How do I enjoy where I am? What really matters to me right now?"  "It’s never enough" is always pushing you to the external rather than bringing you into the internal. Because you’re there, you definitely have FOMO—a fear of missing out. You say yes because you don’t want to miss the next big thing. You say yes to things, and then you’re thinking about the future and all the things to do. But then you’re sacrificing on current moments, the present-day moment, and the future, because we know the goalpost keeps moving. It keeps going further and further away, and you’re living in the future rather than today. You don’t want to miss out on anything, but you’re constantly striving, and eventually, the never-enough people, they get burnt out. 2. Not only do they have anxiety, but they full-on will burn out. Because if it’s never enough is a thief of your joy, if it’s keeping you from your satisfaction, sabotaging your happiness, then it’s going to be draining your energy, leading to more stress and eventually burnout. We only have so much emotional, physical, and mental capacity and bandwidth. When I heard the expression, "I don’t have the emotional capacity right now," or "I don’t have the emotional bandwidth," boy, is this ever true for the boss, the high achiever, that woman who is driven to do more, always more. It’s so true. We get to that point where we’re like, "I just don’t have enough left right now to deal with this," or "I’m just so tired. I can’t even be there," or "Emotionally, I don’t even want to talk to anybody right now. It’s just... it’s been too much." But even when “It’s never enough”, we still push on. Because let’s be real here: some of the things that we’ve been praised for are our resilience, our flexibility, our commitment, our ability to manage it all and multitask and do it all. Let me tell you, it’s going to take you to a bad place. Take some time now to look at "It’s never enough" or "It’s not enough" and ask yourself where these negative influences and effects are true about your life. Again, be honest about it. Wrapping Up If I can be of any support, please reach out to me at [email protected]. Share this with a friend who you think either needs to be looking at these things because they’re on their way to burnout or a lessening of their confidence, lack of joy, or whatever it may be. Or if you just have a friend who you think, "Wow, she’s doing so well, but I want to keep her safe. I want to keep her happy. I want her to be in the good zone here with her achievement level," then share it with her. Until next time, stay dynamic and focus on not just being successful, but take a stand for the AND-Be satisfied as well. Read my other blogs:
For high-achieving women—whether you’re the boss of a business or a boss at work—these two core beliefs, "I am not enough" and "It’s never enough" can manifest in profoundly negative ways. They often sabotage your happiness and success, despite all the achievements you’ve already attained.  Today, I’ll break down how "I am not enough" shows up in your life. I’ll cover “It’s never enough” in the next blog. Even if you think, "I don’t have that problem," you might! I wouldn’t have thought so either because I have a lot of success and happiness. But when I reflect—whether through coaching others, receiving coaching, or guiding women in my Dynamic Year program—I find that 95% of the time, the underlying limiting core belief is "I am not enough." Thankfully, Brené Brown’s research confirms this to be true. So let’s dive into the details. I’ll walk you through some key indicators to see if this belief might be affecting you. Be honest with yourself as we go through them. (This is part one of a two-part series. In my next blog, I’ll discuss "It’s never enough.") How "I Am Not Enough" Shows Up 1. Perfectionism Overload You’re striving. You’re going towards these unsustainable standards, which can lead to burnout, self-doubt, or a lack of confidence. Fear of failure is stopping you or basically paralyzing you, and preventing you from moving ahead. It might prevent you from taking a healthy risk, a good risk for your business or your career, like going for a promotion or even some innovation in what you're doing. 2. Imposter Syndrome It’s where you feel like a fraud despite the awards, the accolades, the success, and what everyone says about you. BUT you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Oftentimes these women, they don't celebrate themselves and their achievements. They dismiss their achievements as, “Oh yeah, I just got lucky there” or “Other people helped me.” For years and years, I quoted the Business Insider’s quote around how women and men view success differently. Men attribute their success to their innate skills and talents, while women attribute their success to luck and help from others. That's BS. It's great for men that they have this positive view of it, but come on, ladies, we got to step up in this way. 3. People-Pleasing You're over committing because you want to gain validation from people. You're doing everything for other people's agendas. You have no time or energy for yourself, for self-care, for your hobbies, for personal joy, for just downtime or doing nothing. That's because when you're feeling like “I'm not enough” you have big difficulties setting boundaries and then sticking to them, which causes you to feel overwhelmed, burnt out, maybe even a little resentful. Is that true about you? 4. Chronically Comparing Yourself to Others When you're comparing yourself to others, you're viewing them as
 Which really feeds those feelings of inadequacy inside of you, and I don't want you to feel that. Then you start feeling this unrelenting feeling of, “I'm falling behind” even though you're excelling. 5. It’s affecting your decision-making You take on too much because of, as I said before, the boundary thing, you feel like you can't say no, or you're making poor decisions because you're not in your own confidence. Wrapping Up All of these things will eventually affect your self-worth. I've mentioned it along the way, it's going to start eroding your confidence, if it hasn't already. Even if you say, “I am a confident person,” you have to think how much of your confidence has been eroded up until this point. Then you question yourself:
There's always that feeling of inadequacy. You can see how this mindset, this core negative core belief, this limiting belief of “I am not enough” can really be detrimental even to confident women, successful women, high achievers, and bosses. This is one that you really have to take a look at and ask yourself, “How many of these pieces are true about me?” If any are, then have a good, hard look at where and what's underneath this “I am not enough” feeling. Stay tuned for the second part of this blog, where I share about the other belief “It’s never enough.” You can also listen to the podcast episode where I talk about these two core beliefs or watch my YouTube video for it. Read this blog:
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