Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Danielle Cobo: Welcome to the Unstoppable Grit podcast. Today is our first episode of 2024, and what a way to kick off the new year. I'm thrilled to share this episode with you. Today, we're diving into the allure and the reality of New Year's resolutions. According to U. S. News, the failure rate for New Year's resolutions is estimated about 80%.
a study by the University of Scranton has found that 8 percent of people achieve their New Year's resolutions. That's only 8%. today we're diving into how to set and achieve New Year's resolutions, but we have a different take on it. Because our goal is to aim to be that 8 percent in 2024. Before we dive into today's episode, I'm excited to share some news with you. My book, Unstoppable Grit, within its first week of release, hit the bestseller list. It hit the bestseller list in a couple of categories, including women in business and job hunting, career development, and it hit the new release top three.
within women in business and job hunting and the top new release for motivational self help. This is such an achievement and I'm so excited to share this news with you. What I'm most excited about is the feedback that I'm hearing from readers. Readers are sharing that this book has transformative in their life. They've said they've been able to read it within a couple days, and have found that the practical advice has helped them in accelerating their career, setting themselves up for success for 2024, and helping them learn the tools and strategies so that they can prevent burnout and overcome it.
what I'm excited about is to hear What all of you think of the book unstoppable Grit is available on Amazon for pre order. Now, it doesn't ship until February 21st. However, I've got some exciting incentives when you pre order and some giveaways. When you pre order one book, you receive an advanced copy of Chapter 1 and a goal setting guide, which is valued at 15, which basically is the price of the book.
When you order a copy for yourself, and one for a friend, you also receive the Break the Burnout Cycle Workbook, which that total value is 40.
Now, if you decide to do a book club, this is really exciting. when you order 10 copies or more, you also receive the Unstoppable Success Master Course. So a lot of the principles that I teach in the book, there's activities and exercises throughout the book, but you'll also have the complements of the Master Course.
So you'll be able to see recordings and take the course. and also have additional workbooks to support and applying all the tools that I share in the book. Again, my goal is that with this book, there's transformation that happens within your life. , if you are leading a team where you work for an organization where you want to provide your employees with the practical advice, tools, and strategies to transform their life,
When you purchase over 150 copies, then there's also some extra incentives. So reach out to me today I'll go ahead and include the contact information in the show notes.
Becoming a bestselling author is a testament to the power of the principles that we're going to discuss in today's episode. When I started writing the book, I envisioned myself becoming a bestseller. In fact, it's actually something that I put on my vision board. And it's something that I looked at every single day, anytime that I was feeling Overwhelmed or exhausted or second guessing writing the book.
I poured my heart and soul into this book. It was 20 hours a week on average that I was writing for a year and a half. On top of running a business and serving my clients and also being a mom to twin boys and being a military spouse where majority of the time I am the primary caretaker of our kids because my husband works a lot.
So there was a lot of heart and time and effort poured into this book. And when I envisioned myself writing the book, I envisioned being the best selling author. And while the title was something that I strived for, what And what really comes with that title is when you become a best selling author, it means that a lot of people find value in your book, and they're encouraging other people to purchase it as well.
So that's what the correlation meant for me and why I wanted to achieve it. At the end of the day, I think about what do I want my legacy to be on this world when that time comes and people are celebrating my life, and that is making an impact, and I'm excited to share that the book is a best selling book in many categories, and we're just at the beginning.
This was only within the first week of its release. So definitely you wanna pick up your copy, but today we're gonna be focusing on the art of creating and manifesting your goals. Just like I did when it came to writing the book. We're gonna explore practical strategies and insights inspired by my experience of corporate resilience and personal transformation to make 2024 your year of real change and achievement.
Again, we want to aim to be a part of that top. 8 percent that are achieving their goals, but I want to make sure that you stay till the end because I'm going to reveal the number one step that can make you part of the elite 8 percent by turning resolutions into realities. So let's talk about the top three steps into achieving your goals in 2024.
The first step And you've heard me talk about it already, is creating a vision board. A vision board is a collection of pictures and words and phrases of the goals that you want to achieve.
How you envision your life. What a vision board might be, and this is what I do every single year, is I sit down with either my friends or my husband or even my kids as well. We're starting to get into creating vision boards and I will cut out a bunch of magazines and cut out and print out images from the computer and create a vision board of images.
It could be phrases, words, and pictures. So if there's a particular location that you want to visit. For me, it's Capri, Italy. It's always been on my vision board. And so that is an area that I want to visit.
Just waiting until the military allows us. Then Health related. for me, it was working out three times a week on my Peloton and having that encouragement. It could be financial goals that you have. Paying off a house. Paying off debt. Having a certain amount in savings. Possibly it's time with your family.
Maybe it's particular vacations that you want to go on. spending more time with your friends. Maybe there's some career goals that you have. Either getting promoted, going for a raise. Or getting additional certifications or skill sets that you wanted, that you want to also learn as well. a vision board is a great way of manifesting what you want.
I love the activity of doing it with friends because it engages in conversations. You get to hear what their goals are. You also get to see how you get to support each other as well. Sometimes you hear somebody else's goal and you're like, wow, I didn't know that was a goal of yours, Actually, I can help you in X, Y, Z way and so it's fun.
It's a great way to spend some time with some friends and some family and share your goals and get to know each other better. So a vision board is definitely one of the steps in creating the goals that you want for and achieving the goals for 2024. And this is an exercise I do every single year. And one of my favorite parts about this exercise is going back the previous year, actually get a really enjoyment out of this.
I'll take my board and it's fun taking off. all of the words and the images from what I have accomplished throughout the year. And every year I'm almost down to almost a complete fresh board because I've been so focused and intentional on what those goals are and ensuring that I am achieving them throughout the year.
It helps me stay focused. So absolutely recommend a vision board. Do it with your friends and family. It's so exciting and fun to do. The second is creating goals. Now I have a framework for creating goals. There are SMART goals, those are the Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Bound. However, I take a little bit different approach on this, and the reason being is when I think about achieving goals, it's not just about achieving the goal that you want, but it's envisioning goals.
who you get to be when you achieve that goal. the framework COBO framework for goal setting. Starts with C. Envision what is a courageous goal that you have that you want to achieve. Perhaps it's starting a new business. growing your existing business within a certain revenue.
Perhaps getting a new job or a promotion. What is that courageous goal that you have? And when you're thinking of what that goal is, stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone. I want you to think big. Attainable, but also big. the C, that's the courageous goal.
Then you have O, that's the objective. What are the objective steps that you're going to take to achieve your goal? I'm gonna give you some specific examples. One of them may be starting a business. So perhaps that is Investing in a business coach. Perhaps it's building a business plan creating your brand positioning if you're creating different products, so that would be an objective step that you're going to take.
If you're looking to get a new job, perhaps it's optimizing your LinkedIn profile and working with a career consultant. Perhaps if you're looking for a promotion, it's practicing your interview questions or, meeting with a mentor. But think about the objective steps that you're going to take and this is supported by the next step, which is B for benchmarking.
Benchmarking is a way that you get to progress and measure the progress of you achieving your goal. So if your goal is to start a business, then Put together some specific timelines of when you're going to get your LLC, when you're going to open up your bank account, when you're going to work with a business coach on developing a business plan.
Put some specific time bound times on when you're going to be accomplishing each of those objective steps so that you can monitor your progress. If you're looking for a new job or to get promoted, then the objective step that you're going to take is to optimize your LinkedIn profile.
Now, benchmarking might look like meeting with a career consultant and discussing ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile for SEO. Looking at different strategies to build brand awareness, looking for different strategies on connecting with recruiters and hiring managers, so that you are optimizing your time and getting the results that you want faster.
Perhaps it is, if you're looking for starting a business, then maybe your benchmark goal is a specific time and date that you're going to Build your business plan or bring on a consultant or maybe you're gonna be meeting with a consultant every other week what I've found from starting a business and what I found through my own career becoming One of the youngest people in our company when I first started my career at 23 and medical sales when it came to being the youngest region manager for a fortune 500 company at the age of 30 and when it came to building a successful business is I always always always had either a mentor or I've invested in coaching in myself.
And the reason being is I've always aligned myself with people who have had the success that I want to achieve and I want to learn from them so that I know what strategies work and what don't. So that's one of the reasons why you'll hear me often talk about investing in myself, and I suggest investing in yourself, because I've seen firsthand the benefitswhen somebody is guiding us through the process.
The next is, so you've got your courageous goal, the objective steps that you're going to take, you're going to benchmark the progress, then you're going to look at the opportunities. And this is my favorite part about goal setting, is the envisioning of the opportunities that are going to come about when you achieve your goal, because that's who you get to be when you achieve the goals.
So if your particular goal is to start a business, then maybe it's an additional revenue stream for, Your family and what that possibly means is maybe more freedom because you're getting out of debt and perhaps it means You leave the corporate world and you have more control over your time because you are now a business owner or perhaps you're looking for a new job or a promotion and you get to envision the opportunities from you taking the steps of Working with a career consultant and optimizing your LinkedIn profile and investing in new skills.
That's going to open up the doors for Additional raise which is then going to give you some more freedom, which is going to give you some more opportunities to take vacations with your family, whatever it is, I always like to incorporate the envisioning piece because that's what keeps the motivation going when the time gets tough the objective steps and benchmarking, while they're very important and valuable, because they're specific as to how you're going to achieve your goal and the steps that you're going to take and how you're going to monitor your progress, envisioning the opportunities is what is fun about goal setting.
That is what really helps us stay motivated throughout the process. Now, these steps are not just These are the backbone of how I have achieved my own goals from leading a top sales team to publishing a best selling book. So I share this with you because I'm a firm believer and I've seen firsthand how creating a vision board and creating Kobo Goals has helped me achieve the success that I have achieved as well as my clients.
Now let's talk about that third step. So let's talk about the powerful yet simple concept of redefining your year by choosing one word. John Gordon, author of One Word That Will Change Your Life, who is also an endorser of my book Unstoppable Grit, talked about the concept of finding a word that gives you meaning, passion, Mission and purpose.
The one word helps you focus on what matters most. And here's how you can find your word. First, reflect on the year past and think about the upcoming one. Ask yourself what one word will give you meaning, purpose, and focus. Write down your thoughts and don't skip this step because this step is really important.
in achieving your goals for 2024 and being among that elite 8%. You'll be amazed how one word can guide and transform your year. And this is a practice that I've also incorporated into my life for the past couple of years. And I found it to be helpful in being in alignment with my vision by being hyper focused on what is important to me and alignment with my core values as well.
So my one word for 2024 Is intention and living with intention means deliberately choosing how to spend our time and where did I direct our energy? It's about reducing burnout, deepening connections, and achieving aspirations. The number one question I always get asked is, how do you run a business, be a mom to twins, be a military spouse, write a book, and I've come to realize that being intentional with my time has always benefited me in preventing burnout.
And the times if I do have burnout, going back to intention has always benefited my life And has helped me achieve the goals that I've achieved over the years. So my word for 2024 is intention. But I'm going to give you 10 specific ways to embody the spirit of intentionality in your daily life.
Professionally and personally. The first one, and this is the most important to me, prioritizing family time. Being intentional about carving out moments for your loved one, it strengthens the bonds and keeps us grounded. When my husband was deployed in 2019, there, I was very intentional about how I spent my time.
One of them being, it was important to me that even though I was going to be traveling a lot for work. I was leading a team for a Fortune 500 company. My region spanned over five states and I was traveling every single week by plane. I had nine reps across five states and I was very fortunate we had a full time nanny that supported us.
Also, I was intentional. That was important to me that there was consistency in my kid's life. I had my mother in law who would come over and spend the night once a week, so very, very fortunate. I know that's not the case for everybody. but she helped me as well. And then there was times where I flew my parents out to help.
So they were always either with a nanny, the times that I did travel, or they were always with family. And I look back At that time, and I'm so grateful because my kids have such a unique and special bond with who they call BB and Papa. My father in law is Cuban, so we call him Papa. But that has always been such a special bond that they have, and it's because of the time that they got to spend together.
Just one on one. So I was always intentional about who they spent time with. It was intentional about how I spent my time with them. And that meant I always either wanted to be there to wake them up, or to put them to bed. Now sometimes that meant red eye flights, and sometimes that meant working at odd hours,
it was important to me that I either was going to wake them up or put them to bed. Because even though I was traveling for work, I wanted them to see that I was there. And then on the weekends, I was intentional about spending quality time together. And this is a practice that I still do today. So when I look at my year ahead, there are kind of three categories that I look at.
One of them is, how am I being intentional about spending quality time with my husband? So we always have a date night planned. Now, Sometimes it's a month apart, sometimes it's a couple weeks apart, but we always have something to look forward together. Then I look at with time, quality time with my boys.
We're always doing something on the weekends. We're getting involved in sports pretty soon. But my husband still works one week in a month for the military because he's a Black Hawk pilot. And my boys always love seeing my husband and I get ready for the military ball and they love seeing me in my ball gowns and they've always asked me, When do we get to wear, when do we get to dress up?
And I shared with them one day, I said, well, why don't we, when daddy works,
And it was something intentional that I set up to have quality time with them and make it something unique and memorable. So the night, the weekends that my husband works, My boys and I will get dressed up. They get to choose which gown I wear. So I have several ball gowns. And that's what happens when you go to a lot of military balls over the years.
We've been in service for ten years. No, yeah, ten years now he's been in service. So I've got lots of ball gowns. So they get to choose the gown. And then they get dressed up in their three piece suit. And we go to a nice restaurant, and we go to the dessert room somewhere else, and we make it this big event.
In fact, they hold my card, and they pay, and they open the doors. And so, it's teaching them date nights, the quality of date nights. It's getting to spend quality time together. It's one of my favorite times of the year is going on the date nights with them. And it's something I've always been intentional about doing.
And then also being intentional about spending some quality time with my friends. And so, just as much as I have time booked on the calendar for date nights with my husband and date nights with my boys, there's also girls nights that I have as well. I'm part of a women's group within my church, and we get together once a month, and we all hang out and share what's going on in our lives and speak in the word of God.
Amen. it's been such a special experience, especially moving to an area that I'm not originally from and being able to build those relationships. So, prioritizing family time and time with friends is a way of being intentional and preventing burnout. The second one is establishing clear boundaries.
Now, this can sometimes be a hard one. I know that I am a recovering people pleaser, so there's been many, many years that I have said yes to absolutely everything and have burnt myself out. But to set clear boundaries is to knowing when to work, when to rest, and when to play. Again, knowing when to work, when to rest, and when to play.
In today's world, the demands of work are increasingly growing. And it's no surprise that Deloitte did a study and found that 77 percent of people have reported burnout and experiencing burnout.
And so it's important that when we are being intentional about our time, that we're ensuring that while we are working, we're also intentional about setting aside time to rest and to play. And that goes into The time, whether it, for me, it is, I schedule a massage once a quarter. That is my rest. Of course, there's other times throughout the quarter that I do, but that's one way of being intentional.
And then also that play time with family and friends. The third is choose your company wisely. So surround yourself with positive influence and distance yourself from negativity. The other day I was in a room and there was a particular person that just was having a bad day.
And what I've experienced is in that. situation, their negativity started to flow into everybody else. They say that when you're driving a car and you get road rage, that road rage fills up the car and anybody that's in the car absorbs it as well. And so when we're thinking about our own mental health and we're thinking about what's the best way to achieve our goals, that's going to be choosing the company that we are around wisely and ensuring that we are Limiting our interactions with negative people.
The fourth is begin with your top priorities. Each day identify and focus on top three priorities for a balanced progress. This has been a step that has really helped create intention in helping me with time management and being focused. So I have a workbook that I will go ahead and include in the show notes.
It's a planner, but it's a very simple planner. I'm one of those people, I love planners. However, if it's too convoluted, if there's too many steps where I'm tracking how much I'm eating and drinking and working out and all that, it becomes too overwhelming for me. I like something very simple and I keep it simple for myself and saying, what are the top three priorities for my day.
No matter what happens throughout the day, maybe things get off course, I know that these are the top three objectives that I'm going to accomplish for today. And that has been a practice that I have implemented throughout the year and I found to be the most helpful in helping me stay focused on achieving my goals.
And it's fun to look back. Actually, I have my, journal in front of me and I can see all the days back of everything that I had written down and just how it's helped me stay focused. So, being intentional about beginning your day with your top three priorities.
The next is practice mindfulness. Incorporate moments of mindfulness to stay present and reduce stress. We live in a world where we are constantly, there's objects that are constantly vying for our attention. Whether it's our phone, social media. Business meetings, conference calls, emails, whatever it is, family, kids, friends.
It's important that we are taking moments to be, sit in silence and be present in the moment. I don't know about you, but I often find that my best ideas always come when I'm taking a shower. That's actually when I come up with most of my writing. Ideas on what I'm going to be writing about, because I write every single day.
And I found that one of the reasons why is because I'm not distracted by anything else. I'm just in my thoughts and in the moment. So practicing mindfulness is one way of being intentional about preventing burnout. The next is cultivate gratitude. Research shows that when we focus on what we have, Versus what we don't have, we actually live happier lives.
So focusing in on
gratitude, practicing gratitude could look like each day saying five ways that you are grateful for your life. Anything from when my boys and I go to bed, I'll ask them what are three things you're grateful for today? And it's so fun to hear what they say.
And I often will respond that I'm grateful for my eyes to see you, my ears to hear you, my lips to kiss you. And my arms to hug you and hold you and embrace you and that is something that I've said to them For many years and it is very true. It's so simple Yeah It's what i'm grateful for to be able to have all of these senses to experience their joy and being a mom in their lives That gratitude helps me stay grounded and being grateful for what I have and don't get distracted by the little things that sometimes society says we should focus on and distracting in our lives.
when it comes to your goals in 2024, let's be intentional about being your guiding light. It's not about doing more. It's about doing what truly adds value to your life. And when we are intentional, that is one way of preventing burnout, overcoming burnout, and achieving our goals. So when you're thinking about what are the goals that you want to achieve for 2024, Ensure that you're doing the Kobo framework, the courageous, objective, benchmark, and opportunities that are going to open up.
Create your vision board. Do that exercise and activity with your friends, your families, your colleagues. It's a great activity to do where you get to build a deeper connection with the people around you. And choose your one word. What is that one simple word that you're going to choose that is going to give you meaning, passion, mission, and purpose, and focusing on what matters most in your life?
By taking these steps, you are going to be among that elite 8 percent that achieves your goals for 2024. And I encourage you to pick up the book Unstoppable Grit because I'm taking a deeper dive into some of these strategies on how you achieve your goals in the book. There are specific chapters in there that talk about how to prevent burnout.
There's chapters in there talk about how to overcome burnout, specific steps to it. There's a lot of information in there about how to accelerate your career. And embrace adversity and build a career and life that you love. Because I believe that the demands of life is not about surviving. It's finding ways in thriving.
And this is your opportunity to write the success story that you are destined to be. So thanks for tuning in and Until next week, be unstoppable and I cannot wait to hear what you think of the book and hearing about what you've implemented in your life that is transforming your life for the better.