What’s Your One Thing for Success?
“Pick one thing that aligns with your purpose—it’s the key to lasting success.”
In this episode of Lead with Culture, Michele Marquis, Senior Executive Coach at Floyd Consulting, shares how to stay motivated and focused on achieving your dreams, whether it’s a new year’s resolution or a long-term goal. Drawing from their extensive coaching experience, Michele and Kate share practical advice on setting SMART goals, celebrating small wins, and staying accountable. Together, they highlight the importance of self-awareness, grace, and choosing the “one thing” that can create a meaningful ripple effect in your life.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How to select one impactful goal for your life
- Why celebrating milestones leads to sustained motivation
- The power of accountability in achieving your dreams
Things to listen for:
(00:00) Intro
(01:22) Why resolutions often fail
(04:31) How to choose the “one thing”
(10:40) Gamifying your progress
(15:39) Celebrating small wins effectively
(17:55) The role of accountability partners
(19:22) Giving yourself grace to grow
Discover how to implement The Dream Manager Program: https://www.thedreammanager.com/
Invest in a coach to achieve your dreams: https://www.floydcoaching.com/
Resources:
Connect with the Guest:
Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:
Transcript
Pick one thing. Not 15 things, not 20 things, not five things. One thing that you feel would have the biggest impact in your life if you were able to change this one thing.
Kate Volman [:This is Lead With Culture on this episode. We are so excited because we are talking about how to stay motivated to achieve your 20, 25 year dreams. Michele, I'm excited about this episode.
Michele Marquis [:Absolutely. Everybody worries about this one so much. When they set them, they're already thinking about, like, how long is it going to take me to give this up?
Kate Volman [:Well, we all have the best of intentions. You know, right before we press record, Michele and I were talking about the word resolutions, New Year's resolutions. And as we're recording this, it's January 7th, which I can't believe we're already first week in January. And some people make New Year's resolutions, some people don't. But resolutions, it does kind of have like a bad reputation around that word because people act like, oh, I'm going to make these New Year's resolutions. I haven't made any of these changes in my life all last year, but starting January 1st, poof, all of a sudden I'm going to have the motivation and discipline to do all the things.
Michele Marquis [:And again, I think it's really losing steam a little bit. Right. Because it has a negative connotation, these resolutions. So people are picking words or they're picking an intention or one thing that they want to commit to for the year. So for those people out there who have had struggles with maintaining that resolution, that drive, that discipline, we're going to talk about that today. Some of, you know, like things to think about whenever this airs, if you're off track, this is a way to get yourself back on track.
Kate Volman [:We all need some inspiration every now and then. So…but it was funny because I was looking online and did a little bit of research. Now, look, I don't know if these stats are 100% true or what because I feel like you look at different articles and there's different percentages of the New Year's resolutions and when people quit. But according to the Internets - alright, I did some research to find out New Year's resolutions and how many people actually stick to them and when people quit. If people had to guess, they would probably say “within the first month, of course.” But I found something online that said that within a few weeks, just within the first few weeks of January, 90% of people give up. Within the first few weeks, 90% of people, which is crazy. Crazy. And it said Overall only about 9% of people complete their resolutions.
Michele Marquis [:Wow.
Kate Volman [:Which is not a lot.
Michele Marquis [:No, not a lot. So here we go. Let's talk about it. Because I know it's hard. It's super hard at any time. But when you put that pressure on yourself, too, to have that, okay, it's a new year, it's a new you, new resolution. But to your point, you know, what did you do leading up to this? Right? Because if you were going to do it, if you were going to join the gym, if you're going to do whatever, why didn't you do it last year? Like, why are you waiting for the New Year's Day to, you know, press the button, flip the switch? It's not that easy.
Kate Volman [:No, but that's what people do. You know, I feel like it gets people through the holidays and everything. We're like, ah, we're going to do it. We're going to do it in a few weeks. So we're going to start January 1st. Or, you know what, what do people say? Diet starts Monday.
Michele Marquis [:Like, yeah, well, that's what I did. I pushed mine off to yesterday. I started January 6th.
Kate Volman [:Oh, my God. I think a lot of people do that because you're like, too much. Oh, my gosh. It's so funny.
Michele Marquis [:So whatever date you pick, whatever day.
Kate Volman [:You pick, it doesn't matter. We're recording this on January 7th. But what we want to share on how to stay motivated to achieve your dreams. This is no matter when you're listening, it really doesn't matter. These are things that you can apply in your life to help, kind of whether you need a little recharge or you're just starting out wherever you are. These are things to really keep in mind because we all need that inspiration. We all need that little bit of motivation and push to remind us to really stay true to the dreams that we have.
Kate Volman [:We've got to remain focused. So that being said, why don't we go through these five ways? So, Michele, let's kick us off with what is the first thing?
Michele Marquis [:The first thing is really picking the one thing we'll talk about one year from now. How do you want your life to be different? But pick one thing, not 15 things, not 20 things, not five things. One thing that you feel would have the biggest impact in your life if you were able to change this one thing. So it could be a habit, some kind of behavior. Maybe it's starting something, maybe it's stopping something, maybe it's keeping something. So maybe it's something you started halfway through last year and you're gaining some traction on it, but now it's time you want to really focus in on it because you are seeing some benefit to your life. So the most important thing is to pick the one thing because then the rest will cascade from there. So being able to do these other four things, but making sure that this comes from your heart.
Michele Marquis [:So it's that one thing that aligns to your purpose, it aligns with your core values and it's really serving your long term vision for your life as well. Four of the top items for resolutions is physical relationships, financial and getting organized. Those are the top four and there's a lot of other things underneath those. But in terms of four categories, those are the four big categories. So look somewhere within those four categories, what's the one thing that you could really focus on and make a difference in your life?
Kate Volman [:Yeah, whenever anyone says one thing, it always reminds me of the book, Gary Keller's book, the One Thing. And asking that question, what is the one thing that, by which doing it makes everything else easier or unnecessary? And I think that's why so often we have those health goals. Because we know if we really focus on our health, if we're not in a good place with our health and fitness and we're tired and we're not feeling great and things are going on in that area of life, then it is a lot harder to do other things in our life. And so if we pick that one thing, or I love that people want to get more organized, if we are more organized, we have a better system and process for doing the work that we want to do for achieving our dreams and our goals. It's going to be easier for us to actually do those things and attract those things. So really pick that one thing. And I had written down with this point, which is, are you picking the right dream? Because if you're really going to make that one thing a priority, is it the one that you really want to focus on? Are you doing it for you? Is the dream that you're picking, is the dream that you're making a priority really for you? Or is it what you think you should do? Or is it what someone told you you should do? So this is an opportunity to become really self aware and recognize? No, this is truly for me. Because only if you're doing it for you, are you going to be able to put in the work every day to achieve whatever it is that, that you want to achieve for the Year.
Michele Marquis [:Yeah, that's a great point. Kate. And knowing your why, why is this the right one? And literally writing it down. Because if you start to waver and get off track, going back to your why will really help to motivate you to stay focused.
Kate Volman [:All right, so you pick the one thing and then of course, number two.
Michele Marquis [:Is gotta have a plan.
Kate Volman [:Gotta have a plan.
Michele Marquis [:You have to have the plan. You must write it down. I encourage this. All my clients, this, like ad nauseam, but writing it down, that just that that process of doing that will give you a higher level of success. And we use a SMART plan. Right? So specific, measurable, attainable, all of that. So setting and attaining. So the attainable piece is usually one where people falter.
Michele Marquis [:Right. Because I'm going to use my losing weight as an example. I want to lose 30 pounds. So the conversation goes like this, by when. So in a year. Okay, so what would be realistic, milestone or target for you to lose that 30 pounds? So again, it's breaking it down into the SMART plan process and giving yourself a chance to succeed. So looking at all those different elements.
Kate Volman [:Yeah, it's really empowering to put those numbers to it because then you can really set a plan that's going to work. So SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Those are our SMART goals. And something that works for me and I think for a lot of other people, because this is, I mean, look, the apps use it for a reason - is just gamification. Like, gamifying your plan. So for example, if you have a goal of whether it's a learning goal. You know, sometimes we work with people and they have a dream of, they want to read a book a month or they want to learn a new skill or whatever that is. I love using your calendar and being able to check off, maybe you cross off the days or you.
Kate Volman [:You have a journal that you use and you write in it every, whatever, once a day, when you've done something, maybe you add something. So one of the things that I started this year is I got one of those wall calendars and I have it up in my home office. And what I do is I wanted to start adding something that I learned. Whether it's something that I learned, something meaningful that happened that day or a really great quote quote that I read. And so on every day in those blocks, I add that. And I thought, oh, this is just kind of a cool way for me to track, like different things that happen so that by the end of the year, I can go back and look, oh, January, February, March, and then go back and see what experiences that I had. And then also just really cool, fun quotes and stuff all in, in the calendar. So I thought that was like a fun little thing.
Kate Volman [:But when you gamify it and you. I don't know what it is about checklists, but, man, don't we love checking off a to do item on our checklists?
Michele Marquis [:Yeah, absolutely. The other part of that plan is making sure that you're not expecting too much of yourself in a certain period of time and maybe again, shrinking it. Small steps lead to big results. Right? We've said this, we've said this a million times. So making sure that you're not trying to overachieve, especially in the first few months. So let's say it's 30 pounds in a year. So maybe you'll lose 3 pounds in the first two months. I mean, literally get it that small so that you can add these two words or more.
Michele Marquis [:So I want to lose three pounds or more in the next two months and then I want to learn, lose another five to six pounds or more and the next two months. So you're giving yourself a chance at success. Because too many times people, again, they don't have the plan. New Year's comes, they're getting set to say, okay, I'm going to. This is the year I'm going to do it. But then they overload themselves with the goal.
Kate Volman [:That's true. And, you know, we see it all the time in the clients that we work with, especially around the health goals, where people, when we are helping them create the plan, they say, okay, I'm going to work out five days a week. And it's like, okay, how many days a week do you work out now? Zero. So going from zero to zero days a week to five days a week is a lot. But that, adding that two or more days a week, you're going to start, minimum two days. And then not only do you feel like you attained it, but then people get really excited when they say, ooh, I'm an overachiever. I went three days this week. And then you can start to up it.
Kate Volman [:Dreams should stretch us but not break us. I love that phrasing around it because I think especially heading into a new year, it's so easy for us to be like, we're going to change our whole life in one month. And that's just not the way that it works.
Michele Marquis [:That's right. That's why only you know, 90% of people don't do it within two weeks.
Kate Volman [:Exactly. All right, so what's the one thing then? You create a plan and then number.
Michele Marquis [:Three, this is part of the plan, but it's setting those milestones. So maybe it isn't a year long plan, maybe it's just within the next 30 days I want to do this. Forget about the rest of the year because how long does it take to develop a new habit?
Kate Volman [:People say it's 90 days, but…
Michele Marquis [:Some people say 21 days, some people say 90 days. Everybody's different. But if you're super focused, you've got the one thing, you have your plan, then put in place those milestones that really again serve you so that you can celebrate success and feel successful. So maybe it's, maybe it's a six month goal, maybe it's a quarterly goals, maybe it's weekly goals. You pick. But give yourself a chance for that success. And that's a super important part of this also is celebrating this success. So not just when I eventually reach the 30 pound goal, then I'll give myself this, or then I'll do this and then I'll.
Michele Marquis [:No. How about ten pounds? Ten pounds is nothing to sneeze at. Ten pounds, that's a big win because it gets harder, right? They say, some people, oh, the first 10 pounds was easy. The next 20 pounds are going to be harder. All right, so now reassess your plan, go back, look at it. What's going to get you to the next part?
Kate Volman [:Yeah. All right. Celebrate your wins. I love it. Yes, we've got it.
Michele Marquis [:That's where four comes in. How are you going to get to that next milestone?
Kate Volman [:It's so funny too, because I just posted something on LinkedIn today about celebrating your wins because I think a lot of people that have big dreams and, and that are recommitting to their dreams, there's that a different, a certain kind of personality, right? When you're like, okay, I'm really achieving something, I'm really excited to achieve this. We're not great at celebrating our wins and reminding ourselves to, okay, looking back and seeing how far we've come, because it's almost like you get this, you just get this joy and this burst of inspiration because you have achieved something. So then you're looking forward so much and what, and thinking about the next thing, the next thing that it's so hard to look back and say, wait, before I keep going full force on the next thing, let me just take A moment and thank myself and be appreciative and remind myself that, wow, I can do hard things, and look at everything I've accomplished. And that's one of the things I love so much when working with our clients, is that when we help them kind of focus on. Look at where you were and where you are today. It's wild. The changes that we see happen within six months or 12 months in the people that we get to work with.
Kate Volman [:It's remarkable, just the level of confidence, the level of courage that they have to actually do the things that they were scared to do in the past. And so I love that. All right, celebrate your wins. Number four.
Michele Marquis [:Okay. Accountability, that is key. So finding a partner, finding a community, because, again, celebrating by yourself isn't fun. It's not so fun. It's like, oh, yeah, great, Good for me. Pat on the back. Yay, yay, yay. And then you move on.
Michele Marquis [:But having that partner, having someone that maybe shares the same goal or dream that you do or has that same intention for the year, to have that person to talk to, really motivate each other or inspire each other to stay focused. So obviously one of the biggest benefits of coaching is being an accountability partner for someone. And so many times people will say to me, I couldn't have done this if it wasn't for you. And in a way, it's sort of true, because you need that one person, whether it's a coach, whether it's your best friend, your sister, someone else who's there cheering you on and keeping you focused. Because so many times in our life, everybody has dreams and goals, Life gets in the way, and then all those other things go to the bottom of the list. So having that accountability partner, whether it's a community of people, there's so many different apps online now that have different communities. You know, financial is one of them. Saving money, that sort of thing.
Michele Marquis [:I mean, there's tons of opportunities out there for an accountability partner, but you gotta have one. You gotta have one. It will significantly. I guarantee it. I don't guarantee very many things. I guarantee that it will significantly increase your chance for successful achievement of whatever goal or dream that you put out there.
Kate Volman [:It really is such a game changer. And we all need people in our life that's gonna call us out. And that's part of accountability, is when somebody can call you out on, when you're making excuses, when you're saying, oh, well, I didn't do it and this is the second week in a row that I didn't do what I said I was going to do. And you have that person that's not there to just say, ah, that's all right, like, okay, tell me why and what are you going to do to change that next, next week and to really hold you accountable. And man, there's just something really powerful about knowing that when you have a dream and you've told someone and then they're going to check in on you, there's something that really pushes you to actually show up in the way that you intended to.
Michele Marquis [:I mean, you can hold yourself accountable to a degree, but having that other person remind you to think about why, why did you want to do this in the first place? Because that's really the key, right? Your why of why you really want this in your life. So there may be another block, so there's something else to talk about that relates back to it. But having that accountability partner is key. Huge.
Kate Volman [:I think 10 out of 10, we need accountability partners. Whether you hire a coach, you have a friend, you do whatever it is that you need to do, your spouse or someone in your life that is also working on their dreams, that's an important piece too. They have to be working on their dreams because we've got to be surrounded by people that are becoming a better version of themselves that actually want to achieve certain things. And then number five, last but not.
Michele Marquis [:Least, give yourself grace. Don't get discouraged if you fail, you don't do something one week or one day, whatever you have set out in terms of your plan, you can always restart, you can always refresh. We just said it. Go back to your why. Why is this important? You may find that maybe your goal was a little too vague. Maybe there's something else in there. But being aware, having that self awareness and being able to ask yourself that question is super important. When you do find yourself not doing what you said you wanted to do.
Michele Marquis [:So giving yourself grace to fail. Failing is good. It's teaching you something. Something's getting in your way. You need to go back and really think that through. I had a client in particular, she just wanted to exercise more. Move, move, move. She was getting older.
Michele Marquis [:She tried everything. She bought, what do you call a Peloton? She bought an elliptical, she joined a gym, she went to yoga. Nothing. She could not stick to one of those things. What she ended up doing was finding this fabulous coach online. That was a fitness coach and it was a 45 minute, I think a 45 minute YouTube video every day of a little bit of weights and stretches.
Michele Marquis [:She loves it. It's mobile for her because she travels a lot. She takes it with so she can plug in at any time. She finally found it. It took her one year of trying all these different things and failing. So now she can check that off her list and feel really good about it because it is now a habit in her life. She calls it a non-negotiable in her life, right?
Michele Marquis [:But she couldn't have gotten there if she didn't try other things. So she looked at it and she said, well, I don't have time to go to the gym. I don't really like going to the gym. Well then, don't go to the gym! What else is there? And be open to trying different ways.
Kate Volman [:This is why I feel like it's such when it comes to personal development, one of the challenges I feel like is there is so much stuff out there for us to consume and sometimes people believe this is the right way, this is the only way, this is the thing that I need to do. But there's just the more we understand about ourselves and what motivates us, what drives us, what's important to us and what's important to us in different seasons of life. Like, that's another thing. When you're listening to somebody that is out there, that is in a very different phase of life, they are going to speak differently about their business, their marriage, how they raise their kids, like everything that they're doing. And so we've got to really look at, okay, no, where am I today? And what is going to make sense for me to like, what am I really going to commit to doing? When we say give yourself grace, it's like if you miss a day and we keep going back to like, health and fitness because it's just the easiest example. But how often has somebody said, “Oh, I, unfortunately I had dessert at lunch and now I ruined it. So I'm just gonna eat bad for the rest of the day or I'm gonna eat bad for the rest of the week because today I didn't, I wasn't “perfect” on my diet.”
Kate Volman [:And so you're gonna, “Well, no, let's not do that. Let's you know, it's fine, move on. And then what can we do tomorrow to make it better?” So I feel like every day we have that opportunity to give ourselves a little bit of grace and then figure out what we need to do to move forward, but really getting clear on all of these things, as you can see, they all kind of work together because if we don't have the right dream, if we're not focused on the one thing that's important to us, it's going to make it a lot harder for us to actually put in the work to achieve that. When it is something we truly, truly want, then it's so much easier for us to be held accountable, to give ourselves grace. If we, you know, miss a day or something like that and then find the way that works for you, like, life is not black or white. We like to think that it is and believe that it is, but it's not. There's a lot of gray. And so for us to know that as well. And yeah, so give yourself grace.
Kate Volman [:I think we say that to many of our clients because they can be real hard on themselves.
Michele Marquis [:It's true. For sure.
Kate Volman [:All right, awesome. Well, wherever you are in your journey, whenever you're listening to this, we hope that these steps have inspired you in some way to keep going so that you are one of the 9% of people that actually achieve that. We won't say resolutions, but we'll say achieve your dream this year. Because all of these pieces, when we combine all of these, how could you not win? How could you not?
Michele Marquis [:No doubt guaranteed.
Kate Volman [:That's a Michele Marquis guarantee, and she does not hand those out lightly. So there you have it.
Michele Marquis [:I've seen it work time and time and time again.
Kate Volman [:Yeah.
Michele Marquis [:And if someone's stuck, it's because they're not doing one of these things.
Kate Volman [:All right, well, Michele, thank you so much.
Michele Marquis [:Welcome.
Kate Volman [:Always such a pleasure. If you are listening and you're thinking, “Yes, this is the time I am finally going to achieve my dreams.” Especially those dreams that you've had in your heart for way too long. And it's time now. It's time, right? We can't keep talking about it.
Kate Volman [:It is time. And so, if one of your biggest challenges is number four, accountability, which it often is for a lot of people, because you have everything that you need to achieve your dreams. And so that one piece that's missing is accountability. We would love to talk to you about coaching. Have someone on our team be your coach, your accountability partner, Someone that's really gonna not only hold you accountable, but be your cheerleader. Be there to support you and encourage you, to remind you to give yourself some grace when things aren't necessarily going the way that you thought they were gonna go.
Kate Volman [:And so we would love to have that conversation with you. You can go to floydcoaching.com and someone on our team will reach out to you. Michele, anything, any parting. Parting words.
Michele Marquis [:Get going. Let's go. Get started. And if you already have one, pick another one. Just pick one. Pick one that you want to apply this method to.
Kate Volman [:The one thing. All right. You're awesome. Thank you all so much for listening. We appreciate you. And until next time, Lead With Culture.
