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Every January, we start with so much hope.

“This year will be different.”
“I really want to change.”
“I just need to try harder.”

And yet… by the end of January, nearly 88% of people have already quit. Only about 8% stick with their resolutions for the whole year.

If that’s been your experience too, I want you to hear this first:

There is nothing wrong with you.

In this episode, I unpack why New Year’s resolutions so often fail—and why it’s not about discipline, motivation, willpower, or personal flaws. It’s a system problem, not an individual one.

I share a deeply personal story about my first failed attempt at meditation while living in Seoul—how I tried all the “right” tools, judged myself harshly when I couldn’t follow through, and completely misunderstood what was actually happening beneath the surface.

From there, we explore the real root cause behind broken habits, chronic busyness, exhaustion, and self-blame:

👉 Your nervous system.

You’ll learn:

• Why behavior hacks, planners, challenges, and productivity tools don’t create lasting change
• How your nervous system is wired to prioritize safety—not happiness or goals
• Why “being busy” can feel safe, while rest, stillness, or self-care can feel threatening
• How early life experiences shape survival patterns that still run your life today
• What actually needs to shift for habits like meditation, exercise, rest, and boundaries to finally stick

I also share real client examples and show how creating nervous system safety—not pushing harder—is the key to sustainable, surprisingly fast change.

This episode is for you if:

• You keep setting intentions but can’t sustain them
• You feel busy, tired, and overwhelmed no matter how organized you are
• You intellectually understand your patterns—but still repeat them
• You’re ready for change that feels supportive, not exhausting

At the end of the episode, I invite you to my free live masterclass:

How to Not to Repeat 2025

3 Internal Shifts for a Different 2026

Happening Jan.20 at 7 pm ET

Use the link to grab your spot:

https://cocoduancoaching.aweb.page/transform-2026-free-masterclass

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

When I look back, I realize that for so many years, my loudest voice was my inner critic. No matter how much I achieved, it was never enough. I would replay meetings for hours, beat myself up over small mistakes, and carry shame for days after setbacks. Maybe you can relate.

In this episode, I open my heart and share not only my own journey of shifting from self-criticism to self-compassion, but also the exact process I now teach to my clients. Together, we’ll explore how to stop fighting yourself and instead become your strongest ally.

I’ll walk you through my 3R Reset Method—how to regulate your nervous system when that inner critic flares up, how to relate to it with understanding rather than resistance, and how to rewire your self-talk so that your inner voice becomes encouraging, kind, and deeply supportive.

If you’ve ever felt “not enough”—not smart enough, not doing enough, not liked enough—I want you to know you are not alone. And you don’t have to stay stuck in that boxing match with yourself. You can create more calm, more clarity, and more confidence by building a new relationship with your inner voice.

By the end of our time together, you’ll feel lighter, supported, and reminded that you are worthy of peace and self-trust.

So take a deep breath, grab your favorite cup of tea, and join me. Let’s begin the journey of quieting that inner critic—together. 💛

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

As we close out the year and step toward 2026, I want to talk about something that quietly holds so many high-achieving women back from real change: investing in themselves in a meaningful way.

Not a facial.
Not a yoga class.
Not another vacation.

I’m talking about investing in your emotional well-being, your nervous system, and the deeper inner work that actually changes how you live and lead.

In this episode, I share a very personal story. Back in 2017, I was deeply burned out. My body was telling me I was exhausted, but I delayed getting professional support for four years. One of the reasons? The cost. Even though I was spending thousands of dollars on my partner’s education, my pets, and luxury vacations, investing $150 a session in my own mental health felt unbearably hard.

If that resonates, you’re not alone—and there’s nothing wrong with you.

In this episode, I explain why investing in yourself feels so difficult for so many successful women, and why it has very little to do with money. We unpack the conditioning that taught us our value comes from giving, not receiving. We explore why inner work doesn’t fit the traditional success model we were raised with. And we talk about how asking for support can feel like a threat to the “strong, capable one” identity that helped you survive.

I also share how everything changed once I finally invested in therapy and coaching—and why that investment has brought me something no vacation, promotion, or external achievement ever could: calm, clarity, confidence, and peace.

Today, investing in myself is non-negotiable. Not because I’m indulgent—but because I now treat myself as an asset, not an afterthought.

If you’ve ever felt guilty spending money on yourself…
If you’ve delayed getting support while carrying everything for everyone else…
If a part of you knows you deserve more ease, fulfillment, and peace—

This episode is for you.

And if this conversation stirs something in you, I invite you to ask yourself:
What would change if you truly believed you deserve support?
What would change if you treated yourself like your most valuable asset?

If you’re ready to explore that question with support, I offer a free one-hour consultation. The link is in the show notes.

Here’s to entering 2026 with a different relationship to yourself—and making it a true turning point.

Happy New Year. 💛

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

As we approach the end of the year, many high-achieving women find themselves exhausted, overwhelmed, and quietly hoping that next year will be different.

Maybe you’re telling yourself:

• “Things will feel better when work slows down.”
• “Once the kids are older, I’ll have more time.”
• “After the promotion, the raise, or the job change, I’ll finally relax.”

I hear this all the time—and for years, I told myself the exact same story.

In this episode, I share the real cost of waiting. Not from theory, but from lived experience.

I take you back to 2017, when I was a senior leader working 60+ hours a week, constantly pushing, performing, and holding everything together on the outside—while my nervous system was completely maxed out on the inside. I was successful, driven, and capable… and deeply exhausted. I kept waiting for external circumstances to change, believing that then I’d finally feel better.

They didn’t.
And I paid the price for waiting.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why waiting isn’t laziness or lack of discipline—it’s about nervous system safety
• What functional freeze really is, and why so many high-achieving women are stuck there
• How endurance and high pain tolerance can quietly keep you trapped
• Why change feels threatening even when you desperately want it
• The two most important steps to stop waiting and start creating real change

I also explain why insight alone isn’t enough—and why true transformation requires co-regulation, not more pushing, forcing, or self-help in isolation.

If you’ve been telling yourself, “I’ll deal with this later”…
If you’re productive but unmotivated, successful but unfulfilled…
If a part of you knows you don’t want to repeat another year like this—

This episode is for you.

You don’t need to wait for life to slow down.
You don’t need to endure more than you already have.
And you don’t need to do this alone.

If coaching feels like the kind of support your nervous system has been waiting for, I invite you to book a free one-hour consultation with me. The link is in the show notes.

Let’s make 2026 a true turning point—grounded, supported, and no longer driven by waiting.

Thank you for being here with me.

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

Do you ever feel like life looks successful on the outside—but inside, you’re exhausted, stuck, and quietly wondering, Is this really it?
Like you’re running hard, doing everything “right,” yet somehow your life feels out of your control?

I know that feeling intimately. I lived it for years.

In this episode, I talk about what’s really happening when you feel trapped on the hamster wheel—and why quitting your job or blowing up your life is not the answer (even if it feels tempting on your worst days).

What’s actually missing is something deeper: agency—the felt sense that you have choice, influence, and ownership over your life, even within real-world constraints like work, money, family, and responsibility.

In this conversation, I share:

• Why feeling stuck often comes from a false binary (“keep suffering or quit”)
• What agency truly means—and why it’s an internal capacity, not an external change
• How I reclaimed my own agency before leaving corporate America
• The subtle internal shifts that helped me work less, stress less, and feel more alive—while staying in the same company
• How leading yourself differently changes how you lead others
• What life and leadership look like when urgency softens, boundaries feel natural, and calm replaces reactivity

I also walk you through the three internal shifts that make agency possible:

1. Regulating your nervous system so you’re no longer living in fight-or-flight
2. Working with your protector parts (instead of fighting them)
3. Shifting your identity from “I’m only valuable because of what I do” to “I’m valuable because of who I am”

This episode is especially for high-achieving women who want to stay in their careers—but lead, live, and relate to work in a way that feels calmer, more grounded, and more fulfilling.

You don’t need to quit to feel free.
You need to come back into the driver’s seat of your own life.

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

In this episode of Unshakeable Confidence, I’m talking about a pattern so many high-achieving women struggle with—being “too independent.”

For years, I was proud of being the strong one who never needed help. But behind the strength, I felt heavy, overwhelmed, and painfully alone. What I didn’t realize was that my independence wasn’t confidence—it was protection. A survival strategy I learned when support didn’t feel safe or available.

I share personal stories from my childhood, my marriage, and my career to show how this protective independence develops—and why it eventually leads to burnout, isolation, and emotional exhaustion.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The 5 most common signs of unhealthy independence
• Why asking for or receiving help feels so uncomfortable
• The difference between independence, dependence, and interdependence
• A simple parts-work process to help you feel safer with connection
• Small steps you can take to stop doing everything alone

Moving from independence to interdependence has changed my life. I feel more supported, more connected, and more myself than ever before—and I want the same for you.

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

In this episode, I’m opening up about one of the most essential human needs that most of us never learned to name — the need to be truly seen. Not for what we do. Not for what we achieve. Not for how impressive we look on paper. But for who we are at the deepest, most human level.

I share the story of the first time in my life I ever felt genuinely seen — not for my accomplishments, but for my emotions, my struggles, and my inner world. It happened five years ago with my therapist, long before I ever became a coach. And it changed everything about how I saw myself, how I led, and the kind of life I believed I deserved.

For so much of my life, I was praised for being the high achiever, the girl who kept climbing, the woman who could “handle anything.” But inside, I felt small, shaky, and unseen. I didn’t understand why external success never made me feel confident. I didn’t understand why compliments felt uncomfortable. I didn’t understand why, even as a Fortune 500 executive, I still didn’t feel “good enough.”

Now I do.
And in this episode, I walk you through exactly why.

You’ll learn:

• Why being seen is a fundamental human need — not a luxury.
• How childhood mirroring shapes your identity, self-trust, and confidence.
• What happens when this need isn’t met — including the subtle “shadow expressions” like overexplaining, name-dropping, dominating conversations, or chasing achievements you don’t even want.
• Why high-achieving women often feel both hungry to be seen and terrified of being seen.
• The three-step path to getting this need met in adulthood — safely, compassionately, and powerfully.
• How being truly seen transforms your confidence, your relationships, and your leadership.
• And how, once you learn to see yourself, you naturally become someone who can deeply see others.

This isn’t just a conversation about personal growth — it’s a conversation about identity, safety, emotional healing, and becoming the grounded, confident version of yourself you were always meant to be.

If you’ve ever felt unseen…
If you’ve ever felt misunderstood…
If you’ve ever felt like you had to perform, prove, or please your way into belonging…
This episode will feel like a deep exhale.

And if you want support in being truly seen — and learning how to see yourself with clarity, compassion, and truth — I would love to meet you. You can book a free 1:1 consultation using the link in the show notes.

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/

Send us a text

In today’s episode, I sit down with my dear friend and longtime client, Natalie Lee, who is now a Vice President at Louis Vuitton and one of the calmest, most intentional leaders I know.

When we first started working together almost three years ago, Natalie was leading Asia Pacific during the pandemic, pregnant, living in Hong Kong without family support, and running on empty. On paper, she was a high-performing executive. Inside, she was overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and in her first real season of burnout.

In this intimate conversation, Natalie shares how she went from constantly “on,” checking emails late into the night, feeling guilty for taking even one yoga class… to becoming a calm, confident, and deeply empathetic leader who protects her energy, works out at 7 a.m., and leads her team with presence and clarity.

We also talk about the deeper inner work behind her transformation—how childhood experiences with her aunts were still driving her reactions at work decades later, and how understanding her patterns helped her break the cycle of burnout from the inside out.

If you’re a high-achieving woman who feels like you “should be able to handle it” but are secretly exhausted, this episode is for you.

• Coco Duan helps high-achieving women executives who secretly doubt themselves to build calm confidence and create success that feels truly fulfilling.
• I'd love to invite you to take the next step toward building your calm confidence. Book your FREE one-hour consultation call here: https://calendly.com/cocoduancoaching/1-hr-consultation
• Or email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”
• Let’s discover what’s possible for you. 💫

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/