22
" Consider the Pause like a stop sign. It doesn’t mean you stop forever. You stop, look around to increase your awareness of your surroundings, and proceed when it’s safe to do so.
Do you ever approach a stop sign, think, I can’t stop! I’m too busy! and drive right through? Of course not, because stopping takes less time than an accident or getting pulled over. And just as you might be able to fix your car, you might be able to fix the mess you made by not stopping first. But wouldn’t it be easier to have skipped the mess in the first place?
Is there a low-traffic intersection that you drive through every day? For that, a quick stop might suffice. However, in more challenging situations—for example, how do roundabouts even work?—you might need more time to decide what to do. "
― Darcy Luoma , Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success
25
" You know about taking action. We all do a lot. Say a lot, type a lot, read a lot, scroll a lot. But the key to this third step in your Thoughtfully Fit core is to Act—you guessed it—thoughtfully. The goal is to Act with greater intention, following careful consideration—to have the action be a result of a more deliberative process, not your first instinct or knee-jerk reaction.
Whatever you decide to do might be hard, but as a result of the Pause and Think, you can have clarity and commitment. And, in some cases, the Act is intentionally not doing or saying something, but choosing to self-manage. "
― Darcy Luoma , Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success
29
" My daughter Josie was nine years old when she played basketball for the first time. She’d get the ball and hold it and pivot to the right, to the left, back to the right, but seemed paralyzed by indecision. She would think and think and think about what to do—pass or shoot—but never act. At some point, you have to take the shot.
Where in your life do you pivot and pivot, but never take the shot?
Maybe you need to have a tough conversation, and you’ve thought about it over and over again. You’ve identified how to start the conversation, and you’ve worked through all your talking points. But when you think you’re ready, you pivot. You decide that the situation isn’t so bad after all. You’re too afraid to have that conversation. What if I miss the shot? What if the ball is intercepted? What if the conversation doesn’t go well?
After you Pause and Think, you must Act. This is what will help you overcome obstacles and create the turning point. When you don’t Act, you don’t make progress.
Research on the highest-performing teams shows it’s better for leaders to make a decision and act quickly rather than wait until all circumstances are perfect. "
― Darcy Luoma , Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success
38
" After decades of coaching, consulting, and supervising hundreds of coaches with clients, I’ve identified six main types of problems people face in any organization. If you prepare to deal with these six, not only will you solve them faster, but you’ll start to prevent them from happening in the first place. And when you know how to handle these common people problems, you’ll be better equipped to handle any outliers—and you’ll have the capability to take on even larger, unexpected challenges.
Here are the top six challenges people bring to coaching:
I have so much to do, I can’t even think!
I don’t always handle myself the way I’d like.
I feel stuck and have no idea how to move forward.
I get annoyed when people don’t do what I want them to do.
People push my buttons, and I lose it!
My boss/partner/child/parent/friend/coworker/pet/neighbor is driving me crazy! (In other words, it’s not me—it’s you.)
Which of these six challenges do you identify with? We all have struggles in our life. Heck, some of us will encounter all six of these in any given week! "
― Darcy Luoma , Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success
40
" We hear all the time about how important it is to be physically fit. Our society has become ultra-focused on fitness and health. Our Facebook feeds are filled with seven-minute workouts. There are YouTube videos galore on seven days to rock-hard abs. The radio plays ads to lose ten pounds in ten days, but only if you call in the next ten minutes.
Even the president told us to be physically fit. Remember the Presidential Physical Fitness Test in elementary school? A quick shuttle run, the dreaded flexed arm hang. It tested strength, endurance, flexibility, and agility. All different ways to prove we were physically fit. Or not.
As a matter of fact, Americans now spend more on fitness than on college tuition.1 Over a lifetime, the average American spends more than $100,000 on things like gym memberships, supplements, exercise equipment, and personal training.2 Seems shocking, right?
But where are the training programs for the thoughts in your head? Those thoughts that tell you that you have no choices when bad things happen. Those thoughts that try to convince you everything is out of your control in difficult situations. Where do you go if you want to be Thoughtfully Fit?
Right here in this book. "
― Darcy Luoma , Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success