Focused – Keeping Your Life on Track, One Choice at at Time – By Noelle Pikus Pace

I am sure most of you have heard a lot of stories about the amazing Olympic skeleton athlete Noelle Pikus Pace.  This year when the Olympics came around and I heard she was going to representing America in the Skeleton, I kept thinking, I know this girl, I totally have heard her name and been around her.  Then I remembered she went to my high school.  She was in track, and I am pretty sure she thew the Javelin the same year I did.  Although I am sure I threw it way farther than she could!! 🙂 She was a year younger than me, but we both did track.  She told my dad the other day when he was recoding her book on CD that she kind of remembered me! {I think she said that to be nice} So ya, we are tight!  There is a part in the book where she mentions Steve Revelli, our track coach, asking a group of girls if they wanted to do the Bobsled.  I remember thinking that was totally cool, and being a bit jealous, wondering why he didn’t ask me with my amazing athletic ability! It could have been me! 🙂  All kidding aside, this girl is amazing.  I remember her smile and positive attitude in school and on the track!

I am sure most of you have heard a lot of her stories, but if you want to get her whole story you have to read this book. It is amazing.  She focuses her book a lot on our choices! One of my favorite quotes in the book is “Sometimes the course we planned to take in life is altered and we are left with a single choice to make!”  She goes on to say “Where are your choices leading you? Do not allow your circumstances to dictate who you are or where you are going.  Rise above whatever holds you back, and choose to become who you want to be.”  I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept lately. Who do I want to be?  Are the choices I am making helping me become who I want to be.  I will never be a world class athlete, and this book doesn’t encourage me to be, it encourages me to keep focused on who I want to become and when life gets hard, or things get in the way it is our attitude and our choices that will get us through!

Product Description

The life lessons learned by Olympic athlete Noelle Pikus Pace can equip each of us to turn daily choices and challenges into opportunities for growth. In her warm and relatable style, Noelle shares touching personal stories and teaches how these experiences can help us keep a healthy perspective on the things that matter most. She helps us to see that though all of our goals and trials are different, we each can choose to become the best versions of ourselves one day at a time.

Covering topics from letting go of expectations and pressures to finding a healthy life balance, from standing up for ourselves to standing for righteousness, world champion Noelle Pikus Pace infuses readers with the enthusiasm and confidence to get a little closer to their goals each and every day.

She retired after the Olympics to spend more time with her family. Following a miscarriage in April of 2012, Noelle and her husband, Janson, decided that she would try one last time to earn an Olympic medal, on the condition that the family would all travel together. Competing in 32 national and international competitions over two years, Noelle finished on the podium 29 times and concluded her career by triumphantly winning the silver medal at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and jumping into the stand to share the moment with her family and the world.

Noelle earned a bachelor’s degree in 2005 and a master of business administration degree in 2007. Noelle and Janson have two children, Lacee and Traycen.