No Excuses: Unlocking Success with Noelle Pikus Pace’s Olympic Mindset

George Wright III is joined by two-time world champion and Olympic medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace to discuss her journey from skeleton racing to becoming a global speaker and author. Noelle shares the pivotal moment of her devastating 2005 injury while ranked #1 in the world and the conscious choice she made to push through rather than let the setback define her.

They talk about the importance of knowing your purpose, both lifelong and “in real time,” to ensure your identity is not solely tied to professional success. Noelle introduces the “Friction Factor” using a bell curve to illustrate the “sweet spot” of peak performance located between disengagement (too little friction) and burnout (too much friction). She also discusses being “process-oriented” rather than “results-driven,” citing how losing an Olympic medal by a 10th of a second due to dragging shoelaces taught her about the power of small margins and daily decisions.

Noelle concludes with the core message of her book, No Excuses: focusing on the next 60 seconds to take full ownership of one’s life and align daily actions with long-term purpose.

---

Episode Timeline

01:22 Getting “Tricked” into Skeleton

04:30 The 2005 Injury and the Choice to Move Forward

06:00 Identity vs. Purpose in Real Time

08:56 Choosing Your Next 60 Seconds

09:20 Writing “No Excuses” in an RV

11:00 The 2010 Fourth-Place Finish

13:00 The Shoelace Margin

15:40 Realigning for the 2014 Olympics with Family

17:15 Process-Oriented vs. Results-Driven

19:10 Winning Silver vs. Losing Gold

22:20 The Friction Factor Bell Curve

26:00 Corner 12 and Root Cause Analysis

29:45 The Power of the Next Minute

---

Episode Transcript

George Wright III: George Wright III. I’m joined in the studio today by an amazing guest—and we’re so glad we’re able to get this—Noelle Pikus Pace, how are you?  

Noelle Pikus Pace: I am so good. So good.  

George: This came together really quick, didn’t it?  

Noelle: It did.  

George: And, just from some early conversation, this is gonna be an amazing conversation. So, I wanna give a little bit of an introduction for those that may possibly not know you. And so—and before I do that, by the way, if you haven’t already, make sure you follow the podcast. We are gonna be launching some amazing episodes. We also have, um, a new release of the magazine coming out. We’ve got, uh, all kinds of content and behind-the-scenes ​[00:01:00] things, so don’t miss any of that content. Make sure that you follow the podcast, and you won’t miss any of that. 

Noelle Pikus Pace, World Champion 

Now, Noelle—you are an Olympic favorite that had a devastating injury, and then a return to the Olympics. And, you know, you’re a two-time world champion, twenty-six-time World Cup medalist. You are now a global speaker, an author, a presenter, a trainer. You have just this massive background, and we’re gonna get into a lot of detail there, but I had to start out by saying, you—in your early days, you went from running track to going headfirst down a chute at ninety miles an hour in the skeleton. So you gotta give me a little bit of that backstory and how this, like, even came to that point, because by the time we start digging into your knowledge and strategy, I feel like we might miss that.  

Noelle: Yeah. 

George: So how did this all come together?  

Why skeleton? 

Noelle: Yeah, people always ask me how I got into skeleton, headfirst, ninety miles an hour down a bobsled track, and honestly, the honest answer is I got tricked into it. [Laughter] 

George: No way.  

Noelle: I think, ​[00:02:00] I think anybody would have to— 

George: Tricked into Olympic— Okay, keep going.  

Noelle: [Laughter] So I was running track and field in high school, and my high school coach asked me to go up and try bobsledding, which seems a little safer; you’re kind of, you know, sheltered by the shell of a sled. And a year later they lost the funding for the bobsled program. They said, “Hey, uh, we’re just gonna try this new sport. Here’s a cookie sheet, lay on it, go headfirst.” And we’re like, “What are we doing?” And he’s like, “Nah, nah, it’s just gonna be, you know, like a couple weeks, just a couple weeks until we can get the bobsled funding back.” And sure enough, the bobsled funding never came back, at least not for a couple years, and so I stuck with it for fifteen years and loved it.  

The skeleton experience 

George: And for those that don’t know what the skeleton is, give them the full, like, experience.  

Noelle: Oh my goodness, you should all try it, trust me on this one. Most of you will be safe. [Laughter]  

George: [Laughter] Disclosure.  

Noelle: [Laughter] So you sprint bent over, in a bent-over position. You run about forty meters, dive headfirst onto, literally, like a little cookie-sheet sled. It weighs about sixty-five pounds, and then you fling yourself down the icy [00:03:00] side of a mountain on a bobsled-luge-skeleton track. We go ninety miles an hour; about a mile long is the length of the course, and we get down in about sixty seconds. It’s so much fun. You just hear the wind flying past you and you steer with your shoulders and knees, so you do steer. A lot of studying, a lot of anticipation at adapting to it. It’s just—it’s so much fun. 

George: So imagine going faster than you could probably normally drive, but with no protection. [Laughter] 

Noelle: [Laughter] Than you should be driving, right?  

George: [Laughter] Than you should be. Well, I mean, yeah, I probably drive that—but that is crazy. And so did you have a fear when you first, like— ’Cause you didn’t get out and just start going that— I mean—  

Noelle: No, no, you start from like a fourth of the way down, and then you go halfway down, and then you start from the top. But I think it’s like anything that we do in life; we don’t really know what we’re getting ourselves into, right? Like if we could look back and be like, “Oh my goodness,” like, “I am in this career, in this job,” or like, “I have all these kids. Would I do it if I knew all the challenges, all the struggles?” Sometimes it’s yes, and sometimes it’s like, “Ah, I’d probably rethink it,” or “Maybe I wouldn’t step forward.”  

Noelle’s Devastating Accident 

George: [00:04:00] Wow. Well, you have this amazing career, and I do want to cover some things because you have an amazing book and training, but I think there’s a lot of lessons you’ve learned. Like you had this accident in, was it 2005?  

Noelle: Yeah, yeah.  

George: This accident where you were basically ranked number one in the world. And so think about having the amount of success that you worked your lifetime for, most of the time. And then you have this accident that happened. What happened there?  

“It just changed everything” 

Noelle: Yeah. In a split moment—it was just devastating. It was really crazy how it happened when it happened, timing and everything, being ranked first in the world. The Olympics were just a couple months away, and a bobsled unexpectedly just came flying outta the track. Like, it just flew out of the track, crashed into me. I had the yellow jersey and everything, like, so excited and ready to go to the Olympics for the first time. And in a split second, my life was flipped upside down and my leg was broken, I had a rod—like my bones were sticking out and everything—and, um, it just changed everything. It changed, like, the trajectory of [00:05:00] where I was headed, how to, you know— I had a choice to make. Would I just, like, feel sorry for myself and not move forward and be like, “I guess I’m done, I guess that’s the answer, I guess this is it,” or would I push through it and find a way, make it— You know, if something’s important to us, we’re gonna find a way to make it happen, whatever that is. 

George: Yeah.  

Noelle: If it really matters to us, we’re gonna make it work, and so—so I did.  

Surviving an identity crisis 

George: So how do you—and the reason I brought that up first is because I think there’s a lot of high achievers, there’s a lot of, um, leaders that—they’ve tied their identity so much to their success, and so they have this—like you had the, I couldn’t imagine any more than, the ultimate identity crisis. 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: Because you were ranked number one, gonna win the, you know—basically positioned to win the Olympics. And then you had this happen.  

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: And we’ll get into kind of what happened after that, but how do you deal with that identity problem?  

Know Your Purpose 

Noelle: Yeah, that’s a good—that’s a great question. Uh, at the heart of it, you have to know… You have to know what your purpose is. If you don’t know what your purpose is— [00:06:00] And purpose can be layers deep, right?  

George: Yeah.  

Lifelong purpose versus purpose in real time 

Noelle: Like, we can have— We have a lifelong purpose that typically stands strong through— it withstands the test of time, but we also have what I call purpose in real time, which is, “What is my purpose today or this week or in this season of my life?” And to constantly adapt, adjust, and understand what that is—to know that, you know, your career doesn’t define who you are, it’s just a piece of the bigger picture—and really taking the time to understand that—whether you’re an athlete, or you’re a CEO, or whether you’re a janitor, it doesn’t matter who you are—but if you just understand that it’s what you’re doing and the people that you’re around, the connections you make, that that’s the bigger picture, that’s when you really find that, you know, that depth to what you’re doing. 

George: Do you think it was the challenge you had that helped you find that, or did you kind of go into it with a little bit of purpose you already had?  

“What am I doing this for?” 

Noelle: Gratefully—it hasn’t always been this way, but—I think in that season of my life, gratefully, I went into it with a little bit of that depth of knowing who I was before, [00:07:00] because I think it could have crushed me had I not known, um, had I not taken time. It was ironic, and I think meant to be in some regards, but that summer before getting hit by the bobsled, I had literally said, “Okay, Noelle, I need to figure out, like, why I’m competing. What am I doing this for?” And I sat down and wrote out a list of, like, what the purpose was. And I think if I hadn’t, then that accident, that tragedy would’ve been so much greater in my life as a whole. So taking time to reflect back is huge.  

George: Yeah. Yeah, and you know, I think it’s the way you view the obstacles, right? Like if you— if the obstacle is the way, or— 

Noelle: Yeah. 

George: —if the obstacle is the way to do it. 

Rebuilding Confidence 

So how do you rebuild your confidence? What did you do? Did you have to have an internal shift to rebuild your confidence? And maybe this is a good opportunity as we continue your story to talk about, you know, your book as well, because you had to come back from injury—but from just the mental loss of being there, how did you do that, or how do you help people to do that?  

“It all begins with a choice” 

Noelle: Yeah, that’s a great question. [00:08:00] Uh, it really— I realized that it starts with a choice. That everything that we do, every challenge we face in life, every success we reach, you know, or attain, it all begins with a choice. And that choice starts in this moment, right here. Like, we can’t control what’s happened to us. What’s happened is gone, and what’s ahead is far in the distant, but we can choose what we do with this sixty seconds ahead of us. So, we can either choose to make excuses, blame others, avoid, procrastinate, put it off, delay, please people—even people-pleasing is a form of an excuse, but—we can choose to do that, and not always do we realize it’s a choice. Sometimes we call it, like, a justified reason, right?  

George: Yeah, for sure.  

What we can do in sixty seconds 

Noelle: Or we can choose to move forward and figure out what we can do in these sixty seconds. I can choose to be grateful, I can choose to connect, I can choose to serve, I can choose to elevate. And as we take those steps, sixty seconds at a time, it gets us to where we want to be. And really, that was at the heart of me coming back from that injury, was just realizing to control what I could control, and all I can really do is what’s in my mind and my thoughts [00:09:00] and my, you know, my patterns, so…  

George: Yeah. Well, and there’s probably a lot of parallels. I’ve interviewed a lot of athletes, and that discipline, that mental discipline and the ability to kind of shift is something that comes along with sports a lot of times, and a lot of times, corporate leaders don’t have that same type of foundation. So it’s interesting that you do that.  

Noelle’s New Book 

So when did you write your book?  

Noelle: Uh, I just— it launched a few weeks ago— 

George: Yeah. 

Noelle: —so it just came out at the beginning of the year, and I wrote it all last year. Oh my gosh, you guys, like— When you want to do something, you just find a way, because I— So my husband and I— Here’s a quick backstory, George. 

George: Yeah.  

Making excuses 

Noelle: My husband and I work from home, as many of you might, and so what I realized is I had this dream, this goal, to write this book—I’ve been wanting to do it for years and years and years—and I realized I was actually making excuses as I’m writing this book called No Excuses.  

George: Yes.  

“Just find a way” 

Noelle: I’m like, “I don’t have time. My kids come home at two o’clock.” Like, I’ve still got young kids at home and in school, and they’d come home and I’d be like, “I guess I can’t write past two o’clock.” And I realized that there’s always a way to make it work out if it’s what you really want. So we parked our [00:10:00] 1999 motor home across the street at my parents’ house. They live across the street and we parked it in their drive– [Laughter]. They were so great. They let us park it, like, on the side of their house, and that became my office. Like, I just said, if there’s a way to do this, then it’s gonna happen. So I ended up just, like, moving into the RV like, from like morning until the sun set at night and just getting it done and writing. 

George: Just created the—  

Noelle: Just find the way. 

George: Made the decision to do it, right?  

Noelle: Yeah! You just find a way. 

Missing the Podium in 2010 

George: I have a bunch of questions I wanna ask you about this, but probably for those listening so they’re not hanging on the edge of their seat, let’s keep the story going for a minute, ’cause I want to come back and talk about friction, and I wanna talk about some of those things, but— Then you come back, and then you miss the podium, like in 2010, right?  

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: Tell us about that experience.  

Noelle: Ah, gosh. [Sigh] You know, when you worked— 

George: Do you love just reliving all these experiences? 

Noelle: Oh my gosh, George, you’re bringing up all these memories.  

George: [Laughter] 

Giving it one more shot 

Noelle: Holy cow. Good and bad. But you know, when you work so hard for something, you just, you put your heart and soul into it, and sometimes it goes the way you want, and most of the time it doesn’t. And when I came back after having that injury, just saying, “I’ve gotta give it [00:11:00] one more shot, I’m gonna come back.” So then going into the 2010 Games I was a mom of our daughter, she— I missed her first birthday, her first steps, her first words, it was such a sacrifice. But I became an Olympian. Like, I was like, “Yes! I’m an Olympian.” But I finished fourth. If you think that second place is the worst place, think again. 

George: Yeah.  

A relief to be done 

Noelle: Fourth place is definitely the worst spot, and I left with a smile on my face and nobody could believe it, that, you know, here’s this athlete, finished fourth place, and she’s saying, “Oh! Oh, too bad! Well, see you later!” You know, and I went, I went skipping my way off the, you know, stance, but it was because I was so burnt out and my life was so misaligned with where I really wanted— my purpose wasn’t aligned, and so once I stepped away from the sport, I was like, “Oh my gosh,” like, “It’s over, finally.” I was just, it was a relief that it was just done. Here I hit the pinnacle of my career— 

George: Yeah.  

Noelle: —the absolute ultimate of where you wanna be at the Olympic stage, and I was just…relieved that it was over.  

George: Yeah.  

Noelle: And I didn’t feel like I should have felt that way, but it was because it truly was, my purpose was just [00:12:00] misaligned. 

Missing the podium by a tenth of a second 

George: Well, it’s interesting because you mentioned a couple things I really wanted to highlight. One is, missing a medal by a tenth of a second. Like, how often in life is…is it that close, right? It’s— and sometimes we don’t realize we’re that close, that we’re missing where we’re trying to go, and then also, you know, you probably—I don’t know, did you go into it thinking, “I just wanna make it to the Olympics,” or did you— do we all go into it thinking we want the gold, and so how do you deal with that as well— 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: —’cause you had a little bit of loss, so I’m curious what you would have to say about that. Missing it by a tenth of a second. Like, I mean, that is so…small, like…the little things, right?  

It’s all about the little things 

Noelle: Oh, the little things. The little things, the margins, you know? It’s all about margins, it’s all about the little things we do each day. I think oftentimes we think that our legacy, like if we think about a legacy, our legacy is built on this one big, impactful moment, and that’s who I am and that’s what I stood for. But what we don’t realize, it’s actually those little things we’re doing every single day that are, you know, filling that little pot of water. And that’s what we’re gonna walk away with when all is said and [00:13:00] done at the end of our life. And so it really is about the little things. And when I went back to look at that race, I realized it was a little thing. My shoelaces were dragging the entire way down.  

George: Oh no.  

Noelle: The track—a milelong track— We’re an aerodynamic sport, precision-based. And when I went back—I didn’t have the heart to do it immediately after—but months later I went back and looked at the video, the film, and I could see like my every other competitor in medal contention had zippers hiding their exposed shoelaces, hiding the tongue of their shoe, and mine was wide open, catching air. And when I told my coach, Mike, “Could this have done it? Could it really have been this simple? Could my shoelaces have cost me an Olympic medal?” And he looked at it and he said, “Oh my goodness, Noelle. Yes, absolutely.” 

George: Wow.  

Noelle: And I think it’s— 

George: So you wouldn’t have even thought of, like actually, right? 

Noelle Realigns Her Purpose 

Noelle: Something I would’ve never thought of. No, and I think it happens more in our lives than we recognize when we—especially when we don’t take time to say, “How am I doing today?” Like, “What went well today? What didn’t go so well today? How can I be a little better?” And if we’re not constantly checking in with ourselves, [00:14:00] that’s when we get put off on the wrong path, that we’re, you know, we look back and we say, “How did I end up here?” It was just those little decisions.  

George: Wow. Well, so, then you stepped away.  

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: You started a family and you were realigning, basically— 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: —is what you’re saying, right?  

Noelle: Yeah, absolutely.  

George: So tell us what happened next, ’cause really the, you know, achievement setback, achievement setback was nothing compared to, like, what happened next. So you decided to go again, like— 

Noelle: Yeah. [Laughter] 

George: Like, you took time off. So how long did you take off? 

Noelle: What was I thinking, George? What was I thinking? 

George: And then—yeah, you were just, you were definitely committed to it, right? 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: So what happened? What— So you felt like you got back in alignment, and what did that mean? Was it balancing family, or was it you personally, your purpose, passion, what was it?  

“Let’s do this together as a family” 

Noelle: Yeah, it was a little bit of each of those. Going for the— So to backtrack just a titch, going into the 2006 Olympics when I got hit but I was, like, first in the world, it was very much an “I want to go to the Olympics, I need to do this, I want to achieve this.” Very much a, you know, a self-promoting type of thing, I think. And then going into the 2010 Olympics, it was just [00:15:00] like chaos and survival mode and just trying to make it there. So my purpose was still a little misaligned. And going back to 2014, after having our second child, and then my husband, he designed and built my sled—my husband, Janson, did—we said, “Let’s do this together as a family.” I was torn. When I would get on an airplane and go compete, I felt like I just didn’t have… My life wasn’t balanced. It just wasn’t, it was a mess. When I was at home, I wanted to be— I thought I should be out—you know the should-bes, need–to–bes—out competing, working. I’m not doing enough to work. And when I was out, like, working, I felt like I needed to be home. I wasn’t spending enough time with the family.  

George: Challenge for, like, most leaders and business individuals, right?  

Sacrifice and communication 

Noelle: Oh, yes! It is tough. It is real. And once I could realize how to bring them along on this journey, align both of our purposes, my husband and myself and our family, and say, “Okay, this is what we’re going for. Are we all in on this sacrifice?” and have these conversations, these tough conversations too, it was magical [00:16:00] when we all came together to reach this goal in 2014. That purpose was very much aligned.  

George: So walk us through how it felt, what you did, what happened.  

Noelle: Oh, gosh. It was so good. [Laughter] 

George: Because we had to relive the other parts, now let’s relive the best part, ’cause this is the epitome of what’s happening, so—  

Noelle: The pinnacle, right?  

George: The pinnacle, let’s go with that. 

Letting go of control 

Noelle: Yeah, so after traveling in and out of hotel rooms, in and out of countries, in and out of airports with my husband, myself, our two young kids—they were ages six and two—and we reached it in Sochi, Russia. That’s where the Olympics were in 2014. I just remember standing there for my fourth and final run, standing with my sled, holding on to my sled at that starting line, and just being able to, like…let go of all that control. Along the way I had let go of needing to control situations, needing to control outcomes, and once we can let ourselves let go of the, like, that just sheer need and necessity to control those outcomes, I could just say, all I can do [00:17:00] is focus on what’s next. What’s right in front of me, the corner right in front of me—  

George: Yeah. 

Noelle: —the step that I’m gonna take right now. And something that my coach—a wise, wise coach—he would constantly tell our team is to be process-oriented and results-driven.  

George: Mm-hmm.  

Focus on what’s right in front of you 

Noelle: So instead of focusing so much on the outcome and that podium and standing there with that medal around the neck, we were taught to focus on what we could control in that next step ahead of us, in that next corner ahead of us, the next sixty seconds ahead of us. And once I could truly learn to do that, it just came together because I was giving my absolute best in the moment.  

George: Yeah. 

An Olympic Comeback 

Noelle: And the excuses went away because I took complete ownership of where I was. And when I crossed the finish line, being able to look up into the stands and see my family there and see that I had just earned an Olympic medal for our country and for all that we’d done, I just jumped up into the stands and— 

George: I was gonna say, you literally— 

Noelle: It was so fun. [Laughter] 

George: —looked up in the stands, you jumped up into the stands, right?  

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: This was— But that just showed the level of emotion and commitment [00:18:00] and comeback. 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: Like, literally, what a comeback story, you know—tragedy, coming back, you know, place to win the Olympics, come back, falling short, come back again, raise a family, get aligned, purpose—but it’s such a great story overall of alignment, commitment, no excuses, which obviously this whole thing is what leads you to the book. But you also made another comment I thought was interesting. You said, “I didn’t lose gold.” Right? 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: You won silver. So, what did you mean when you say that?  

Noelle: Oh, wow.  

George: Because it’s so much deeper meaning than that, than just like, “Yeah, I didn’t win gold, I won silver,” right?  

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: But you didn’t lose gold, right? 

The importance of defining success for yourself 

Noelle: And I think all of us struggle with that from time to time. The comparison game, or taking on what the world’s expectations are of what we feel like the world is expecting of us, or what success means to someone else. Before I competed, before I set my sled down on that starting line in Sochi, Russia, I’m so grateful that I defined success for myself.  

George: Yes.  

Do today’s best 

Noelle: So before I even pushed off that starting line, [00:19:00] I knew that success would not be defined by a color of a medal or by someone else’s interview or their words or what they said. It was defined by the effort that I’d put into it, the preparation that I had given. I had given my absolute best, and if that meant fourth place again, I had to give myself a pat on the back and say that was the best I absolutely could have given today. Who knows what tomorrow could have brought, but today that is the best that I could give. And so giving yourself credit even when you fall short of those ROIs or whatever it is that you’re, you know, hoping to achieve, if it’s the best that your team can give or that you can give as a parent, when you’re giving your best, give yourself some credit.  

George: Yeah, I love the things you said about that. There’s so many things. I wish we had more time because you talked about, you know, really being process-driven, not result-driven, ’cause most entrepreneurs, business owners, even people in life, they have a picture of what they think needs to happen, and if it doesn’t happen—and they might be winning along the way, and they might have an amazing family and everything else—but they still don’t feel like a winner because they’re so focused on the result. 

Noelle: Mm-hmm.  

George: [00:20:00] Right?  

Noelle: Mm-hmm.  

George: And so I think that that is, that is a huge, huge piece of it. And I think that, you know, you have to define success for yourself ahead of time. I really love that. How do you—  

No Excuses 

So let’s now talk for a second about the book, because that is such an amazing story and you’ve learned so many lessons and they go so deep. You decided to write this book and pull all of your experiences into it, so give us kind of the core of what the book is about, because it’s pretty obvious— 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: —no, no, no excuses, and you’ve got some amazing stories in it, but talk to us a little bit because you said something earlier that I really liked, which is this topic of friction.  

Noelle: Mm-hmm.  

George: Which, if you remember when we talked about that with the shoelaces, right? So when you talk about friction— And maybe we can talk about the book in terms of people that are in business or life or things like that right now, help us to understand the purpose behind and the real core message behind your book. 

Take ownership of your life 

Noelle: Okay, yeah. Yeah, so the core message behind my book, No Excuses, is to help us to take ownership of our life. Just be [00:21:00] fully accountable, whether we make mistakes or whether it’s, you know, doing something well—um, whatever it is, but just to take full ownership and to recognize that we have the power within ourselves to become whoever we want to be, to live the life that you actually wanna live. So many times I’d have conversations and they’d say, “Ah, someday I’ll get to that.”  

George: Yeah. Yeah. 

Noelle: Or like, “I wish I could do that,” or things like that. And so I wrote this book for each of us, and for myself; I’ve learned so much on what excuses really are, on blaming, avoiding justifying. If you procrastinate, a lot of times that falls into that excuse category.  

George: Yes. 

The gap between inaction and action 

Noelle: Between inaction and action, like between an intention, what we plan to do, what we hope to do, and actually taking action. That middle gap is where excuses tend to land, and it’s just holding us back from becoming the person that we want to become. 

George: I love it because, um, so I’ve done a lot of work around the world with a lot of thought leaders, and that common theme of “You can have reasons, or you can have results,” “You can have excuses, or you can have results,” [00:22:00] right? [Laughter] 

Noelle: Mm-hmm. Yes, yes. 

The Friction Factor 

George: But you talk about friction, so I do wanna kind of hear your thoughts on that. It’s not just kind of a play on words because you experienced losing and winning and things around friction. How does friction play in business? How does it play in life?  

Noelle: Yeah. So I love talking about what’s called the friction factor.  

George: Okay.  

Noelle: And so what the friction factor is, is it’s the resistance that we feel in our lives, right? Like we’re constantly feeling this tension or this overwhelm or burnout. And if we can just go back to the friction factor and understand— So something here, I’m gonna backtrack just a titch.  

George: Okay.  

Noelle: I love a bell curve. I love a good— who doesn’t love a good bell curve, right?  

George: Yeah. Right. Exactly.  

Disengagement can signal a lack of friction 

Noelle: And so on one end of the bell curve, it shows how when we have too little friction in our lives, when our team has too little friction, when an individual does, whoever it is, we become disengaged. We fall into our comfort zone.  

George: Yeah, comfort.  

Noelle: We just, we’re just too comfortable. We become dreamers. Like if we, even if we have all the willpower in the world, we have all the motivation but we have just no reason to move us forward, like there’s no deadline to get there, or nothing—like if you wanna get [00:23:00] stronger in the gym but you don’t have a competition or a race or something to push toward or a hike that you wanna do—like, you’re just not gonna, it’s not gonna get you outta bed in the morning necessarily. And on the other end of this bell curve is too much friction.  

George: Too much.  

Burnout can signal too much friction 

Noelle: Overwhelm, burnout. You have too much on your plate and you need to take a step back. And we’re— That’s where excuses show up. So excuses are gonna show up on both sides of this bell curve and the happy place is right in the middle. That’s where ownership is. When we can say, “I own my mistakes.” You’re apologizing first. You’re having a hard conversation. You’re painting that wall that you’ve been walking past for a year or two or more in your kitchen that’s just been, you know, messed up for a while.  

George: Yeah.  

Noelle: So you’re just taking action and doing the hard thing that needs to be done. 

Find the sweet spot 

George: It’s interesting, ’cause that does play into business and everything, ’cause I think if there’s no accountability and there’s no friction, right, people are just coasting through life, but you know, they’re not happy when they’re doing that. And on the other end, if you do have too much, you’re not happy either. You’re completely burned out, there’s no balance or anything. And so not only do you want that sweet spot, but it really is where, [00:24:00] you know, your most success is. 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: And your most fulfillment, right?  

Noelle: Yeah. Absolutely.  

George: And so how do you—if somebody is, let’s just say somebody’s on, because you train leaders and you work with businesses all around the world—what do you do? What do you find more often? Do you find more often that they’re coasting, or do you find more often that you’re dealing with burnout, because I don’t know who specifically you’re working more with, and you probably get a mix of both if you’re working with companies, but where do you find most people are sitting?  

Noelle: Most people— 

George: Because this right now, digital overwhelm— 

Noelle: Yeah.  

George: —things that are going crazy, it’s like, oh my goodness. You can’t even keep up.  

Noelle: Mm-hmm.  

George: And people are just feeling burned out, and yet some people might feel like they don’t have a shot, so— 

Finding the True Source of Your Burnout 

Noelle: No, I find that most people are feeling the burnout. They’re feeling the overwhelm, they’re feeling like there’s just not enough time in their schedule, there’s not enough— The energy, they don’t have enough energy, they’re tired. Uh, there’s just too much on their plates. And so something that leaders can do is really just take a step back. So one of the, one of the lessons that I learned early on in my career came as I was going down the track in Park City, Utah, and I kept crashing in corner twelve. [00:25:00] I just kept crashing, I kept getting hit, I kept ending with, like, a bloody and bruised arm, and I got mad at corner twelve. I’d just go up to my coach and say, “Oh my gosh, I cannot figure out corner twelve.” It hurt so bad. And my coach stopped for a second very wisely, and he said, “Huh, that’s interesting.” He’s like, “Okay, so tell me what’s going on. What happened in corner eleven?” And I’m like, “Oh, that was a disaster,” and he’s like, “Okay. What about corner ten?” And he worked his way back up, and then he’s like, he’s just totally calm, and like— 

George: Yeah, yeah, yeah.  

“The problem was actually starting in corner four” 

Noelle: —expecting me to get hurt in corner twelve. And he’s like, “Okay, so what are you doing in corner six and five and four?” And we realized the problem was actually starting in corner four.  

George: Really?  

Noelle: And he’s like, “There’s your problem. It’s actually not corner twelve. You’re feeling the pain in corner twelve. But your mistake is actually happening in corner four.”  

George: Ah. 

Noelle: And that happens in our lives where we feel the pain of the overwhelm, the exhaustion, the burnout, because our to-do list is like a mile long, and the projects just keep piling up. And a lot of times what the problem is, is that we’re saying yes to too many things. Or maybe the problem is that we find ourselves scrolling at night, and so we’re losing our bedtime routine, so then our morning routine [00:26:00] is completely thrown off. So we’re blaming our morning routine for not getting out the door and getting exercise and having time to meditate or whatever, but it actually starts in corner four, which is your bedtime routine and putting that phone down, setting it— 

George: Wow.  

Noelle: —in a different room, outside of your bedroom. You know? 

Step back and decide what matters most 

George: Yeah. It’s interesting you say that because I think you’re right. I think most people that are dealing with problems in their life right now, it’s not the actual problem they’re dealing with. And you said two other things I wanna point out for our listeners. One is you said we had to step back, and I think that’s one of the things that Franklin Planner talks a lot about is, like, what matters most. Go back and create some alignment, figure out what is most important, because you’re so caught up in the forest you can’t see the trees, right? And then you also said you went to your coach. And so it’s interesting, ’cause I think a lot of people that are dealing with things, they just won’t…a lot of times can’t see the forest through the trees themselves. And so whether it’s stepping back and being intentional or whether it’s having that coach, mentor, mastermind, friend, whoever it is that can help you to look at it, takes a little bit of humility.  

Noelle: [00:27:00] Absolutely.  

George: You know, athletes there, again, have that structure, and most people in business don’t, they don’t want anybody to know, it’s—you know, it’s Brené Brown, it’s vulnerability and things like this, right? They don’t want to point out their problem— 

Noelle: Yeah. 

George: —and get help. And so do you find that when you’re working with businesses that you can go in and teach these things, but unless they’re willing to open up and actually be authentic—  

Noelle: Oh—  

George: —you’re never gonna solve the problem— 

Noelle: Hundred percent.  

George: —’cause you couldn’t from the surface even solve the problem.  

Vulnerability and humility are key 

Noelle: No. No, absolutely. And vulnerability is key in learning and growth, and humility has to be at the forefront of it, because if we’re too prideful, we’re not gonna see anything. No matter how much we’re told, no matter how much we want to change, if we can’t have that humility alongside us, then we’re just gonna stay stuck.  

George: And trust, probably, right? 

Noelle: Trust. Oh, yeah.  

George: Like a huge thing. I just, uh—John and I just did an episode last week on the power of trust with your stakeholders and things like that. That’s probably— So these terms are— it’s funny, ’cause authenticity and trust and vulnerability is like all the taboo stuff nobody ever wanted to have anything to do with, but they’re so burned out now, they’re like, “Maybe we’ll listen,”right? 

Noelle: [Laughter] Hopefully.  

Final Thoughts 

George: [00:28:00] Um, alright, so last thing, and I wish we had a ton more time, but I wanted to ask you, so how— where do you go now? There’s a lot of people out there that have had success in life, and they’re trying to think, “Okay, now where do I go?” Or even failures, whatever, but what’s the next level for you and are you still finding ways to motivate yourself and go to the next level? What is it that you’re pursuing now?  

The importance of continuous learning 

Noelle: Yeah, absolutely. I think the second that we stop wanting to learn and wanting to grow, we’re just— that’s when we’re gonna feel like, “Oh my gosh, like, what’s the purpose?” You know, you just, you get stuck in life. And I think there’s so much power that comes in hoping and planning and setting goals for the future, and just— I love creating a bucket list, like—and not just, like, the swimming with sharks kind, but it’s more of like the people I want to help or the books I want to write or the things I want to learn, even if it’s something as silly as learning how to juggle or learning how to play a musical instrument called the kalimba, like, or learning constellations. I think the more that we can get out there [00:29:00] and expand our learning and personal growth— 

George: Yeah. 

Noelle: —the more that we’re gonna find that fulfillment and be able to bless the lives of others as well. 

George: Yeah, I think, um, your message about falling in love with the process—well, when you fall in love with the process, you’re just gonna always be part of the process, right? And lifelong learning, I love that as well. So what is the message that you hope most people—if you had one message you want people to take away from, whether they’re listening to you speak or read your book and things like this, is there a core message—and maybe there’s more than one, but—is there a core message you want people to take away from your story or your life? 

The next sixty seconds matter 

Noelle: Yeah, it’s a great question. If I had one message to share, it’s that…it’s that the next sixty seconds matter. The sixty seconds right now, in front of us, right where you are, whatever you’re doing, they matter. Whether that means taking sixty seconds to text someone and tell them that you appreciate them. Maybe it’s taking sixty seconds to set up that doctor’s appointment because your back has been hurting for so long and you just don’t even know where to start. [00:30:00] Maybe at sixty seconds to just go move the mulch from your garage to your backyard. Like, just take that sixty seconds to get the thing done that has been nagging at you and bothering you and holding you back from progressing forward. So sixty seconds is all it took for me to start my Olympic run and to cross that finish line, and I’ve just learned there’s so much power in the next sixty seconds.  

George: I love that. And really it’s the only thing you have control over that you can do something about, so what a great message. So, you know, listen, if you’re listening to this episode and, you know, either you feel discouraged, or you’re winning and you’re trying to go to the next level, or you’re feeling burned out, I mean, I think that’s great advice for no matter who it is, so— I appreciate you joining us. How can people connect with you? Where’s the best place to connect with you? 

Noelle: Uh, check out my website, noellepikuspace.com. I would love to hear from you, or on social media, Instagram. Noellepikuspace.com or @noellepikuspace or LinkedIn.  

George: Okay. Great. 

Noelle: Any social media. It’s just my name. [Laughter] 

George: Yeah, yeah, it’s—I mean, that’s easy to do. So I’ll put the links in the show notes, and I wanna remind everybody, if you’ve got something [00:31:00] from this episode, whether it’s for yourself or not, share the message. We really want you to share that, but we also wanna hear from you. So hit us up, let us know what we can do to support you. You know, I always say this at the end of our episodes because I do believe it’s never too late to start living the life that you’re meant to live, but you do need to align, and you do need to step back, you do need to take time. And especially with Franklin Planner, it’s our core message. We want you to learn to lead your life. And if you do it in the next sixty seconds, that helps, but I think it’s about being intentional. And so, if you do that, I know that you’ll be making progress, and we hope to talk with you real soon. So thanks again, and thanks, Noelle, for being here with us. 

Noelle: Thanks, George, I appreciate it. 

George: All right. Have a great day.  

---

Thank you for joining us on this Journey to create your best life and to lead your Life and Teams. Please share this show, and we look forward to the journey we will take together.

The Franklin Planner Team

About the Guest: Noelle Pikus-Pace

Noelle Pikus-Pace is a retired American skeleton racer and one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the sport. Beyond her medals, she is widely recognized for her extraordinary resilience and the “Moment of the Games” celebration with her family at the 2014 Olympics.

Guest Resources:

Official Website: https://www.noellepikuspace.com/

Instagram: @noellepikuspace

LinkedIn: Noelle Pikus Pace

Facebook: Noelle Pikus Pace