Pause Quotes

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
― Mark Twain

“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)”
― Rollo May, The Courage to Create

“I’ve always thought you should be able to freeze time. This way you could hit the Pause button at a really good point in your life so that nothing changes”
― Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe

“Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you're about to react harshly and you'll avoid doing and saying things you'll later regret.”
― Lori Deschene

“If this were a game, he could hit pause. He could restart, say different things, the right ones this time. He could search his inventory for the item that would make Sadie not leave.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“O yes youwl want to think on that you dont want your mouf to walk you where your feet dont want to go.”
― Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker

“Is there a panic button I can hit? Or better yet, a button that will pause this whole scene while I figure out how I want to play it?
But no. That's not how it works in real life.”
― Catherine McKenzie, Forgotten

“A pause; it endured horribly.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“The menopause of Sarah became her menostart; this is feminine beauty! The death plot against Mordecai became his life spring; this is masculine beauty! A kind of life lived in God's word is a life of miraculous beauty!”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“He repeated it carefully, pausing for effect. " 'Love is the only rational act.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

“This morning I stopped to watch the geese fly, even though I didn’t have the time to do so. And I realized that not having the time to do something might be the very reason why I need to do it.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“When you feel the pressure to respond.. know that it’s not the right moment to respond.. pull back and pause, reflect, re-think .. most of the mistakes are made on impulse”
― Jaya Bhateja

“In panic it’s time to take stock and look at the virus within us, a virus addicted to hurry, busy.”
― Shaneen Clarke, The Lord of the Silence: Experiencing Intimacy With God In This Fast-Paced World

“When you’re attacked in a negotiation, pause and avoid angry emotional reactions. Instead, ask your counterpart a calibrated question.”
― Kerry Patterson, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

“Life is not what we’re chasing. Life is what we’re leaving behind in the chasing.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“The key is to do all three steps in order. And repeat as necessary.
When you encounter a hurdle, Pause.
Give yourself time to Think:
What do I control? What are my choices?
After you choose your response, Act . . . thoughtfully.
Acting without Thinking isn’t good, but Thinking without Acting isn’t much better.”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“Always return to engaging your core, because you’ll need a strong core for all six Thoughtfully Fit practices. I’ll give you a strategy to build your core confidence, which you can use in any situation. It’s deceptively simple in concept and powerful in practice.
The core of being Thoughtfully Fit is three steps: Pause. Think. Act”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“Agility is about handling the curveballs life pitches at us. It’s being able to respond quickly when you’re caught off guard. When you engage your core to Pause and Think, you can Act by responding thoughtfully when you’re blindsided, instead of reacting instinctually.”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“When you learn to ride a bike, ice skate, or downhill ski, the first thing you’re taught is how to stop. It’s an essential skill because if things start heading the wrong direction, you can stop and limit the damage. This same skill is necessary with conversations that have the potential to go off the rails and create lasting damage. When someone blindsides you and says something that triggers you, find the brakes, so you can hit that Pause button.
This can be tricky because, by nature, we often aren’t patient communicators. We expect responses right away and feel compelled to offer the same. I’m inviting you to challenge that and request a little time to gather your thoughts. It can happen faster than you think, so I advise my clients to make simple requests that allow them to Pause. Some examples include:
• Let me catch my breath here.
• Can we find a place to sit down to talk about this?
• Give me a moment to close my door.
• Let me go to the bathroom/let the dog out/fill my coffee, and then I will give you my undivided attention.
The truth is, your brain needs time to overcome some of your initial reactions and access other choices.”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“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

“Some people are good at taking a Pause to put the strategy together, identify all the things there are to Think of, and make contingency plans. But when it comes to actually executing, there’s a block. Before I take this step, did I think through everything that could possibly go wrong?
More Pausing. More Thinking. More analysis.
They get paralyzed in the details. They Pause too long. They Think too much. And they never take any Action.
Maybe you can relate to this? You want everything to be just right before you move forward.
Or maybe you have the opposite problem—you Act hastily without Pausing or Thinking at all! That’s what one client told me recently: “Darcy, I realized that I do it backward. I Act, and then I Pause and Think, Ew, I shouldn’t have done that!”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“Many of us tell ourselves a story that we don’t have time for Stillness. That there’s so much to do at work and at home that we can’t make space for mental breaks. However, you need breaks. Imagine if you finished a hard workout, and immediately afterward you told yourself you had to do another hour of intense exercise. That would be crazy, right? You would insist on a break to catch your breath, drink some water, and slow your heart rate.
Just like your body, your mind needs time to relax and recover. If you ask it to keep going at top speed all day and into the evening, eventually you’re not going to be productive.”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“Agility asks us to override our knee-jerk tendency to fire back, to get angry, and to defend ourselves. When you work your core in Agility, you Pause, Think about what you want or need in the situation, and try to identify a more thoughtful and intentional course of Action. With practice, you can have the knee-jerk reactions without the jerk!”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“If you don’t stop to take in the beauty around you, you will likewise miss the beauty within you.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“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

“Pause don’t panic- Whatever you are facing, be it a personal problem or pandemic, ask yourself, Is this really going to matter a year from now?”
― Shaneen Clarke, The Lord of the Silence: Experiencing Intimacy With God In This Fast-Paced World

“Let’s face it: we judge. We all do. It’s part of our humanity. We might never say anything aloud, but we judge, or at the least, we wish others would be different or act differently. Admit it: when you’re at the grocery store, are you secretly looking at someone else’s cart and thinking, Ooh, don’t you know diet soda will kill you? Gosh, that’s loaded with carbs.
When you experience or observe behavior you don’t like, Pause and Think by asking yourself: Is this in my control? Is this any of my business?
When it’s not your business and/or not in your control, you need to Act by practicing Flexibility.”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“By pausing, if only for a few seconds and taking a few slow, deep breaths, we can begin to slow down our heart rate and relax our tensed muscles. We can then focus more effectively on what response will best advance our interests.”
― William Ury, The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes

“Peace is not a cause,
Peace is a pause -
Pause in hate and greed,
Pause in gain and loss.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Time is a constant force, like two poles connected by an elastic string. Taking a pause in life is like stretching that string, gathering energy to propel us forward with greater force and speed.”
― Supratim Das