The Power of Cultivating Patience in an Impatient World David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Have we lost the capacity to be patient? Netflix isn't loading. Where's the Amazon same-day delivery? How come we haven't been seated or served yet? Things have sped up and become increasingly efficient, to the delight of most of us, and it has rewired our nervous systems toward speed and near-instant gratification, at the cost of patience. We've seen it in ourselves and our children

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Last week you may have taken the quiz to identify your childhood strategy, a fancy way of describing how you, as a kid, went about getting the love and attention you needed from your parents. Haven't taken it yet? You can Take the Quiz before reading on, so you have your own strategy in mind as you read. This week, as promised, I'm decoding one with a real example: mine. While these strategies are impressive in how they develop and how

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Identifying your childhood strategy is an exciting starting point in your personal development journey. It identifies a key aspect of your personality that was formed early in life, principally developed by a child to ensure he or she receives both love and attention from their parents. It is incredibly effective during childhood. Where we get into trouble is when we keep the same strategy into our adult years, and something that worked a

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Most meetings go sideways before anyone speaks a word, not because the agenda is weak, but because no one decided what "good" actually feels like when it's over. Here's a simple shift that changes that: pairing your meeting's outcome with a specific emotional intention. When intentions are tied to emotion, and when you're emotionally invested in a goal, you're significantly more likely to achieve it. The idea is to complement the agenda a

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Your Endo Quiz Results, Decoded Last week I put a quiz in front of you, Running the practice...or is it running you? Nine questions on culture, retention, hard conversations, and whether you've got someone to think out loud with. If you took it, you already have a rough read on where you land. Mostly A's: You're Leading, Not Just Managing. You're not in crisis, you're in maintenance. The work here isn't rescue, it's sharpening: tighten

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach This isn't another systems audit. It's about the human side of leading: your culture, retention, how the hard conversations go, and having someone to bounce your vision off of. Take 2 minutes. There are no wrong answers, only insight. Want more info? Read up on our Endo Executive Coaching program. How would you rate the current culture of your practice? A) Energized, loyal, and values-aligned B) Decent, but there's friction or quiet res

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Most people carry guilt like a stone on their chest. Learning to tell them apart is one of the most liberating things we can do. In coaching, guilt comes up frequently with clients seeking to feel more peaceful inside and more comfortable in their own skin and relationships. One of the first things we explore together are the two types of guilt. It comes as a relief when they begin operating with this distinction. Most arrive believing th

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach The fastest path to change is the one that feels the slowest. I'm slower now. Partly age, partly wisdom. When I want real change in my personal development, the approach has to be counter-intuitive: go slower. Most people, myself included, respond to wanting more by adding more. More activities, more commitments, more drive. It doesn't work. I've seen it fail in my own life and in the lives of every client I've worked with. Think about th

It is easy to label ourselves but how many go a step further to understand that label? Take this quiz to garner valuable insights into why you are perpetually late or to better understand why others are late. The keys revealed here may surprise you. Read more on lateness in my prior blog. This quiz is designed to help you identify the underlying reasons behind chronic lateness. By understanding your specific challenges, you can take steps to address them and improve your punc

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Procrastination isn't a character flaw. It's a signal worth exploring. Summer has a way of making certain things more visible. The longer days, the slower pace, a rare exhale after a packed spring. And sometimes, sitting quietly in that space, the list appears. Not the work tasks. The other list. The one that hasn't moved in months. I know this one personally. I've written about procrastination before and I'll say again what I've come t

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Naming your overwhelm is the first step toward making it smaller. When I say I'm overwhelmed, it tends to be broad and non-specific, as if a big wave has knocked me down and I'm simply eager to find dry shoreline, rest, and catch my breath. Survival mode. It's an unpleasant and tense place to be, in both mind and body. I've done my own work on overwhelm through coaching. But it was at a weeklong retreat that I witnessed several men de

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Most of us have either given it or been on the receiving end of it. Silence. Tension precedes it, and it culminates in the silent treatment. I was good at this. I could deploy the silence, the iciness, the emotional withdrawal to make a point I couldn't make with words. I could list all the ways I help clients work through it, but why not stick to my own experience and pull back the curtain? It's a vicious thing to do to another person, a

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach This question gained serious traction with the male participants at our recent annual Love Retreat. I asked it simply: are you a man of your word? You'd think the answer would come easily. It doesn't. I'm not talking about honoring your work commitments, showing up on time, or paying your employees every two weeks. Not insurance premiums or car payments. Those all share one thing in common: structure. When structure is present, keeping yo

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach The Home You Grew Up In Taught You Something. Is It Still Working? There are always moments of joy in my work with coaching clients. Then there are the nuggets. When a client declares an insight that cuts right through. His came mid-session: "Me being reactive is part of the problem." It landed hard in the way something true does. We had been exploring the turmoil at his dental practice. Yes, the employees are a factor. Insurance is a

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach A Warmhearted Report from our Participants Couples come to our annual Love Retreat for many different reasons. Some are simply curious about how to deepen an already strong relationship. Others are looking for new tools to communicate better or bring more connection and vitality into their partnership. And sometimes one partner hears about the retreat first and invites the other to join them in exploring something new together. Save the

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach Boundaries without values are hollow constructions. Most of us have heard it in therapy, in coaching, from a friend over coffee: "You need to set better boundaries." I've fumbled with this one myself and spent years exploring it, both personally and with clients. I was a man with almost no boundaries. It showed up as anger — sudden, uncomfortable, relationship-straining anger. Nobody wants to be around that. So, I started digging into my

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach When Everything Is Good and You're Still Waiting for It to Fall Apart I've said it myself. I hear it from clients regularly. Everything is going well in relationships, family, business, and yet when describing what's good, many add reflexively: "But I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop." Or its companion phrase: "How long can this last?" It's a pessimism many of us build into our outlook. A hedge. A guard against something we can't see

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach "Track Day in my Evo 9" "I love it when you are in your purpose." Hearing that from my wife felt great. Here's what was happening. I was getting ready for the season-opening track day organizing the road trip, booking a tech inspection at the shop and swapping brake pads in the garage. In the Pacific Northwest, all the tracks reopen in April after winter break. It's a decades-old passion of mine. And apparently it shows. Where We Get It

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach High achievers have a particular relationship with avoidance. It doesn't look like laziness. It doesn't look like fear. It looks like a full calendar, a long accomplishment list, and a life that, by most visible measures, is working extremely well. And underneath all of it, quiet, patient, persistent, is the thing you keep not doing. You know what I mean. Not the tasks. The other thing. The conversation that keeps getting rescheduled in y

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach I've been indecisive. For a long time I didn't think much of it. Then I started paying attention to the energy it took to carry it around. Every unmade decision sitting on a mental to-do list, quietly draining me. When I finally saw what it was costing me, I couldn't unsee it. My emotional block was fear of failure. Everything had to be right before I'd move. So the list grew and grew. My strategy, though I wouldn't have called it that, w