As we are heading into the busy holiday season and the final few weeks before the semester ends, I find myself thinking about pausing.
Historically, the narrative this time of year centers around finishing strong, powering through, and closing out strong. While all valuable, I also find myself a bit more reflective this year on the importance of slowing down.
As I’ve grown, I understand the value of the pause. Pausing to clarify intention. Pausing to discern priorities. Pausing to gather information. All are worthy reasons to pause, and all things I don’t think we do enough of in work or in life.
5 Key Pauses
That’s why I’m dedicating this particular post to the five powerful pauses I hope to do more of in the final few months of 2024.
Pause to Hear
My mom asked me a question this weekend, and I answered without hearing her. Later, when I did something totally different than what I indicated, she was confused. This is a microcosm of what happens when we get busy. We brush through answers, and we don’t fully listen to what the other person is saying. In this situation, it was minor with no impact other than a good laugh. However, in work situations, it could have been much worse or had significant impact. I think sometimes we’re so busy rushing from thing to thing, we don’t pause enough to hear.
Pause to Clarify
I also spent some time working this weekend on my university budget. There were a few things that were out of sorts. My first instinct was to take a bunch of counteractive measures to fix the issue at hand. However, instead, I’m practicing the art of the pause by emailing the accounting team for guidance on how best to handle. We have until June 30 to fix these things, so I think this approach is best. However, a significant part of me was ready to jump in and “fix” it myself, possibly making it worse. Instead, of trying to solve it myself, I’m working to pause and clarify what’s the best way to handle the situation.
Pause to Learn
Coming back from a conference this past week, I’ve had so many great new things I have wanted to try. I already did one (signed up for Bluesky). However, there are so many more. Sometimes in our day-to-day work, we’re so focused on the timely that we lose focus on the strategic. I’m going to work really hard this week to spend some additional time in the strategic space. This week, that means downloading the sessions and reviewing key takeaways. This will help me to work to incorporate these into the work over the next few months.
Pause to Improve
Often, when we receive feedback, our natural reaction is to be defensive. We want to immediately clarify, explain, etc. However, it’s important to pause and hear where the person is coming from. A friend of mine mentioned this allows us to be curious and understand. We may not incorporate the feedback every time every time, but pausing honors the person and shows that we consider what they have to says as valuable. I’ve also had this on my mind as there have been a few members leaving the MarComm team. My first reaction was to immediately fill the positions, but now I’m finding myself reflecting on whether a pause might help me adjust to a new model that helps the team more.
Pause to Relax
Another one that I need to do better at is passing to relax. Ask just about anyone, and they will tell you I don’t sit still well. I’m always on the go. My mind continually races to the next thing, all the things, I should be doing, etc. Sometimes, I need to pause to just relax and be in the moment. This is also important from a work perspective. I find that when I force myself to pause to relax I often find that my subconscious is rejuvenated and begins to come up with lots of great ideas and inspiration that I might not have otherwise considered.
How are you Pausing
As the semester draws to an end, what ways are you pausing? Feel free to drop an idea or a thought in the comments.
And Carrie On 