Today as I write this, I’m feeling pretty rough, caught one of those colds that fly through the system and knocks you for six for a few days.
My oldest son is staying with me this summer. He recently retired as an elite athlete and, through that part of life’s journey, knows very well that rest is an integral part of performance, so is insisting that I eat a healthy meal and then go to bed early. Of course, I will write this post first as I am committed to writing daily ?
I have a lot to do, but I shall pause (after writing this post).
Today, though, I did manage to first go out for two meetings, and the second one was with an amazing thought leader that I feel will be a future collaborator. A recurring theme of their life is that they have been a long way ahead of the game in their thinking. People eventually catch up to their ideas, but it generally takes time.
My self-reflection from both that meeting and my son insisting that I pause is that there is power in the pause for all of us.
Sometimes it is powerful to pause to rest, to simply allow time to pass before we press on. Other times, as the quote from Doug King above notes, the power is in allowing others to catch up with you.
On the latter, I recognise that once my intuition kicks in, I can move ahead very, very fast. Sometimes that is highly valuable when leadership means leading by example in a fast moving environment where much needs to be done (no surprises, then, that I’ve successfully led multiple startups!).
However, sometimes it is much more important to pause to allow others to catch up. I’m learning to do that in different facets of life. My life has taught me some lessons from where a pause could have allowed others to catch up with my intuition and decisiveness.
So, in this “go, go, go” world, what reflection might you have on the value of learning to pause for yourself?