​ Finding “The Pause” Button

Sometimes it’s ok to sit quiet. Sometimes it’s ok to be melancholy. It’s even ok to take a day where you don’t accomplish much, other taking a pause from the norm. Our society is bent on accomplishment. We work feverishly to stay relevant and surpass others, lest we fall behind. We can find unlimited great Coaches, Entrepreneurs, and Leadership Development Consultants on social media, in print, in podcasts and on videos, encouraging us to keep working, keep hustling, and keep producing. In and of itself, this is great. (I’m one of them) You can find all you need in an instant, to put wind in your sails, ward off discouragement and fuel your belief in yourself, your gift and your dreams. Wonderful!!! It’s a wonderful gift from technology. The downside of it is, it is not so wonderful on the days where you need to take a pause; the days where you have nothing to pump out. Then it becomes a harsh taskmaster, causing more fear and anxiety than inspiration. Life never happens in a straight line. We can be fired up about our dreams, charging forward, making great strides, and another part of our lives unexpectedly throws a monkey wrench of sorts onto our path. It could be family, finances, health, or anything that drains your mental and emotional energy. Do you continue to pump until you are depleted and burned out? If you are on stuck on the hamster wheel, the answer is yes. You keep going. You are driven by militaristic terms like; “no pain, no gain” or “sleep is for the weak”, “no rest for the weary”, and “you’ll sleep when you’re dead”?  You suck it up and keep going. You work into the wee hours of the morning, crawl out of bed in the morning, grab food on the go, force yourself to the gym and do it all again tomorrow.  You can’t allow yourself to pause for a second, the competition is too great and it’s on your tail. Pausing could be the difference between success and failure. We are not in the military and so don’t need to be this rigid. Following our dreams doesn’t have to be exhausting or detrimental to our over all well-being. It just has to be consistent. Although the fulfillment of dreams does take hard work and sacrifice, we should be able to enjoy the building phase of it. Let’s get a grip on ourselves. Let’s pause and take in the fullness of our lives. Let’s not get myopic about our dreams and forget we are human beings, not programmed robots. We have many moving parts, as well as people to consider that are on this ride with us. Although your dream may fill your heart, it doesn’t need to take over your life. I recently read about how our “Live your dream at any cost” mentality is actually killing us. I believe it needs to be spoken about so that we can get a good balance into our lives. . Going hard and heavy is taking its toll on our health and well-being.  Auto Immune diseases are at an all time high, Adrenal failure is now a thing, and Anti-Anxiety and Depression meds are distributed at alarming rates. What are we doing to ourselves? Does this sound alarming? It should! Sprinting is only meant for a short period of time, not for the whole race. We need to pace ourselves and develop a good working rhythm. If you look at our society as being one big whirlpool (like we used to make as kids in the round swimming pools) then the pause is grabbing onto the ladder and sitting on the deck for a bit. The pause allows you to take a breather when you need it and not feel guilty or feel anxious because you stopped producing for the moment. It allows you to rest your body and your mind when needed, revaluate, strengthen, altar or change course, enjoy your loved ones, have some fun, or just simply be still for a moment and breathe. All good things will come in due season. Be consistent and trust the process… #findyourpause  #dontbeafraidtopause #dreamsdocometrue  #allinitsowngoodtime  #atimetosowandatimetoreap #atimetostopsowing #trusttheprocess #Lifecoachesaregreat #rewardscoaching