Pause

Where do you pause for 5 minutes or more in your day? Research shows that multi tasking is no longer the most effective way of being productive. Robert Holden author of the book Success Intelligence believes that, “Leaders are not just paid to be busy. They are paid to think.” Really? What do you think about Holden’s statement? How high is thinking and reflective on your day to day agenda?

Reflective practice is a requirement of all great coaches and requires a real commitment to engaging with reflective practice actively. Executive Coaches and psychologists Maria Gilbert and Michael Carroll describe the actual word reflection as, “coming from a Latin root meaning to bend back, to stand apart from, to stand outside of”. Reflection helps us to gain new perspectives on what we have done.

Consider the last time you took a lunch break? or the last time you scheduled time in your diary to sit or walk with the conscious intention to do some actual thinking about a project. Or perhaps just having the space to not think and give your mind  time to rest is what is most needed.

There’s a reason why tea and lunch breaks were built into the working day. The brain needs downtime especially in this time of information overload. Last year I had a mini relapse following a friends death and started smoking after twenty years of being a non- smoker. Even though I knew it wasn’t good for me the thing I most enjoyed about smoking was the thinking space going outside for a cigarette gave me. I used to joke with my friends that smoking is the way some people meditate. Think about it, take away the cigar or cigarette and what we have are two similar activities involving a conscious inhale and exhale of the breath.

Thankfully I was able to drop the habit very soon after I started but I’ve noticed just how much more thinking and qualitative time I now give myself during my day. Sometimes when working from home I catch my partner looking at me as if to say how comes you’re not sitting at your desk looking overwhelmed and stressed out. At the same time I know from my work as a coach how difficult it can be in organisations to stand your ground, to consciously pause, to relax at your desk and to do the unthinkable and take a break. But consider how can you not afford to.

Whether it’s going off for a cup of tea, taking a 10 minute walk outside or listening  to a soothing piece of music on your ipod or iphone there are plenty of ways you can creatively build pause into your day. On our coach training programmes we encourage our coaches to develop space before and after all coaching or mentoring sessions. Coaches are given guidance about how to prepare for the session and how to download and enter into a restorative space after the session. Pausing, taking a few deep breaths, taking a few stretches or writing in their reflective journals are some of the small ways coaches are building pause into their practice.

We emphasise how important taking care of the self is to their success and meaning as coaches. the same applies to all individuals and leaders in organisation.  Pausing is a way of filling ourselves back up, restoring our energy and creating that priceless resource of thinking time which so easily connects us to the wonders of the creative and imaginative mind.

Consider how you will create more pauses in your day and what benefit this will give to you, your work or coaching clients and your organisation.