Hit the pause button

Or the importance of stepping back from things

I’ve been down in the weeds lately, spinning plates with the fury of a starving trash panda trying to break into a restaurant’s bin. The result has been productive, but not as productive as I would like.

I thought I’d pause for a minute this week. Take stock and take some time out. It’s been a good few days. It’s given me the space to reset my perspective and solve some of those problems that had been plaguing me for weeks.

When you’re running your own business, it can often seem like there’s an insurmountable list of tasks you need to get through. More often than not, if you’re a little start-up like I am, you’ll find yourself being responsible for absolutely everything. Social media marketing, emails, chasing up leads, talking with clients, and then the actual work that brings in the scratch.

It can all get a bit much sometimes, and we can spend so much of our energy balancing the scales that we lose sight of the broader picture of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

I am aware that I have a tendency to think if I’m not doing, then I’m not producing. I am also aware that this idea is entirely wrong. It’s a process I’m going through trying to change that, so I thought it a good idea to share my experience.

The problem with my thinking that I must be doing is that it completely and utterly ignores my requirement for being. After all, we’re human beings, not human doings (thanks go to Alan Watts for that quote). Being, to simply observe experience, is a fundamental part of any creative process. When I say creative, I mean anything that we do that creates some “thing” in some way. It’s not exclusively reserved for artistic endeavours.

I was finding that, in my constant act of doing, I was using up whatever the fuel is that keeps my creativity going. My creative fuel was not, as I had mistakenly thought, shots of strong black coffee. It is some ethereal wellspring that requires tending and nurturing, like a garden.

I know the importance of pausing and stepping back from things. I tell people to do it all the time, so there was an aspect of frustration…no, exasperation, that I was not heeding my own advice.

So I decided to listen to myself. I paused. I zoomed out and slowed down. The end result being that I’m actually getting more done with less effort, because I’m thinking better. Approaching the problems from a fresh angle that I wouldn’t have considered before had I not just stopped for a minute.

Remember that, even if you aren’t actively working on something, your mind will work on it. If we stop focusing on a problem or a project, we give ourselves the space to think about it more creatively.

I’m sure you’ll have experienced those eureka moments where you’re out for a walk or dancing in the shower (it’s not just me who does this, right?), not really thinking about anything in particular, and then suddenly an idea will pop into your head from out of nowhere. A thought that solves the problem that you’d spent days trying to solve, hunched over at a desk, an empty mug in one hand, your face in the other.

Pausing is essentially a moment for renewal and regeneration. It’s an important component that I would urge you all to incorporate into your lives in some way. You don’t always have to be doing. Action is not an indicator of progress.

Here’s something to try - between each of your tasks, create a space. Just stop for a little while. Give yourself some room to think, to breathe, to be. There’s nothing to feel guilty about in doing this (I say this partly as an affirmation for my own benefit). We’re ok to simply be for a moment.

Let me know what comes up in those pauses between action. Does it help and, if so, what were the benefits?

Much love
David

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