Finding Pauses in the Music of Life
J. Aaron Simmons, Ph.D.
Philosopher, Public Speaker, Author, Mtn Biker, Trout Fisherman
This week was spring break at my university. Today is Friday. The week/break/pause is over.
Of course, for folks who do not work in academia, I can already imagine the eye rolls and smug insistence that "there are no spring breaks in the real world." Duh Duh Duh.
Well, spring break for professors means a frantic push to work hard enough in one week on research, grading, and preparation for the last half of the semester that they often need a break from the break! Nonetheless, I get it. Breaks are things that are often few and far between for working professionals - regardless of field.
However, most folks do have vacations or at least work pauses at various points in the year. It is important that we not overlook the existential value of these pauses. Increasingly research shows the importance of sleep to productivity, health, and energy. Additionally, research is beginning to show that we need to rethink our daily rhythms so that we can cycle more effective through periods of effort and periods of pausing.
Despite having worked close to 100 hours a week for many years early in my career, and still working more than my family wishes I did (sigh), I no longer see any virtue in just working more. Even though we often hear encouragements not to work harder, but to work smarter, my suggestion is different. I don't think we need to work smarter - as if we were ever working dumb. Instead, it seems to me that we should be smart about work, about what it means, about why it matters, and about who we are in relation to it.
It is often said that we should work to live, not live to work, but this misses the point that pauses are precisely . . . pauses. They are not meant to be the activity itself. Work is existentially significant, but it becomes soul crushing when there are no pauses that allow it to be a space of purposive effort.
It is like confusing the song you are listening to on Spotify with the few seconds of silence between the songs. That pause is what allows us to differentiate the songs as what they are and allow them to signify as significant enough to demand our attention.
That said we must also resist the temptation to turn those pauses themselves into opportunities for more effort. For example, I didn't use this spring break very well. I worked the entire time. I didn't pause. I just kept dancing as if the music had continued.
But, this is a mistake. Pause.
Not pausing leads to not being able to differentiate among the different components of our lives. We might say that it is crucial that we don't confuse the silence between the song with the commercial break. In many ways, the commercial break is important in its own right (well, at least for folks like me who refuse to pay money to avoid hearing commercials trying to get me to spend money - I figure that listening to the commercials and not buying the product is actually the culturally subversive move, ha!). Perhaps ironically, the commercials remind us that the joy of the music does not have to have some instrumental value. The music might help us to run faster in the gym, or pump us up for some contentious meeting, but it also might just sound good. Perhaps just sounding good is enough.
Work is existentially important (this is why leaders recognize the dignity of the people with whom they work, instead of simply viewing them as employees who owe them some sort of action in relation to a monetized commodification of time itself).
But, pausing is what allows us to continue to exist as beings who work.
During the last Super Bowl, airtime for an average 30 second commercial cost 4.5 billion dollars! But, rather than thinking of all the money that was lost in the second turn arounds and black screens between images, remember that if it is all simply image, then there is no meaning. It is the rests in the musical score that allows Beethoven to be distinguished from Korn.
My spring break is over. But, thankfully there are opportunities to pause throughout one's day. Be intentional in finding them. Oh, look, there is one now. . .
Pause.
?
About the author: Dr. J. Aaron Simmons is a philosopher who is also a widely sought after speaker and writer on issues related to leadership, innovation, trust, and culture-building.
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