The Power of Pause

Rat race. This is how most people live their life. From the moment we start the day till the moment we end it, we are always running here and there - running to go to office, running to leave the kids at the kindergarten, running to deliver a project within time, running to go a meeting or running to catch a flight- the list is never ending. The run-culture is fueled by the need to see the results quickly if not instantly and by the realization that our dreams and ambitions are far greater than the time we have to fulfill them. But does it have to be like this? Definitely not!

We might not have a remote control which can allow us to rewind our actions and go in the past to undo things we did. We also do not have any way to fast forward ourselves in the future to flee from our present troubles. But we have a great ability which we very often overlook- the power to pause. Some call this power as mindfulness, others describe it as the ability to live in the present. While there is no right or wrong definition of pausing, I feel the best description of a pause is that moment when we deliberately stop and observe where we are and how we got where we are. As we pause, we can shed lights on several things which requires fixing or tweaking to reach where we want to be. This is similar to a GPS- if we don’t where we are, it’s difficult to find our way to where we want to be.

This is where failure at times plays a big role as it stops us abruptly and gives us an opportunity to take some learnings. Those who do not pause and take time to reflect on their failures are very likely to fail again ahead. Failure is not always a mere coincidence or a matter of luck. Failure, most of the time is a series of actions we choose to take which then generate a outcome different from what we consciously expect. For example, we cannot fail in an exams if we didn’t took part in it. Assuming that we took part in the exams, we still have control to influence the outcome - to pass or to fail- through the efforts that we make.

While we rarely do it, it is equally important to pause and reflect in our successes. Reflecting on successes is usually how we can derive a “success formula” which can work under specific circumstances. Pausing in our successes might also include taking the time to celebrate the success and giving the credit to those who were instrumental to secure the desired outcomes. Very often during the rat race, we fail to do so as we are in a rush to channel our focus onto another project or tasks. This is often equal to us planting the tree and seeing the tree bear fruits but failing to reap the fruits.

In a nutshell, life is a movie which you cannot fast forward or rewind but you always have the choice to pause. Are you using the pause button enough?