The Power of Hitting Pause in Business
TL;DR
When your to-do list is getting longer and you feel the overwhelm creeping in, the temptation is to get your head down and push harder. Here is your invitation to try a different way - a reminder of the power of pausing.
Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash
The irony of staying busy
I’m writing this from Scotland in mid-September. Ever since the school summer holidays ended I’ve been finding it hard to get back into a rhythm with my work. I’ve been getting stuff done but it’s felt sticky and slightly forced at times. I’ve been easily distracted and my mind has felt scattered.
I notice that at times like this it’s so much easier to keep myself busy rather than sit with the feelings and the stories that come up - that I’m not being productive enough or that I’m ignoring the stuff that I should be doing.
Until this weekend I took a break. I went to SummerCamp - a weekend business festival for purpose driven founders, leaders and solopreneurs. It’s a bit like business conference meets music festival. There’s talks, workshops, dancing and camping in a muddy field. It’s awesome.
It also forced me to slow down - morning dips in the lake, breathwork sessions and leisurely chats over dinner.
I’ve come back and suddenly that cloud of not knowing has lifted.
I’m reminded that it’s a pattern I’ve experienced many times over and one I see in my clients too.
We know that there’s something in our business that isn’t working or doesn’t feel easeful. But we also don’t know how to fix it. And so we stay busy. Pack our calendar, fill our evenings or go down rabbit holes of research that don’t yield any results.
Until our busyness becomes the very thing that is stopping us from finding a solution.
Yes we want to fix that thing that isn’t working but we don’t possibly have the time for it now.
If we’re busy, overwhelmed, and disconnected we become reactive. It feels good for the short term, but it isn’t sustainable for the long term.
If we want our business to nourish us and not deplete us, we need to pause and slow down.
What happens when you pause
You know that moment when you walk into someone else's house and you can smell the house smell, but they're completely unaware of it?
Your business patterns work exactly the same way.
When you're caught up in your daily operations – checking the same metrics, following the same routines, having the same types of client conversations – your brain adapts to these patterns and you can no longer pick them out.
This is why stepping away from your business – even briefly – reveals solutions that were invisible when you were immersed in the day-to-day.
There’s that old cliche of the perfect answer to that awkward email arriving while you’re in the shower. It’s because when we’re not pouring all of our focus into a particular task then different pathways in our brian can connect and piece together information that before we weren’t conscious of.
It means that even if you don’t have a whole weekend to spare, there’s still value in putting the breaks on even for a short time. I like to think of these different types of pause:
Micro-pauses: A short walk, a shower, a 15 minute meditation
Strategic pauses: Weekly or monthly business reviews
Replenishment pauses: Quarterly retreats or longer breaks focussed on leisure
Recovery pauses: When overwhelm hits and you need to some proper time out to clear your mind
I know for me that it’s at the times that I most need to pause that I am most resistant to doing so. But I’ve also learnt that it becomes a bit of a spiral. I keep doing the same thing hoping for a different result and my energy slowly drains and fizzles out.
Encourage yourself to pause
I have to say that I’m not a massive fan of frameworks for things like this, but at the same time it is helpful to think of a process to work through. Even if I don’t follow it step by step, my brain knows that it has a guide and sometimes that is enough to encourage me to actually take the step.
P - Permission: Give yourself explicit permission to stop. Clear some space in your diary, move or cancel meetings if you need to.
A - Assessment: Get curious about what it is that’s not working and also the wider context beyond your business - home life or events in the news
U - Uncouple: Separate from the day-to-day to gain perspective - I like to get into nature, into the forest or up a mountain if possible.
S - Strategies: Identify 2-3 key shifts or actions based on your insights. Make at least one of these something small that you will be able to implement with ease over the next week or two.
E - Execute: Implement changes with intention - try to make one a small win. If it’s something longer term, try to implement a new habit that allows you to work towards it bit by bit.
What if pausing was a regular practice?
I believe that hitting pause is one of the best business decisions you can make.
If you want a sustainable business, it has to start from within. Even if you are hitting or exceeding your income goals on a monthly basis, if you feel frazzled and overwhelmed then your business isn’t sustainable.
Often when I work with clients they already know the answer - they know the one thing that they need to do. They just need the quiet space and the support that I offer to connect to it and make it real.
This week, I challenge you to take one small pause. Block 30 minutes, step away from your usual workspace, and reflect on an aspect of your business that feels sticky or you know you’re avoiding. And if you feel like, drop me an email at hey@debbielee.co.uk to let me know you’ve done it.