Knowing When to Press Pause

Knowing when to pause is one of the most important skills in business and in life! Have you ever set something aside and when you went back to it, it made so much more sense or just seemed to flow (like this email for example)?

Yesterday I was struggling with a website page I was building, I got frustrated and decided to work on something else, and when I looked at it again this morning I saw a few settings that I wasn't even seeing before.

I've been trying to change my Facebook page for several months and the change keeps getting rejected, so I put it out of my mind and kept moving forward in other areas.

I thought of it again yesterday, as I'm planning my month and onboarding a new assistant, and decided to just give it another try, and **~poof~** this time it was approved in 5 minutes.

I'm helping my husband with a project (selling restored vintage audio) and we were looking at a local consignment store that rents out space. I had to table the project for a few weeks due to other projects and travel. When I followed up the owner said he had the perfect space for us and it was just finished the day before I emailed. We are so excited about this space. 

Other times, I've plowed ahead without pausing and hired people who were not ideal out of just wanting to fill a position. Sometimes no help is better than the wrong help (most of the time honestly). Made regretful buying decisions and even married the wrong guy! Yes, I have learned the power of the aligned pause. 

An aligned pause is NOT procrastination, resistance, or playing small, but it can be tricky to tell the difference sometimes, and in my quest to not procrastinate or honor my commitments I have often ignored the need for some space. 

So how do you tell the difference? By getting to know and trust yourself, and how you feel. We all know deep down when we are avoiding, resisting, and procrastinating, even though we can come up with some great, logical, legit-sounding excuses!

Procrastination looks to me like doing nothing in any area, and using numbing vices, like binge-watching TV shows, complaining, overeating & drinking, gossiping, online shopping, procrasticleaning or procrastibranding! It's avoiding 

An aligned pause or break looks like self-care, reading, exercise, working on something else for a while, taking care of things that are distracting me (like emails or bills) with an intention to get back to the work that I'm taking a break from when it's time, and I trust that I will know when that will be, so I don't worry about it. 

If there is a project or an area of your life that you feel stuck, confused, or frustrated with it may be time to give yourself the gift of time, space, and grace. If there is something that you know you can do, give yourself the gift of taking action. You always know if you listen.