– The Power of the Pause

When was the last time you took time away from your usual environment? With COVID having put the brakes on any major travel, many business owners have been working harder than ever without a break.

With so many working from home, it means that you’re in the same environment day in, day out. This COULD be stifling your creativity and ability to have breakthrough ideas for your business.

Some of my most productive creative writing, content creation and breakthrough ideas come to me when I spend time away from my desk. I’m often surprised by the bolts of clarity that come to me when I’m on the beach, in the shower, or out running or walking.

Being in a new location is a different experience to moving my laptop, say, from my head office (a brick-and-mortar office) to my home office. Or moving from the dining table to the kitchen bench to work. Working from a whole new environment seems to have my brain functioning in different ways.

I’m writing this as I’m seated at the dining table looking out at sunset through the glass doors that look out to the back of the house that I’ve rented for 10 days.

And, while today I’ve had multiple meetings and handled quite a few communications and tasks, my workdays this week will be topped and tailed by a walk on the beach.

It’s HEAVEN for me, an inner-city dweller 😉 to walk on the sand and hike on the local trails morning and night. I’m inspired to stay outdoors. And, throughout the day, I find myself giving myself permission to take short breaks.

To sit in the sun with my lunch.

To take 5 mins away from the screen to stare at the ocean or pat the dog.

Only a few days into this break, I started to feel re-energised. I can feel the ideas for my new marketing project brewing… waiting to spill forth when I sit down for a day of planning later this week.

I share this with you to encourage you to find time to take a break away from your routine. Because there is great power in pausing.

Like Thomas Friedman quotes in his book, Thank You for Being Late.

When you press the pause button on a machine, it stops. But, when you press the pause button on human beings, they start. You start to reflect, you start to rethink your assumptions, you start to reimagine what is possible and, most importantly, you start to reconnect with your most deeply held beliefs.”

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