Pause

Recently I taught another new class, an amazing group of passionate women ready to take the next step to pursue their dreams and ambitions. As a certified coach, at these workshops I always share my past life and career experiences not to impress the audience – but to impress upon them that all goals are achievable as long as you are taking supportive action towards them. One question a student asked was “How do I get out of this idleness I am stuck in?” Now, everything is a mind set. This idleness can be viewed as many things to different people. It can be viewed as a result of self-doubt, past poorly made decisions, fear of failure, or uncertainty of direction; all these may result in a lack of assertiveness to confidently move forward. From a more positive and productive approach, I like to view idleness as simply a brief pause. It’s important to have pauses in our lives for self reflection of our past learning. And everyone has these pauses. The most successful people have had the most pauses in their lifetime. During these pauses, ask yourself these simple questions: what you like and dislike about results you’ve gotten, what you’re good at and not good at; and lastly, what ultimately makes you truly happy with a steadfast sense of fulfillment. I don’t even encourage time to review past bad decisions – if you’re already reflecting on results you did not like – that in itself is enough to move you forward and away from making bad choices again. The problem is too many people focus in on the path of their mistakes, creating overwhelming guilt and re-living the pain over and over, not being able to move forward. Release yourself from unproductive thoughts; spend your energy on the future, not the past. You’ll find this pause, this time of reflection - will help shape future decisions on which direction you’d like to move in. So don’t be too hard on yourself for “idleness”; embrace this pause and utilize it as a productive base to launch you forward to your life’s next adventure. Get Ready, Get Inspired!