Do You Need to Pause?

Do You Need to Pause?

We are all guilty of committing – or really, omitting – tasks in building our businesses. I see it all the time in my years as the Grow Your Business Coach. But one of the most damaging, is not taking the time to evaluate or reflect on our current activities or situation.

Take for instance, marketing and advertising. We undergo an advertising or marketing campaign, but then don’t analyze the results. We don’t evaluate and determine the ROI so every year we “do it again” not really knowing if it’s the most effective use of our time and money. Sounds simple, so why do we avoid it?

It’s the same thing when we consider personal and professional development. We do, do, do and go, go, go. But how often do you stop to reflect or really try to figure out if what you are doing and where you are going is the best for you to reach the optimal performance you want?

You know the answer to this is seldom, if ever.

John Maxwell puts it into perspective:

“If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed up. He needs to stop.”

Stop. Stop and think. Stop and reflect. Stop blindly running down the path.

What we need, is a PAUSE.

Are you forgetting things and dragging your business down in your rush to do it all?You see, we are all busy. There are a lot of demands on us and things to get done. But in all that busy-ness, Maxwell says that we have certain experiences that are life markers. We go to a place, or participate in an event, or meet a person that in some way marks us for life because something important happened. Often those markers identify a time of transition, change or transformation.

If we don’t take the time to pause and reflect, we can miss the significance of such events. It we pause to allow growth to catch up with us, it makes our lives better, because we not only better understand the significance of what we’ve experienced, but we can implement changes and course corrections as a result.

You know this is true, because we have all been able to look back and see those turning points in our lives and in our businesses. What would have been different going forward from those points if we had taken the time to recognize the moment as significant? What if you (or I) had taken advantage of that learning to go in a different direction or respond to a change quicker? Would we be in a better place today?

John Maxwell says,

“Experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is.”

If you study the lives of great people, you will see that many of them had planned time alone to just think and reflect. Some review the day’s happenings every evening before retiring. They plan adjustments to implement starting the next day and go to bed with a calm mind, confident and relaxed in their minds. The next morning they wake excited to take action and move forward in their growth and toward achievements.

I’m not going to give you a “way” to put a strategy into place. You can think, take notes, journal, whatever it is that feels right to you. But I am going to encourage you to PAUSE on a regular basis.

As I write this, I am reminded of something that one of the members of a long-time Mastermind Group told me recently. He said that coming to the monthly gathering of the group is the time he counts on to stop and think about what he is doing in his business and where he is going with it, and with his own professional development.

I hadn’t thought of the Mastermind Group as a PAUSE because I had thought of a Pause as a quiet, solo contemplation. But it doesn’t have to be – I had limited my own thinking, hadn’t I? Anytime you stop to reflect, evaluate, and plan for action and implementation is a productive Pause. So you might want to consider a Mastermind Group as your Pause. If so, contact me. Even if the Grow Your Business Mastermind Groups aren’t the perfect fit, I can help you find the group that is good for you.

To Your Success!

Jack Signature

B3 – Be Bold, Brilliant and Boundless!

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Posted in Growth Strategy, Leadership, Learning, Time Management

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