When it’s time to take a pause

Right when you feel like you should be stepping on the gas, you get the strong signal that it is actually time to hit the pause button. 

Has that ever happened to you? It has happened to me, and let me tell you, it is a huge challenge!

I was watching the LinkedIn live show hosted by one of the Soul Driven Success Community members, Todd Kargas. The show is called “Leadership Studio,” and he was interviewing Gail Barker, a colleague of mine. She had posted a message that had intrigued me a few weeks ago, so I was super interested in hearing what she had to say. 

Her message had been about her own personal journey and the signal she got to move on from a position she held for CTI. She reminded me of how important it is to notice the ARC. 

The ARC lets you know when something is DONE, whether you like it or not. 

We learned this in our co-active leadership training. I often think of this when leading a workshop or giving a talk of some kind. I have learned to feel into that arc and know when something is DONE. 

For me, this is a lot like that. Something is DONE, but my clear intuitive guidance is telling me it’s a pause more than a completion. It’s time for me to take stock, reassess, let go of a lot of doing, and allow myself to have intentional space in my schedule and in the way I use my energy. 

This message has not been subtle! 2 months ago, I hurt my hip and was not able to walk for 6 weeks. Talk about a PAUSE. No walking meant no rushing anywhere. Most things I used to just do and move from one activity to another just weren’t possible during that time. 

At the same time, I took my focus off my business to take care of myself, and was still moving into my new house, and of course, my business took a dip too. 

I know this is how it works. In business, as in many things, there is a direct connection between output and income. 

I have built up a good marketing and sales system, and I am not dependent on any one activity to bring in new business. 

Yet, what I have found during this time is that the message to pause came when my usual activities, even though limited, were just no longer working. Output was not leading to incoming business. 

The really weird part of all of this for me was that even though I couldn’t walk, was in pain a good bit of time, and my business was stalled, I felt so good when I tuned into my inner wisdom and heard that soft and true voice telling me it was time to take a pause. I didn’t like any of it, but I felt a deep peace in my soul. 

As my business is called Soul Driven Success, I knew I needed to listen for my own well-being and to be in integrity with what I teach and sometimes preach. 

So I am on a pause right now. 

I have time and energy to create some new talks that I would like to bring to coaches. 

I have time to reach out to colleagues I haven’t spoken to in years and set up time to talk. 

I have the energy to move through some goo in the area of my business model. 

I have time to attend to my healing, deal with doctors, and get treatments from other health professionals. 

And I am cultivating relationships by making new friends, connecting with old friends, and most surprisingly, the relationship that is growing with myself. I am able to see some old default ways of thinking that it’s time to change, and new ways of being that excite and inspire me. 

I am curious what the arc of this pause will be and what it will require of me to do it well. To give it as much attention and intention as I do the more linear and tangible goals I love so much. 

My encouragement to you is to listen to your soul’s wisdom, tune into that wise voice within, and check out for yourself. What is it time for?