Have you pushed pause recently to take the time needed to attend to the MOST important things in your life?
As Online Business Managers we often think that if WE don't do EVERYTHING then everything will fall apart. But what if we are falling apart? How then do we keep it all together when we are not keeping ourselves together? Let's face it, this is the reality of life. Stuff happens, and sometimes we need to hit pause.
Do you ever look around in life and say "Where is that stupid pause button?"
Honestly, as wives, moms, business owners, support professionals, etc., our true titles should be: Professional Jugglers. But there are times when no matter how hard you try, you are just not catching all the balls as they fall. If you are anything like me, you can generally catch all the balls in one area but not in all the areas: if I am focused on my home then balls drop in the business. If I am focused on my business then balls drop at home. If I am focused on my needs, then the needs of my family may not be met. You get the picture and I know I'm not the only one who endures such a balancing act.
So I spent some time thinking what a pause button would look like. What would happen if I just announced to everyone in my life: PAUSE, and everything came to a stop, or more of a holding space.
Well, I did just that yesterday. After weeks of being in the rat race and managing through multiple transitions in life and business, I pushed pause. And you know what, nothing fell apart. When I got up this morning and pushed play again everything was exactly as I left it, but…
I WAS NOT AS I LEFT IT!
See when we push pause it's because we need to tend to something more important than the movie we are watching, and yesterday I needed to tend to something more important than anything else in my life. Today, I am free to go forward again, to hop back in the race and continue my juggling act.
So I ask you:
◾What would YOUR pause button look like?
◾Do you know when it is necessary and do you know how to push it?
◾Have you pushed pause recently to take the time needed to attend to the MOST important things in your life?
As Online Business Managers we often think that if WE don't do EVERYTHING then everything will fall apart, but what if we are falling apart? How then do we keep it all together when we are not keeping ourselves together? Let's face it, this is the reality of life. Stuff happens, and sometimes we need to hit pause.
Granted if you think hitting pause weekly is an option, it's not. Don't be abusive with the power of the pause button as it may make you look incompetent and cause all sorts of other issues (including that you will never complete the goal at hand).
Now let me ask you – what happens if you don't hit pause on a movie when something more important happens? It keeps playing in the background but you don't really notice it, catch the details or get the plot. The same thing happens in our businesses when we do not hit the pause button when something more important is happening in our lives. But this is not an acceptable way to run a business.
As an OBM, it is your role to manage a business from a proactive state of operations, opposed to the reactive. However, many times we find that our own lives are in a reactive state of operations. We are roaming through our own existence in reactive mode: sick kid (react), car breaks down (react), new client (react), get dinner on table (react)… but what if…
What if we could focus on managing our lives from a proactive state of operations? What if we took what we know in our business lives and applied them to our functioning life?
Think about it like this, if you set the time aside to watch a movie, and you know it's what's on the agenda, you are much less likely to NEED a pause button (outside of an emergency). So what if we make that same commitment to our lives, to be proactive in what we commit to?
I will be honest I have not been that proactive in my life recently, so when the pause button was needed, it was a must. Then I thought "I don't want to have to hit that button again… as I don't like that feeling of needing to pause everything." I realized what got me in this space to begin with was being reactive in my life – DUH!
Another reminder I had came from our OBM Mentorship call last week, where Tina asked the group (as I have heard her ask many times): "What are you tolerating in your life?" Ouch. I didn't say so on the call, but boy am I tolerating some personal things in my life that I DO NOT WANT TO BE MY STANDARD OF ACCEPTANCE!
Well guess what happened when I hit pause yesterday? All of those tolerances became like red flashing lights in my life… "warning, warning, warning."
In my time of pause, while I needed to attend to my soul, the things I had been tolerating revealed the depth in which my "reactivity" to life had created instability in my ability to be proactive in my life.
So not only was the pause button a time of replenishing, it was also a time of revelation.
Today is a new resolve for what I want, what is needed to be a successful juggler and being able to move my life into the same level of pro-activeness in which I manage business. As I know it is my sanctuary of peace.
So this post I hope leaves you with more questions than answers:
◾Do you have a pause button? What would it look like for your life?
◾Are you living proactive in your life and business?
◾What are you tolerating in your life that is flashing "warning" at you?
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