Guest Post by Rachel Botsman | Never underestimate the power of a pause

This is a guest post by WWSG thought leader, Rachel Botsman.

There is a lot of talk about quitting, especially around work. Giving something up for good. Whilst quitting can be a powerful decision-making tool and extended breaks can be a way to recharge, there is another alternative – to consciously pause and not do something for a while.

My own long pause

Let me share with you an example from my own work. I love public speaking. I’ve given hundreds if not thousands of talks all over the world. I’ve been privileged to speak at events like TED multiple times. Sharing ideas and genuinely connecting with audiences is something I love. And it took a lot of practice to go into this bubble-like state of calm whenever my feet hit the stage. I’ve done my 10,000 hours of public speaking!

Then last summer I was giving a talk and I felt nothing. Nothing. No nerves, no excitement, no connection. I didn’t tell anyone. Perhaps, I thought, I was just having an off day. But then it happened again and again. To be honest, I felt like I’d become a jukebox. Hit play and I could talk on autopilot. I still had passion, but the energy and freshness had gone. Lots of worries started to whirl. What if I’m burnt out? What if I just don’t have anything new to say? What if I’ve become irrelevant? I’m sure you’ve been in one of these spirals.

So, I decided to tell my agents, my team, and my family that I was not quitting but I was going to take a pause from public speaking.  It was a BIG financial risk. But I knew I had to do it.

I read, researched, drew, wrote, and went back to school to study something completely different, landscape design. I can’t tell you the number of people that assumed I was having some mid-life crisis.

The power of a pause

Ironically, I learned never to underestimate the power of a pause on the stage.

A pause is a negative space where nothing and everything happens. It’s in those spaces that the audience really listens to itself.

The phrase a ‘pregnant pause’ has always intrigued me. In the moments –seconds or months – where we’re not speaking and doing something new is born. And that’s how I’ve felt about a year off the stage.

Last Wednesday, I got back on the stage for the first time in a year. I felt like something new had emerged. Not just a whole new body of work but that I could show up and connect with the audience in a different way.

Here is a picture of me back in action!

I’m so glad that I didn’t quit but that I took one very long pause 😊

A question for you

What one area of your life where you’d love to pause? Maybe for a day, maybe for a year.

Warmly,