Take Time to Unplug & Reboot Your Life
And Cherish the Global Community
by Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC
In our coaching engagements, we model and may even teach the power of pause…a purposeful use of silence and focused listening giving us and our clients time to slow down and hear our inner voice. Even our coaching conversations are structured as a way for our clients to have the opportunity to say what they might not have said, to see things from a new point of view, and to say it all publicly to a committed listener…their coach
As a professional listener, facilitator, coach, I understand that I need to recharge my batteries with a scheduled and purposeful pause. I do that with morning meditations, walks in nature, listening to music, or writing.
And in my life, I have needed to do a Purposeful Timeout and unplug away from my normal routines and do something truly out of the ordinary. And if you are a prisoner to your devices and social media, you know what I mean…leave them home for a weekend at least. Go for coffee or a meal at a local spot ….and listen…just converse…it is what we were trying to do when we discovered/created language;
Big Pauses
How is pausing built into your day, your week, and your year? Think about an adventure or journey you would like to do and then do it…the pause that refreshes. For work, for relationships, for health, wealth, love, and happiness, pausing and unplugging will regenerate purposeful living. At this time of the year…the end of a calendar year, winter solstice, and various cultural and religious celebrations, let’s take a collective pause…
Why do we fight in our minds and our countries over opinions? Why don’t we celebrate curiosity about diversity? In all my global travels to 6 of our 7 continents, all 50 USA states and all 10 Canadian provinces and many European, Australian and Asian locations, I have learned: People to people we are great as human residents of Spaceship Earth. And with politics and power and religion…we separate ourselves.
Let us cherish the end of a tumultuous decade and welcome a new one – we really have no choice – but what do you want to welcome in 2018? For yourself? For your community? For your country? For the world??? For the future?????