Time for a Different Pace
It’s officially summer in my neck of the woods. For me this equates to warmer weather, lovely breezes, trips to bodies of water (could be a river, a lake, a waterfall – any outdoor water source is sure to be restorative). Summer is also about a slower pace for me, and over the past few years I’ve learned to honour this seemingly internal need I have, to slow down.
Admittedly, slowing down is not limited to summer in my world. Winter seems to issue a similar call to my internal operating system, inviting a slower pace, a chance to take a broader view, to be less frenetic in any and all efforts.
In either case, learning to heed the call to slow down has been a decades-long endeavor. As a self-employed professional, I’ve always been mindful of the fact that any income I earn is a direct result of the time I spend making connections, coaching my clients, facilitating workshops – you get the drill. I don’t earn a “salary” as such. So, taking time off in any way has often felt like a trade-off, especially in the early years.
And then I figured something out. When I don’t heed my internal call to slow down – the natural ebb-and-flow of my personal productivity rhythm – I am not nearly as effective as I could be. Business actually suffers as a result. So, about 5 years in, I drew some hard-and-fast time boundaries.
While I had always honoured a 4-day work-week as part of my self-employment, in deciding to be more mindful of my personal pace, I -
Worked 9 am – 3 pm for the most part (this allowed me to be available for my children before and after school)
Got really deliberate about what kind of work I would focus on, and delegated the rest (I’m super thankful for my bookkeeper and the various Virtual Assistants I’ve worked with over the years)
Learned to listen to my body and mind and included loads of “scheduled blank space” in my calendar, to allow for buffer time, creative time, travel time – anything but scheduled time
In addition to all of this, a couple of years ago, I chose to include a yearly, month-long summer sabbatical in my work. This is a 4-week hiatus from my regular coaching and facilitation work (and it’s separate from my vacation time). My sabbatical time usually includes a focus of sorts, and the time during that 4-weeks can include reading, writing, studying – anything but coaching and consulting. Moreover, it’s all done at a leisurely pace.
By the end of the sabbatical, having used a different part of my brain, and done so in a different way, I’m generally more restored. This restoration makes me better able to ramp up into the faster pace of the autumn season (before things slow down again in winter, although I don’t take a sabbatical then).
This year, I’ve added a part-time role to my work, as a member of the Faculty Development Team for the Co-Active Training Institute. At first, I figured this meant forgoing my sabbatical. And then I realized, I could still take it. My sabbatical, after all, is from coaching and facilitating, not from work in general. And so, I will continue to honour my need for a slower pace, I will continue to take a break from coaching and facilitating, AND I will still be able to honour my commitment to CTI.
Now, I realize that not everyone has the luxury or the privilege of being able to set your own hours, or completely heed the call of your mind’s rhythms. I guess what I want you to know is this: unless you are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you’ve probably got some capacity to get creative about your time. Even if you can’t get creative within the bounds of your professional space, you probably can exercise such creativity in your personal space.
So, I invite you to ask yourself:
What’s your ideal work rhythm?
What are you being called to tweak?
What would become possible for you if you heeded the call?
Whatever your personal pace, whatever your mind and body need, give yourself the time, space and permission to honour that need. In the long run, your work will be better for it. And when we can all do better work, the world just feels like a better place.