Pause. Think. Re-start.

Pause. Think. Re-start...

Three different words; however if brought together and put to practice can change lives for better. Wondering why... let me share a small story. I travel to office by local train. Every day while returning from office, I walk for a kilometer from my office to the train station. Man! I walk fast, and that’s a routine. It is only one day that my colleague accompanied me and took a turn on a street that I discovered was a short cut to the station. Over the next couple of days, I realized that I can save about 3 minutes if I take the short cut. It is then that it struck me...why is it that we keep running in our lives without really thinking. My sole aim was to catch the earliest train. I was so obsessed with the route I followed that all I cared about was walking faster. I never paused to think if there is an alternative route.  

And that’s where I think this is a powerful combination… Pause. Think. Re-start. 

We get so used to the routine or a single way of doing things that we forget to pause and think out of the box and then we complain of monotony and boredom. A lot of us crib about our jobs or the sales figures or our marriage. Whatever be your problem, these are all symptom of deficiency of vitamin P, T & RJ. 

When is a right time to pause… at times there are visible and obvious cracks and at times, we need to dwell deeper to identify them. The visible ones are those where we complain. The deeper ones are those where others complain. In either case, ask yourself and think are you working in the right direction. 

For example, you are not getting sales. May be you are not targeting the low hanging fruits to begin with or you are targeting the wrong prospects or you are not understanding their real concern and addressing them. Instead you are probably talking what you have with you and not what they want. It could be an issue of positioning it differently. 

Similarly in your marriage, pause and think what is killing the spark. Identify her expectations, what is it that she likes and dislikes about you? What is it that brings a smile on her face? Instead of expecting her to make changes, take the initiative to find what change she expects from you. Make the move my friend. Do a few things the way she likes it and see the difference. Do something differently. For instance, we use social media to build our social network, use it to re-build your marriage. We are all on FB these days, find out what has she liked or what she is discussing… mind you, don’t stalk her there. Do it to know what she likes that you don’t know. Take eating out as an example. Find out if there is any restaurant she has liked or commented or following. For a change, take her there. Once you do so, look at the difference it will make to her. You will immediately see the glow and surprise on her face. There are many such small things you can do to bring back the spark. All you need to do is pause a little, think over and then re-start. 

I’m telling you this principal applies to all walks of life and situations… identify yours, apply it and see the difference for yourself.