Monday, January 11, 2010

The Put It In The Drawer Pause


Power Pause #6: The Put It In the Drawer Pause
Outcome: Your impulses will be proactive instead of reactive.

There may be times when you rush through an email and hit ‘send’ only to find a senseless mistake later on, or that you hit ‘reply to all’ when you meant to send to only one person. You may react to an emotionally charged situation in the heat of the moment only to regret it later or a bad decision will be made in order to close a discussion. The put it in the drawer pause is meant to give you time to think before you act and time to review your actions before there are no options. It can also be described as the patience pause because patience is precisely what it takes. So, take a deep breath and use this pause as a way to catch yourself from reacting impulsively or emotionally. The metaphor of putting it in the drawer is a useful one because you can use the imagery for just about anything. You put it on hold by putting it in the drawer. How long it stays there is up to you. It may be there for a few moments or a few days. In the end, you may not change a thing but the pause will ease the pressure of urgency and avoid potential headaches or back tracking in the long run.

1 comment:

  1. Great strategy for parents and how they react towards their kids...

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