How doing less helps you accomplish more

There’s power to pausing, says Kevin Cashman, whose latest book is titled “The Pause Principle: Step Back to Lead Forward.”

“We tend to overextend ourselves and as a result we develop a belief system that thinks to slow down or pause is weak, hesitant or nonproductive,” Cashman said. “As things go faster and faster, pausing not only brings in more creativity, it’s the thing we need to do to sustain ourselves.”

Cashman’s research found there are many health benefits to slowing down and taking a pause.

Here are two ways to cultivate pausing:

Collaborate. “When we’re working in a group we observe more, listen more and have a chance to sit back,” he said. “It’s a socially acceptable way to pause.”

Listen. “Listening is a big pause,” he said. “We step back, we set aside our own conversation, and we more deeply connect our thoughts and feelings to the thoughts and feelings of someone else. And it works. But not all listening is good listening. The biggest black hole of listening is when we’re really posing listening — nodding our heads — but the truth is we’re not hearing what the other person is saying. ... We actually need to challenge ourselves to listen on a multidimensional level — to thoughts, words, meaning, fears, beliefs.”

He offers these exercises to exploit the power of reflection:

Pause to connect with your core purpose. “Really ask yourself: What is most meaningful to you? What energizes you the most? What do you want to serve and contribute to the most? Get to your core purpose, which is where your talents and values come together — if your talents are really serving what’s most important to you, then you’re really ... at your best.”

Pause to build resilience. “It’s about tending to our self-care — our fitness, exercise, meditation, getting sleep — all those different ways of releasing stress and getting our energy back,” he said. “The energy that our culture encourages is manic energy — the caffeinated culture. But what we need for sustainability is that restful, calm kind of energy so we can be in the eye of the storm and (remain) quiet.” He compares it to an athlete in her zone, “that contrast between deep silence and dynamic achievement where real human potential is exhibited.”