15 ways to harness your pause power

Because the best thing you can buy is time.

A long time ago, I used to do this Elle McPherson workout video. She made it with a trainer, who seemed completely annoyed any time Elle talked. It really made me laugh, and sometimes I would yell at the TV, “Just be quiet, Elle!” But these workout videos came to mind because of one of Elle’s observations. Holding at the top of a rep, in her distinctive Australian accent, she said: “It’s all in the pause, isn’t it? That’s where all the work is done.” The trainer was blithely like “uh-huh.”

But Elle was right. The work was in the pause. It’s never left my mind.

I’ve written before about quitting. How basically for most of my life I never quit anything. And how when I found the power to quit things, I got happier. My dad would say, for example: “You don’t just leave the law.” But I learned to override him. I quit again and again in ways small to massive, gleefully leaving books partway read (eeek) and quitting jobs, careers, my first marriage. We built my business, Honor Code Creative, with a no-retainer model so clients to keep choosing us for the work we did, not because they were struck in a contract. But also, I wanted to be able to quit a client if they created roadblocks or crossed lines. I wouldn’t waste my life feeling miserable! The “winners never quit and quitters never win” adage? For me, it morphed into this: Quitters win.

But at 54, I’ve softened. (It’s a little late for wisdom, but hey, I’ll take it.) At 54 I’ve learned, before quitting, to pause. There’s even more power in it.