Giving pause vs stealing the revelation
Giving pause is something I constantly strive for as a coach.
If I’m doing my job right, when I give pause I’ve caused a small shift in perspective. It's a moment where someone's story, one that they have been telling themselves over and over, has encountered a new aspect. They find a hidden truth. It can be enlightening to hear, or it can be a challenging but necessary truth to face. Either way it’s bringing attention to a fork in the road, and something has changed for good. A new future awaits.
It’s an appropriate term too - giving pause - and I’ve had it given to me, by coaches, by friends, by family. Looking back, it truly was an act of giving. There was always generosity behind it, a meaning that had to be expressed, a mirror that had to be held up to me. Those who crossed that gap to tell me the truth, did it out of care.
Giving this gift of meaningful silence to someone else can change a life. In that space, in that little moment of generously creating tension, where there is ostensibly nothing, everything can change.