Why Do We Hit Pause?

It can be a natural feeling to want to stop doing what you need to do in your daily life. Who wouldn’t just want to hit one button to solve all of their problems? Yet the more times that pause button is hit, the more we gravitate towards the easier path, and that only delays the problem. However, that isn’t the only pause button we have in our lives.

These buttons aren’t just something we press: some are already present on a timer. When we get tired, our body wants to press a pause button, letting our bodies rest. Hunger lets us know our body wants a recharge and some fuel. But most of these buttons aren’t an automatic response. Most of our pausing is of our own doing. You need to finish that one paper for your thesis, but your favorite show just premiered again, and you need to watch it? Just press pause on that. Asked to attend a meeting but decided to call out sick because you didn’t feel like it? You can just put a pause on that side of your life.

The worst part about these buttons is how easy they can be repeated. It’s procrastination at its peak, and all you need is to press it once for it to be easily replicated. And these buttons are eating away at the time people have on a daily basis. Life cannot stop itself and will continue piling up until addressed. So how can we address it? It isn’t as simple as just pressing play.

Well, sometimes it’s as simple as accepting that pressing pause isn’t so bad. You just need to know when to hit resume. Remember, it’s a pause button: eventually you’ll press play again and finish that “show”. Use that pause as a tool knowing that you can come back to your task. A rhythm of pausing and resuming will lead you to completion.