Last week, I offered up the concepts of personal Space, Pace & Place to help find inner stability while in-between jobs. In Part 1, I wrote about how my sense of Place was disrupted when my most recent role was eliminated, and I shared some practical tips for rebuilding your Place while looking for your next job. Below, I reflect on my personal Pace and Space, along with ideas for managing your Pace and creating Space. If you read to the bottom, you’ll also find a link to a worksheet you can download to guide your reflections and discussions.

My sense of day-to-day Place was abruptly changed for me earlier this year. I didn’t seek it out and I had no control over it. My position was eliminated, along with those of 7K other professionals, as a part of a mass layoff at my most recent company. While I haven’t written about Space, Pace & Place for some time, it continues to be something I anchor to in my life. Most recently, it is a framework that has helped me significantly to build resiliency during this uncertain, in-between time as I explore what might be next for my career.

When we’re feeling strong in all three areas of Space, Pace & Place, it is likely that the energy we feel and the energy we give to others is very positive. We’re more centered, grounded, and open to others. We feel a sense of fulfillment in our life. The opposite is also often true: if we’ve been rushing around, haven’t carved off time to exercise or eat well, or don’t feel like we belong to a community that matters to us (at home, at work, or virtually), our energy is likely to be depleted, negative, and even off-putting to others. This can have a huge impact on our process of searching for a job. Gaining some awareness of how you’re really doing and why you’re feeling what you’re feeling is necessary in order to progress in a way that is most impactful for YOU and your situation.

My invitation to you today is to consider, "What if Space, Pace, and Place were sources of power for you to pull from vs. pressures of power over you?"

When I think of reclaiming my own power and choice, lately I have been choosing to make Space for BOTH pain and joy. Just like the Disney-Pixar movie, Inside Out, so creatively articulates, we need to experience our full range of emotions to live our fullest life.

What has become more clearer than ever to me is that awareness of who I am and what I’m feeling at any moment in time is of the utmost importance. Using the framework of Space, Pace and Place has helped me to:

1. Better appreciate what is going well in my life
   and

2. Acknowledge what is not serving me well

I believe, in my bones, that all of us, introvert or extrovert, all desire to be connected with others. The more connections we have, the more positive charge we carry. But when those synapses are loose, weak, or broken, our positive charge weakens in return. The hard part is that we can't see the connection, we can only feel it.