Space, Pace & Place - Part 2: Awareness, Appreciation & Acknowledgment

I certainly did not expect it to take me almost eleven months to write Part 2 here. However, like for most of us in the world, this year has been full of the unexpected.

To pick up from where I left off in Part 1, I invite you to reflect upon your honest answer to the question, "How are you?" With pandemic fatigue, longing for in-person time with my friends and family, and exploring what is next for me professionally, my own answer to this question is multi-layered, to say the least.

To ensure we're all on the same page, when I refer to Space, Pace and Place, I'm referring to the following (please read Part 1 for more details):

When we’re feeling great about life, we're most likely (even without knowing it) feeling a sense of strength across these three areas. And when the world is throwing us challenge after challenge, we likely feel out of sorts in one or more of these three things. In reality, these three areas are not mutually exclusive, as we often experience them intertwined. However, more often than not, it is easy to zip through life not even realizing what we’re feeling or why we’re feeling it, especially during a pandemic.

Raising Self-Awareness
With everything going on in my personal and professional life lately, plus what’s happening in the world, and the fact that the holidays are almost upon us… <pause for deep breath>… I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting about my own personal Space, Pace and Place. 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

It has allowed me to put words, emotions, and meaning to what I’m feeling and living out each day. This has, in turn, also helped me to speak with others about what I’m experiencing, so I can be more intentional about seeking out the support, encouragement and love I need.

Let me give you some examples of what I’ve recently articulated for myself:

• My Space:

  • I am loving my day-to-day flexibility right now (i.e. - to write like this).

  • I am really missing the opportunity to just “hang out” in person with my friends and family, which makes me feel lonely.

• My Pace:

  • I am grateful I can choose how much time I have in-between meetings and calls, so I am not frantically hopping from conversation to conversation without any breaks.

  • Sometimes I feel restless and impatient in the evenings with my kids, which makes me frustrated and then sad.

• My Place:

  • I am thrilled that I completely overhauled my home office (without buying anything) to transform it so it wouldn’t feel like my office from the last 9 years.

  • I really miss my previous sense of belonging - both with friends in my local community and professionally at work, which adds to my sense of loneliness.

Sometimes just appreciating and acknowledging gives us a new perspective, which can shift things inside of us. Other times, it may also be helpful to choose just one small change in mindset or behavior to try out. Through this reflection, I realized that for me, at least for right now, being fully IN the moment, whatever that moment it is, makes a huge difference in how I feel and with my relationships. To help me maximize the impact of this realization, I now leave my phone in another room when I come downstairs to be with my family for dinner and the rest of the evening. Having it out of sight not only keeps me from turning it on, but it also helps to keep me from thinking about things I might normally do on my phone that have nothing to do with being with my family (i.e. - checking email, reading the depressing news or lurking on social media).

So, what can YOU do?
My favorite way to work on awareness, appreciation, and acknowledgment is to not do it alone but to spend time reflecting and then talking with others. (Thank you to all of you who have been there in this way with me lately.) Therefore, before you head into the holidays, I invite you to spend some time - first on your own and then with someone else (could be a loved one, a friend, colleague, could be me or even a stranger) - considering your own personal Space, Pace and Place. Even a mere 15 minutes could make a difference for you, especially before diving into a grandiose new year’s resolution.

To help you with this, I have a holiday gift for you:

For each person who likes, comments or shares on LinkedIn about this blog post, I will send a brief Appreciation & Acknowledgment Guide to aid in your reflection and discussion. (If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, please InMail or connect with me there so I can get you the guide.)

As always, thank you for reading. I’d love to hear from you. Let me know what you think about all this. Even better, let’s set up time to talk!

In the meantime, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season. I wish you the Space, Pace and Place you need to thrive in the new year.

Copyright 2020 Matthew J. Wexler All Rights Reserved

All content and views shared here in this blog belong solely to the author and do not represent the perspective of any organization, employer or company.