No Pause Button

Avi Charkham
2 min readJun 23, 2021

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I lost my voice this today. A coach without a voice? :-(

I started losing my voice during the weekend but when the week started I kept coaching. I couldn’t make myself pause. Today it reached a point that it was impossible for me to go on. I canceled the rest of the sessions this week. But it was difficult. You see I don’t have a pause button.

Pausing for real

I canceled all my sessions and the next thing I found myself thinking is “what do I need to DO now. What can I progress?!” Instead of pausing, I was looking for “productive” ways to “fill” the time that was freed when I canceled my sessions.

So I told myself. NO. YOU NEED TO PAUSE FOR REAL!!! and made myself go to my favorite place, the ceramics studio and spent 4 straight hours on the pottery wheel. There is nothing more centering and relaxing than the pottery wheel. You have to be 100% present at all times… And in that center, I found my voice again.

I still have all my sessions canceled tomorrow. I’m planning to sit on the pottery wheel again. I’m gonna let my voice regain its strength.

I’m going to PAUSE. FOR REAL.

Dear startup founders

Why am I writing about this?

Well, I spend 90% of my time coaching startup founders. And these amazing people, who I love with all my heart, suck at pausing. So much so that driven by their desire to serve their company and their team they push themselves to the point where they harm themselves, their health, their family, and ultimately the same companies they want to serve.

Your team needs their founders strong and healthy.
Your team needs their founders clear-headed and sharp.
Your team needs their founders to pause and take the time to think and recharge…

Because it is in those moments of clarity that great breakthroughs happen. It is in the spaces we create for ourselves as founders that inspiration comes.

So dear founders. Pause. Pause because you need it. And if this isn’t a good enough reason then do it for your team. For your family.

☀️🏄 🎨 🚴🏾‍♀️ 🧶 🏊🏽‍♀️ 🧗🏽 ⛵

❤️

My “pausing wheel”

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Avi Charkham
Avi Charkham

Written by Avi Charkham

Entrepreneur, product person & coach. founder @ https://unlock.Vision

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