“I’m so busy” has become a badge of honor these days.

If we are not busy, well, we must be lazy.

My auto response when someone asks me how I’m doing is “Busy.”

I’m not as busy as I think and feel most days.

We have full lives, yes. Sarah has a small business, I work a full time job and a small part time job in YL. We have active boys, a house that needs work and an extended network of family and friends that we love to spend time with.

Through all of this, Sarah and I are working hard to remove “busyness” from our lexicon and our schedules.

We are learning the importance of the need for a realigning of our concepts of Space & Pace.

To create Space for time together, with our boys, Space to laugh, do nothing, swing on the swings, read good books, playing trains.

To slow down our Pace to listen to each other, to make eye contact, to avoid multitasking, to ask good questions and to actually listen.

Creating Space and Pace to take a break from the mayhem is not a new concept. (Check this out.) It’s simply a concept that is not valued as much as it has been in the past.

I also need Space and a shift in Pace to be more creative at work. To get into a spin class, sweat like crazy and not answer my phone or emails. My mind has the freedom to wander to new places and generate new ideas.

To sit in the steam room after a work out and wonder about things that I don’t have space to wonder about at my office. To press pause, take a walk, and make a big decision.

Do we have the Space to care for our family and for ourselves? A Pace that provides room for creativity? Does your business or organization value this type of thinking?

May each of us take a good look at our lives…

& Create Space and Pace – for quiet, listening, being present and creation – it’ll be worth it.