The Power of the Pause
When talking about discrete time intervals, there are two specific examples that come to mind. As a professional speaker and a Distinguished Toastmaster, I’ve learned one of the most difficult things to do in giving a speech isn’t selecting the correct words, it’s knowing when to pause. It’s one of the most difficult techniques to learn because when you’re speaking, you think every available second needs to be full of sound. You can say more with a moment of silence than you can with a shout.
Discrete time intervals also apply to ballroom dancing, and that’s even harder to master because it can involve the entire body. A specific move in a waltz or a tango can be broken into smaller and smaller pieces. They don’t seem important individually but when they flow together, they make the simple seem elegant; a pause speaks even more loudly in the context of that flow.
The pause allows us to make the ordinary appear and sound extraordinary. While it takes a lot of practice to make the sounds or the moves appear to be seamless, once mastered it becomes a habit. Then it’s no work at all.
Where is the going? You’ll find out on Saturday.
What are you prepared to do today?
