WHAT Do You NEED To PACE YOURSELF?

A few days ago, I was in conversation with Amy Soper who serves as the Director of Volunteer Growth for Women Doing Well (www.womendoingwell.org).  Among the many things that has impressed me about Amy and this new organization is their approach to developing their team.  Amy mentioned that in the beginning of this year, their President, Julie Wilson shared that their theme for this year is Pace.   In other words; their leaders should be looking at their own Pace, helping others with their Pace, and even perhaps occasionally questioning the Pace of the organization and its growth.

Something about the word Pace immediately resonated with me.  At a simple or surface level, I tend to think of the word as it applies to running, one of my passions.  And in that arena, Pace is simply another way of saying how fast you’re going - or the average speed you were running for a given training run or race.  Pacing can also apply to many other areas of life as we pursue personal goals as well as results we want to bring into the world.   So, as Amy and I talked, we went a bit deeper.  

Since this was actually a coaching conversation, Amy and I were discussing the priorities she was establishing for her new role.  In terms of her work, we discussed what activities and relationships could contribute to the Pace of her recruitment and training of volunteers.  As we explored, I found myself again paralleling this with running and improving your pace.  I say this because I know intuitively, there are things that will help improve your pace.  For good measure, a quick google search brought me to an article called 7 Expert Tips to Improve Your Running Pace.  If you’re a runner, I encourage you to click on the link.  If you’re not, stick with me, as there’s plenty beyond running coming up....

My point in sharing the above is that if you’re like me, there are times you struggle with priorities.   You question whether doing more of this or less of that will get you to the results you’re looking to create.  This is true whether it’s something as critical as your organization’s mission, a personal goal like writing a book or running a marathon or perhaps just finding some inner peace and calm.  It begs the question of what you truly need (to do, be, or focus on) and what you can truly leave behind.  

For example, to build your pace in running it’s worth focusing on your cadence, arm swing and body posture.  You probably don’t need to worry about things like your height (you can’t change that anyway!) or running “harder”.  The same goes for delivering on your mission.  No doubt having quality programs helps, strong servant leadership can make a huge difference and a sustainable financial position is critical.  At the same time, you could spend less time securing the best bagels for your fundraiser, having the snappiest website around and tweeting once an hour and still have a substantial impact on those you serve.  And finally inner peace and tranquility?  I’ll leave that to you but suffice to say getting stuck believing you are your thoughts and vice versa probably won’t help.

Like all good articles, you’ve got to have THE BIG TAKEAWAY and here it is.  I created an acronym to help you as you work to find the optimum Pace in your world.  I truly hope it helps.

P -  Priorities;  Have you identified what results you want to create and how critical it is that you create them?   
A -  Actions; Do you have a clear sense of what you need to do to create those results?
C - Clarity around Challenges; Have you identified the obstacles you’ll need to overcome and what you don’t need?
E - Effort and Energy; Are you truly ready to Expend the Effort and Energy?
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