Michelle Perchuk and Elena discuss how structured pauses improve energy management and help you reach personal and professional goals. The framework centers on taking intentional breaks to sustain performance rather than pushing through burnout.
Hi, Elena. I'm so happy to see you. It's so awesome to take a pause and enjoy some tea with you this afternoon.
Well, girl, it's really nice to see you. And it's funny you mentioned the pause because this is our subject of discussion.
Today with my clients. I tell them a story that happened with me a couple of weeks ago where I was recording a few webinars and just the energy was not there. And because I'm so in tune with my body, I listened to my energy. I almost have this gut feeling that I'm very familiar with, and I just was not feeling it. Many of my clients try to truck through it and they're like, no, I need to get this done. They actually don't realize that if they implement the power of the pause at that moment when they're not feeling it with their body, they actually go away and come back and show up more powerful, with more of an impact. You're training yourself to really listen to your body. And in your case, listening to your body, where you are gaining weight or you're bloating or you have allergies or skin conditions, I mean, the list could go on and on and on. People just ignore those things.
Science can be very subtle. What you said that people, majority of us, sometimes just plow through this. They think, oh, I just have to meet this deadline and then things will go different, right? And as a result, people consume more coffee to keep themselves up to beat. They consume more alcohol to calm themselves down. They smoke more, they use other stimulants or sedatives. All of those things are actually signs of ran down or burnout. And this is a perfect time before you hit the wall to reassess and take a pause. What I find is difficult that, you know, many people think, oh, I'm going to go on vacation and that's going to be my pause. But actually, it's not a pause. You preoccupy yourself with excursions and activities and meeting friends and drinking, eating. You're not really reflecting. So what I found is a structured pause is so important, something that they don't have to think about. Like in the case of this fasting, mimicking food plan, it's so important to know exactly that this is all you eat right now for five days. And you don't need to think about cooking dinner. You don't need to think, what are you eating, what are you snacking? Everything is so structured. So in your case, structured pause is also probably extremely powerful.
Well, the structuring comes into play when I work with my clients, because I actually developed a framework that people can follow and they don't need to think of anything else. Just like they could follow this mimicking diet, they could follow my framework. So they establish a goal that they want to meet. By a certain time. They start working with me. We define action steps, I keep them accountable. We meet for three sessions, six sessions or 12 sessions, whatever they would like the program to be. And then by the end of the sessions, they are closer to the goal or they have additional insights and they continue going. So there's actually. When clients work with me, they gain not only the knowledge that I've had in executive recruiting my entire career, but they actually walk away with a framework that they could follow not only in their career search, but they could actually.
Follow it in other life goals and identifying the barriers. Sometimes we can get to that goal, but finding out what holds us to accomplish that and maybe pausing and reflecting on that is so important. You're doing such a great job for people in humanity, Michelle, and so many people can be influenced by your skills and get where they need to be to meet their purpose in life and feel accomplished and feel that they're living the full potential.
Absolutely. And it's interesting how we are from two completely different industries, but the actual coaching is what really brings us together because I do one type of coaching with my clients. And I'm sure that you do a lot of coaching with your clients.
Yes, well, of course, the word doctor is a teacher and of course teachers coach as well. So we definitely implement a lot of coaching for our clients because change is not easy. We also have some coaches in practice who will walk with the patient, basically holding their hand to accomplish what they need to accomplish health wise and bring them to the optimal health. I think it's such a timely service to offer. And kudis to you, girl.
Thank you. Well, cheers. Let's make a toast. Power of the pause.
