The Power of the Pause and Why Delay Doesn’t Define Your Destiny
- Brainz Magazine
- Aug 14
- 7 min read
Arthur J. Rutledge is a mindset and leadership speaker, coach, and trainer. He helps people to beam with their dreams and how to put fire on their desires. Best-selling Author of the new book "11 Pillars of Confidence" published by the L.A. Tribune. Also an entrepreneur and co-founder of Peoples Pride.
In a world that often equates success with constant forward motion, it’s easy to believe that delays or pauses define our progress. But in truth, recalibration and reflection are powerful tools that allow us to move forward with greater clarity, creativity, and confidence. This article explores how embracing the pause can lead to deeper self-awareness, better decision-making, and eventual success, all while reminding us that sometimes the road less traveled is the one that leads to the most meaningful destinations.
The road unclear, still leads somewhere
The road not taken is never just one; it’s the sum of many routes unwalked, pauses mid-stride, and paths returned to with more understanding than before. Life rarely hands us a clean, clearly marked map. More often, we’re asked to step forward with half-drawn directions, incomplete clarity, and an internal compass that spins only as we move.
Sometimes we exit too early from projects or on ourselves, not because the destination wasn’t valid, but because our belief weakened under pressure. Our timing can feel off and find itself replaced with a complacent behavior. Yet just because the road is unclear doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. Progress doesn’t always wait for permission or perfection. Often, clarity is discovered through movement, not before it.
“You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.” – Charles F. Kettering
Recalibration is not retreat but realigning through pause
The ability to pause, reflect, and pivot is a form of power. Emotional agility is the quiet skill that lets us navigate uncertainty without unraveling. It’s the space between surrender and strategy. It’s the willingness to shift without giving up or shrinking from ideas of fault.
Recalibration allows us to slow down so we can move forward with more intention. This isn’t quitting or indecision. It’s honoring the process of inner alignment and realignment. Some goals demand room to breathe. Some dreams evolve quietly while we gain the language, strength, or support to carry them out.
Unfinished doesn’t mean abandoned unless you deem yourself a quitter. Stay away from such unproductive sentiments. Some tasks remain open for a reason. They’re still shaping us, and we are still shaping ideas. A valiant heart makes good ideas grow to infinity. Find ways to renew and pursue that infinite you. There’s no shame in waiting until your vision matures to match your mission.
“Your delay can still win the day.”
Sometimes people of particular genius can’t be rushed. They often accomplish the most when they appear to be doing the least. If you are of this type or walk in the process that’s quietly thinking, imagining, and forming the perfect idea in your mind, stand in the depths of solitude. Recalibration takes dips in time and leaves open space for reflection. Creating maturity in lessons and belief in the process of their mission. These things allow us to meet ourselves where our awareness has finally arrived.
Psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, in her 1927 study published in Psychologische Forschung, discovered what is now called the Zeigarnik Effect, the human tendency to remember unfinished or interrupted tasks more vividly than completed ones. In her experiments, participants better recalled the tasks that had been disrupted or left incomplete.
This isn’t an excuse for chronic procrastination by any means. It’s a call to those who carry guilt over delay. Everything in moderation. What if your delay isn’t failure, but part of your design?
What if stick-to-it-ness is actually the ability to put something down without forgetting it? To bend without breaking. A change in course, not a break in intention.
Giving your vision time to renew doesn’t mean you’ve abandoned it. It means you’re creating space for the version of you that can carry it through. Adjusting strategies, exploring new resources, and deepening your capacity, these aren’t detours. They are groundwork, Quality, and quantity, all bow before time.
Practice being intentional and specific with your passions. Let your vision ripen at its own pace, so that when it’s ready, it arrives whole.
“A willingness to look unimaginative for a sustained period, or even to look foolish, is also essential.” – Warren Buffett
Don’t stifle your voice
In moments of doubt, it’s tempting to shrink. To silence our ideas until we feel more “ready.” But withholding our truth doesn’t serve our growth. Creative pauses are natural, but permanent silencing is self-sabotage. What you know, feel, and offer matters, even if it’s still forming. The road needs your voice, not your silence.
Sometimes the boldest step is simply saying, “This matters to me,” and moving accordingly. Letting go of outdated expectations and timelines opens the door to fresh creativity. Growth becomes real when we stop imitating someone else’s journey and start honoring our own.
Let the things you’re no longer aligned with fall away without guilt. Let new truths emerge without needing to be perfect. Begin again as many times as it takes.
“Change is inevitable in life. You can either resist change and potentially be swept away by it or you can cooperate with it, adapt to it, and benefit from it.” – Jack Canfield
Facing change with resilience
Facing an unexpected change head-on means acknowledging our fear, mourning the loss of control and consistency, and stepping into the future with the firm belief that we are resilient enough to handle it. These truths, and the many quotes that echo them, remind us that while we can’t always control the twists and turns that occur in our lives. We can control how we respond to those changes. Change will come. What matters most is the posture we assume when it does.
“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” – Eckhart Tolle
Confidence in the fog
Confidence isn’t always loud or visible. Sometimes, it’s the quiet resolve to keep going despite the fog. It lives in how you show up when things don’t yet make sense. It’s found in persistence, not perfection.
Confidence grows through practice, especially in uncertainty or unresolved states of unworthiness. And it deepens when we allow ourselves to be shaped by difficulty rather than defined by it.
Practicing confidence includes making space for pause, delay, and recalibration without shame or judgement from others. It’s understanding that slow is progress too. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. I actually just saw a revamping of this race on YouTube in real life. It reminded me of its truth, even if it had a fictional premise. It’s a point to be made; The longer journey may be building the deeper strength you’ll need later. Life isn’t a sprint; it’s more of a jog.
Confidence shouldn’t demand all the answers up front when endeavoring to achieve what’s important to your spirit. It asks you, with the assistance of courage, to move forward anyway, with what you have, from where you are.
Permission to be new
Give yourself permission to be new, to start again, to learn and grow the way you are capable. No matter how far you’ve come, you are still a student of life. That doesn’t make you behind; it makes you open to your own possibilities. The world doesn’t reward only those who have answers; it honors those who remain available and amicable to growth. The ones who got stuck and lived another day to figure out solutions to get unstuck. Then share how. You are on a noble road with pitfalls. Be of the attitude to “get it done and stick to it till it’s done”! You will win with discipline or persistence, like every noble soul that ever lived on the plain of existence.
There is beauty in the uncertain. There is strength in curiosity. Let yourself move imperfectly. The process is where you build the strongest foundations for your dreams. Be willing to try again, not from scratch, but each time from experience. Trust that what feels delayed may actually be ripening in time. Some lessons can’t be rushed. Some visions require rest before they manifest.
Stay open to creative detours, fresh insights, collaborations with similar experiences, and again meaningful recalibrations. Let your practice be one of endurance and grace. Keep returning to what feels aligned. You don’t need to force pace or fall into a trap of a perfect layout, just keep moving and create from your center.
5 grounding practices for the unclear road
Name your next micro-step. Even when you don’t know the full path, choose one action that honors your values and moves you forward with purpose.
Check in with your alignment. Ask: Does this next move reflect who I am becoming, or who I’ve been trying to prove I am?
Practice “productive pause.” Instead of filling the unknown with noise, let silence teach you. Sometimes wisdom needs space to surface.
Reframe delay as design. Consider that what you perceive as delay may actually be preparation, protection, or quiet development.
Let imperfection walk with you. Don’t wait to be “ready.” Do it messy if that’s what's needed. Let your willingness speak louder than your worry. Begin as you are.
The world turns as you stretch.
Even when there’s no clear map, there is still momentum. Within you is a compass that sharpens with every step taken in truth. You may not know the entire way forward, but you know how to begin, and how to begin again. That’s enough.
Leave being fearful as the road reveals itself. Let the silence speak when it needs to. Let the delays teach you. Let your ever-evolving self take the lead.
Because even if the trail disappears, your intention doesn’t. Even when the map is unclear, you’re still moving somewhere meaningful. As long as you move with purpose, not panic, you will prosper. Shine on!
Read more from Arthur J. Rutledge
Arthur J. Rutledge, Author, Leadership Speaker & Coach
Arthur J. Rutledge is a thought leader with an unwavering mission to enhance, cultivate, and empower over a million leaders to fulfill their pure potential in life. Starting from a young age, his love for people became fundamental and sparked his passion for giving back by supporting people in their personal growth. 2024 marked the fruition of that endured vision with the new book " 11 Pillars of Confidence, build and Lead an Empowered You." He is also an entrepreneur, owner of Kap Group Events NYC, and co-founder of the online store Peoples Pride. His abetment in life is to continue helping people to reinvent and reinforce the vertical mindset, the words he is known to say as an encouragement to all, "Shine on!"
