The Pause Is Not Counting to Ten

Almost a year back, when I decided to have a structure around writing, I discovered a framework called Move-See-Reflect.

To be transparent, I had shared by 400 odd blog writings to a bot and asked it to help suggest what framework fits into my writing style.

In this essay, I present a simple way to use Move-See-Reflect in daily life and at work.

Why this is needed

In today's world we are obsessed with purpose. Every act we do should have a well-defined purpose.

No one wants to live without one. Some are obsessed with finding purpose in every act of their life. Others fail to relate to purpose at all. They are trying to catch up. But both types share one basic notion — that they are in control of their acts and their outcomes.

In my experience, one reason we all work with a purpose is the idea of survival of the fittest. It comes from the Buffalo theory. The weakest buffalo in the herd falls prey. This notion is deeply ingrained in our social fabric. Our kids are graded at school. From school to work, in every phase of life, a sense of competition stays. Competition as in staying ahead in the herd of buffaloes.

This obsession with purpose, with survival, has a cognitive load. The mind chatters. It shifts continuously between system 1 — the daily routine — and system 2 — the ideas and plans we make to act with purpose. Back and forth, all day. We carry this load without naming it.

What the pause is

So how do you put it down? A pause. A conscious one. A deliberate moment of doing nothing.

Think of the pendulum in a wall clock. Stop it with your finger. Hold it. Then let go. It swings again, and in a few swings it settles back into its range. Pure physics. The clock was never broken. It was held still for a moment.

That holding-still is the whole thing. When the rhythm breaks, even for a second, calmness comes back. A sense of having a head and a body comes back.

This is not counting to ten before you react. Counting to ten is still you, holding the reaction down. The pause I mean wakes the observer in you. When the observer is awake, it does not stop anything. It only watches. There is no effort in it.

I call this the Thehrav method. It has three steps. Move. See. Reflect.

Move, See, Reflect

I will use one example for all three. Writing an outbound sales strategy for my boss.

Move is acting on purpose, not on impulse.

I decide to write the strategy. The thinking hat goes on. I sit and write my points — the why, the how, the what, the when. Fully focused. The act has started. But it started as a choice, not a reflex.

See is staying aware while you act.

The observer stands next to you and watches. You are focused, writing your points. And a part of you is detached. Not thinking about anything else. Not judging. Just seeing the Move happen. You are doing it and watching yourself do it at the same time.

Reflect comes when the act is over.

The strategy is written. Now you look back. At the whys and whats, but also at the Move and the See. Not to judge them. No opinion. Just a recollection of the whole thing, from a step away.

When the three are done, I am detached. Unbiased. And the process ends.

That's all it is

I know how it sounds. Abrupt. A little purposeless. Let that thought come and go.

You will understand it only by doing it. Try it. Tell me what happened.