South Africa does not have a single official national sport, but rugby, cricket and football (soccer) are considered the most popular and are often called the “Big Three”. Rugby is historically popular with South Africans and is sometimes cited as a contender for national sport status due to the success of the national team, the Springboks.
But what has this to do with ‘Set. Pause. Engage.’?
Simply put, ‘Set, pause, engage‘ refers to the old scrum engagement sequence in rugby, which was replaced by ‘crouch, bind, set’ to improve player safety and speed up the game. The older sequence involved players touching their opponents (touch) and then waiting (pause) before joining (engage), a delay that has been removed to create a more direct and safer engagement.
So back to – set, pause, engage. This got me to thinking about life and work balance, and how sometimes we do things far too hastily, without giving the necessary review to what we are currently working on, where we are heading, why we do the things we do, and what is it ultimately that we want to give and get from this life we live.
- Set can be likened to: set your goals, intentions and plans.
- Pause can be likened to: set your goals, intentions, and plans.
- Engage can be likened to: once you have set your intentions, paused to reflect if you have covered all basis, now you can begin engaging with your audience on whatever topic it is you want to promote, discuss etcetera.