Today’s Compass Check: Presence at the Red Light

This morning, on my way to campus, I hit every single red light. You know the kind of drive — when you’re already running behind, and the universe seems to say, “Not so fast.” I caught myself drumming the steering wheel, muttering under my breath, and feeling the tension rise in my shoulders.

Then I remembered: this is a compass moment. Presence isn’t only for the big, dramatic leadership decisions. It’s for the small, ordinary ones too — like how I sit with three minutes at a stoplight.

So I took a breath. I let myself actually notice the quiet hum of the car, the early sunlight catching on the windshield, the pause. Nothing changed outside me, but something shifted inside.

That’s the thing about presence. It doesn’t always fix the circumstances, but it changes the way we live them. And when leaders model that shift, it ripples. A pause in a meeting gives someone else the courage to speak. A breath before answering resets the room’s energy. What feels like a small personal practice is also a cultural redesign: slowing down the urgency culture that silences voices on the margins.

Presence at the red light is practice for presence at the table. It’s a reminder that leadership isn’t only measured in deliverables and deadlines — it’s in how we inhabit each ordinary moment.

Journaling Prompt:
Where in your day do you rush past yourself without noticing? What would it look like to pause, even briefly, and allow presence back in?

Integration Mantra:
“I don’t need more time to find presence — I need more presence in the time I already have.”