Walking around campus today I noticed something…. 8 out of 10 people I passed on my walk back to my apartment were
A) on cell phones
B) listening to iPod
or
C) both.
DAMN!!! What happened to social interactions among the younger generations? I’m not going to lie, I am guilty of listening to my iPod while walking to classes but I try to smile and say hello to those people who aren’t too caught up in their own music/phone to smile back and say hi. Many times people don’t even acknowledge that they are out in public and passing people on their walk. I’d like to know if you are noticing this in your day to day encounters as well.
What do you think is going to happen to the world if we continue along this path?
To be honest, I’m a little worried. What’s the future going to bring for those of us who grow up using cell phones, iPods, and laptops every day? Are we even going to be able to participate in an offline conversation? Will social interactions die as we know them? I don’t want to be 40 years old and struggle to have a conversation with someone because all I know how to do is “TXT LoL rofl!”
I don’t know about you but I personally do a lot of my work on my laptop and spend a great deal of time on my laptop or listening to audio books on my iPod but I still try to dedicate time where I interact with other people in my daily life.
This year I have started to realize the importance of relationships and have noticed that many of my relationships have taken a back seat to me building my business. I always seem to be either working on my laptop or learning about something related to the business. Of course I mix in working out for an hour/ hour and a half every day(if you aren’t exercising every day, you NEED to be). But I haven’t devoted as much time to developing relationships as much as I should be. Have you?
I feel that this is often a major problem for us Gen-Y Entrepreneurs.
We have such huge goals and ambitions that we often overlook the simple things in life. I know that if I didn’t chose the path of Entrepreneurship that I would most definitely still be doing the traditional college stuff like drinking 3-5 times a week and spending all my money on things that won’t benefit my future. I know that this is what the average person says that college is for, but as an Entrepreneur I feel that college is a time for me to learn about myself and develop myself into who I want to be. Maybe you’re in the same boat as me and want more out of life than just the traditional 9-to-5 bullshit.
You are probably like me if you are reading this blog, and I am glad that I am not alone in this. It’s a struggle and often times I feel like I am alone in this struggle (probably one of the reasons I have turned to social media to network with those like me )
The reason I am writing this post is that I am committing to make a change. I am committed to change who I am, to make myself a better person and to influence lives for the better. I am committing myself to devoting time to enhance relationships and take some time away from work. This may seem counter-intuitive because as young entrepreneurs we need to be working to make that money everyday right?
WRONG! We often aren’t as productive as we could be. Read Personal Productivity-Get More Done By Working Less for more information on this.
To end this post, I am not telling you to quit what you are doing on social media and spending time on the computer at all. I wouldn’t be able to build my business as efficiently without the use of my cell phone, blogs, twitter, facebook and forums. All that I am trying to get at is that sometimes we need to take a little break from our work and technology. Sometimes our biggest business breakthroughs will come when you have no technology or anything within your reach. Think about when you are at the beach and just relaxing, listening to the waves crash.
Take the time to enjoy your life, smell the roses and just sit there for a little bit each day.
You can try to meditate but it can be difficult to do, I try to do it for about 10 minutes each day. Sometimes longer depending on how stressed I have been. Just clearing my mind and thinking about absolutely nothing. A tip for this is to take all of your thoughts and gather them together, place them into a box and then throw a grenade in that box BOOOOM!!!! Woohoo nothing left anymore! < ---a little crazy but that's the best way for me to think about "nothing"
I hope this will help you have a better day and if it doesn't, you can send me hate mail. If you have any questions feel free to comment below and I'll help as much as I can. Remember, I'm learning just as you are so I don't know everything.
In fact...
I know nothing.
