Here's What is Shamelessly Robbing Us

I sometimes miss the old days. Back when the only phone anyone owned was “THE land line”.
Remember how we used to answer it? “Hello, this is Nate?” You know, with the raised intonation of a question.
There was mystery, suspense, excitement. My siblings and I used to actually RACE each other and scratch one another’s eye’s out to be first to the phone.
When I didn’t want to be disturbed, I could just ignore the phone’s ringing and not have to make an excuse. We could do this for several days in a row and never be called out (no pun intended).
But now … well, the phone follows us to the bathroom.
Can’t claim to be “out” … you now have to waste valuable thinking time to offer a real explanation for not picking up.
And even if you have the best reason, it only gets you off the hook for a minute.
Because there’s the pesky “missed call” feature that invites the imposition to call back later. And it doesn’t matter if the call happened a WEEK ago — you’re still responsible for calling back. People have such little self-respect that they are prepared to quiz each other and challenge one another’s excuses for NOT wanting to speak to them.
But you know what really messed everything up? The internet!
Communication is all about “real time” now. As if we needed more distractions … as if we were all begging to have our personal time invaded by outsiders.
People stick themselves into each other’s time with Facebook, Skype, messenger, email, SMS, voicemail, and phone.
Technology can siphon your personal space, your time — and your money.
If you’re not CRYSTAL CLEAR on your boundaries with this stuff, it will rob the life from you. Especially during the upcoming tax season.
Because hardly anyone ever contacts you to tell you they want to GIVE you something. They always WANT. And one phone call is all it takes to ROB you of a day of your life.
A day you could be dedicating to something else…
Like reaching your goals…
Like being with your family.
Like pursuing what God has placed you on this ol’ ball of dirt to accomplish.
The only real benefit I see to the whole thing is people are now available on a GAZILLION avenues through which we can reach them with OUR messages.
Hardly anyone uses technology the way it was meant to be used. Instead, we let others use it to suck our time and money.
So here’s a bit of advice from one entrepreneur to another…
If you’re going to download some new communication app for your phone or sign up to a new social service … make sure you use it for its proper purpose in your life.
To grow your business. To reach YOUR goals.
Not someone else’s.