Continuation of the Theme

The last post dealt  with the idea of putting away the phone for a while, even a short period of time, as a means of focusing on what is happening in life now and getting away from what can be a distraction.  Little did  I realize that just a few days later a respected news organization would publish a story about the very topic. There was a story the week of August 26 from the Associated Press entitled "Sleep With Your I-Phone, You're Not Alone."  http://tinyurl.com/3ffc5jw    One of the key points made in the story is the growing fear that young people would prefer to interact with their phones as opposed to other people.  It mention how the smart phone, for all of its benefits for making life easier, is becoming an addiction for a lot of people.  This is a short post on this Sunday because the answer is very clear to me.  It is okay to put down your smart phone.  You do not have to check it every ten minutes  for messages, or to see if someone has updated their Face book status.  Any messages you receive will still be there in an hour or two.  And does the world really need to know the latest and sometimes very trivial development in your life?  This can all wait.  Waiting also affords you a tremendous opportunity and that is to engage in some great conversation or interaction with a human being and not a machine

Stretching the Definition of Vacation

I had some R&R time recently.  My wife and I traveled west to the mountains of Colorado and the base of Beaver Creek Mountain where the temperature never got above 75 during the day and at times hovered around 50 at night. ( It was glorious considering the heat index in Iowa that week was between 115 and 120.)  We stayed at the Westin Resort and there were times that I wondered whether we were actually on vacation.  First it seemed like a bad sign when we loaded the car and both of our laptops were making the trip. When I take vacation its supposed to be a get away from it all including a getaway from the electronic world because we all seem to be tied to it day in and day out.  Writing this blog us just one example. But while I checked email a few times and did a little work associated with my business Keys 4 Life, I was astounded at what I saw people doing at the pool and on the mountain. 

Here we were at a perfect time for relaxation, a time to "get away from it all" and people are sunbathing while checking their phone for messages or updating their Face book status.  Come on! Does staying connected have to be so important these days that we cannot disconnect for just a couple of hours?  I saw a father running after a toddler who was going from hot tub to pool and in transit..he was checking his phone.  Nothing can be that important.  We were in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.  Why can't that be enough?  I finally wised up about half way through our vacation.  The laptop went into a corner of our room and wasn't opened until we got home five days later.  I also intentionally left my cell phone in my room the final two days of the trip.  It was a very freeing experience. I think we all should do the same...just for a couple of days. 

The vacation with my wife was great and yes...most of the time we got a long just fine.  In fact, one of her co workers today was actually surprised that we went on vacation together, alone, and had fun doing so.  We'll do it again in early December when we spend a week in Cancun.  And I'll make sure that I leave the laptop at home.  My guess is I won't miss it and I bet you wouldn't either if you left it home when you head out on vacation the next time. 

Young People and Yearning

I spoke recently at a youth conference in Baltimore, Maryland. In attendance were about six or seven dozen high school aged students.  Several adults and some young people from the college aged crowd were there as well. The topic was understanding self worth, developing a passion in life to help others and remembering that the most important person in your life is you.  The talk went very well but it was what happened afterward that really had an impact and a life lesson.

 

A 15 year old girl came up to me with eyes that said she was searching for answers.  She told me she did not know what she was going to do with her life and she was having trouble making finding a focus.  It turns out she was a spitting image of the “teenager from the 21^st century.”  She was involved in five different sports at school and 13 student organizations or activities.  No wonder she was having trouble. It sounded like the kind of schedule that was designed for disaster or at the very least, exhaustion.

It really doesn’t matter that she had not found a direction in her life.  I told her I did not figure that out until the age of 44 which meant she had plenty of time. The real key here is that she was yearning for a direction.  Counsel followed with a suggestion to slowly begin to pull back. Instead of 13 activities or organizations cut it in half next year and in half again the following year.  Perhaps she could do the same in sports.  The point is the key to direction in life is finding something that becomes passionate for you. You cannot do that with 13 activities and five sports.  As you reduce those numbers the activities or causes that remain come to the top and develop into passions.  They often times develop into life long callings. 

 

So for the over scheduled, go ahead and reduce that clutter in your life. Take a hard look at your calendar and decide what should stay and what should go. Then focus on the items, causes or organizations that remain and enjoy