How About a Hug?

In this day and age, it's easy to get lost in our hyper-connected, ultra-technology filled lives. Once in a while, it may be a good idea to reconnect with folks the old-fashioned way...by cellular phone.

I got a phone call day before yesterday. The caller said "Hi Ramon, it's Susan Chan." Now Susan Chan is a Feng Shui consultant whom I had met a few years back at a networking event I had organized. At the time, I thought she was very cool and that we had good chemistry and that I would have enjoyed working with her at some future date. We'd emailed a few times on business matters but never got the chance to go out for coffee as we'd always discussed.

So here she is on the phone and she said "Ramon, I'm calling because I feel that we've all gotten so wrapped up in technology that we've lost that human touch. So I wanted to reach out to people whom I like and just connect." Or something to that effect. "So how are you doing?" She asked and off we went talking about our businesses, our families and what exciting things were going on in our lives.

Needless to say, it was a pleasant break from my work routine plus it gave me a great new topic for my e-newsletter/blog.

Today, we Tweet, we FaceBook and we Link-in. Some of us go so far as to eblast and blog too. We walk around with our faces in our BlackBerries or iPhones or we plug into our iPods. But are we connected? Not to the internet but to our fellow men and women? Our friends and families? Our humanity? Do we spend enough time with our children, nieces and nephews? Do we call our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts just to shoot the breeze? Are we building and strengthening the relationships we have with our friends or is it just on cruise control via Facebook and MySpace?

I read an article a few months back about a study that found that, not surprisingly, "things" do not make us happier as much as experiences and relationships. In the end, the material things we've accumulated aren't going to matter as much as the memories, feelings and experiences we've shared with our loved ones. Kind of puts a new twist on the definition of "tangible", doesn't it?

Whether in your personal life or your business life, it's not a bad idea to check to see if you're REALLY connected to the folks in your life. And if you're feeling a little empty or something is missing in your life, or even if business is just slow, why not just pick up the phone (and please forgive the cliche) and reach out and touch someone?

Of course, the ironic thing about all this is that Susan called me on my iPhone and now I'm tweeting/blogging about it. Sigh.

 

Comments

[Nabil Khan]

Love this! And no problem with tweeting :)