Ready to Snap Crazy Busy and the Lure of Modern Life
Ready to Snap:
Crazy, Busy and the Lure of Modern Life
Are you too busy? Are you always in a hurry, juggling work and family tasks like balls in the air? Are you ready to snap?
You're not alone. Millions of successful adults are being swept up by today's frenetic, globalize, technology-driven lifestyle. We have plunged into a mad rush of activity, aided by high-speed Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, BlackBerries and email 24/7. We work longer hours, with escalating demands at work and home.
We expect our brains to keep track of more than they can handle and then find ourselves losing and forgetting things — impatient, anxious, worried and plagued by short attention spans. Modern life, for all of its timesaving conveniences, is sapping our creativity, humanity, joy and, occasionally, our sense of humor.
The speed of our lives threatens to destroy our most important connections. Unless you deliberately set aside time for what matters most to you, your connection to it will erode. When it does, you'll find yourself less energetic, less optimistic, less hopeful, less confident and less enthusiastic than before — and you won't even know why.
ADD Nation?
Since the mid-1990s, people have increasingly complained of being chronically inattentive, disorganized and overbooked. Most complaints originate from individuals who do not have clinically diagnosable attention deficit disorder. Instead, they suffer from what Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, author of CrazyBusy (Ballantine Books, 2006), calls "severe cases of modern life."
People have developed environmentally induced attention deficits, he asserts — a phenomenon he describes as the "F-state": frantic, frenzied, forgetful, flummoxed, frustrated and fragmented.
For many people, the F-state is fun. They use email, BlackBerries and other devices to remain stimulated at all times. Doing everything faster feels exciting. But living life faster, always coveting more data, won't increase your sense of fulfillment or deepen your connections to what really matters. Instead, you create the overload you complain about and wind up craving it when faced with moments of stillness.
Human Deficit Disorder
Too much electronic time, coupled with a dearth of human moments, will lead to an as-yet-unnamed medical condition. Symptoms include loss of personal vitality, an inability to converse, a craving for a screen when separated from one and low-grade depression.
Email communication is a poor substitute for authentic human interaction. Electronic messages lack what makes communication interesting and emotional. We send an email because a phone conversation requires too much time, energy and complexity.
At the end of the day, the amount of time spent interacting with others is greatly reduced. While you may, indeed, produce more in less time, you'll be faced with a gnawing feeling of emptiness and lack of fulfillment.
Solutions
No one would suggest giving up laborsaving devices and the conveniences of email and the Internet. You do, however, need a system to stay on top of what matters most to you.
Here are 10 principles to help you stay on track, adapted from CrazyBusy:
Do what matters most to you.
Create a positive emotional environment — wherever you are — by developing meaningful connections with people and eliminating negativity.
Find your rhythm through astute time management and careful planning of your day.
Invest your time wisely by paying attention to how you use it.
Don't get caught up in screen-sucking.
Identify and control sources of distraction.
Delegate what you don't like or aren't good at, and become interdependent with others.
Slow down. Stop and think.
Don't multitask ineffectively.
Play.
Ready to Snap Crazy Busy and the Lure of Modern Life - To learn more about this author, visit Jerry Pinney's Website.
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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