This week I attended my daughter’s morning assembly whereby she sang on stage with 20 or so other compatriots. A joyous some would say smuggish moment for doting parents, caregivers or relatives. So, I watched avidly enjoying the moment and wondered how she looked more grown up than she did even last week.
In the break between stanzas I panned round and saw 3-4 on looking adults fiddling with their Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) be they iPhones, Samsung Galaxies or whatever. Mm, Zombies.
Yes, zombies.

In a galaxy, far far away..

You see zombies are not in the present, worse they are actually not there. They are occupying a body, sure, yet in the PDA world they are floating in a digital galaxy, far far away, removed from their physical purpose. That is, to watch their young son or daughter perform, grow, smile, excite and forge character creation. Compare this thunderous life experience with scanning your Facebook or replying to unimportant / non urgent e mail to someone you don’t even like. The meaning depth is ocean to tea spoon. Why oh why.
We seem to see so much of it today. I took my children swimming on Wednesday. More zombies by the side of the pool. Padding away, surfing in a digital world which is more than likely pithy and paper thin. I belittle a little as yes, it may be ‘important’, but the importance is in the wrong place at the wrong time. One lady was glued for 40 mins with a half perky smug smile. A new lover, a new Farmers shoe range or viewing the Xmas office party photos where Dan got in on with Davina. Who knows. Who cares.
Business networking meetings. I do those. PDA fiddling is out, absolutely. Transgressions are two fingers to the team but the odd one still tries to give it a nudge like Dennis the Menace lifting the last cream cake away from dinner lady Janice while her back is turned. Dennis knows its wrong but his primal urge for self indulgence cannot be resisted. So don’t let Dennis mask the fact that in the business environment it is a gesture of disrespect because you are saying in your actions ‘I have something more important – in my mind – to do right now’.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a PDA myself, and it is a marvelous device. But it is only a device and I don’t let it con me in to engaging in communications which take me away from life’s glorious, irreplaceable moments. Because I can doesn’t mean I do.

Choose to be there, keyword: be

So this short post just poses the query to you, when you CHOOSE to witness something special, be it a concert, your boy’s first solo choir performance or even your uncle’s funeral. CHOOSE to be there in being. Just put it away. It will still be there. Those Facebook pictures will still be there. Your treasured Client will still be there. That life moment will NOT be there.
If you are wondering what relevance this has to winning habits, well, your life and business is all about being. Being true. Being honest. Being engaged. Being you and being there. In fact, it is all being. And if you take your being away from your valued customers for just one moment, it could be all over. And with that over, here’s another one : over and out.