This week I had to travel to meet people that I work with every day. I have met these people face to face before, and we will meet again, but the majority of our interactions are online – video conferences, conference calls, emails, and communicator chats.
We live in The Technical Age. This allows me to do the majority of my work from home, it allows me to record and collaborate with people from around the world without ever having met them face to face, it allows me the freedom to not take on the energy of the world through a tiresome commute everyday, and it allows me time for creativity.
So why did I make the trip? ….because it was time. Even though we can connect on line 24/7 and often do – there was enough stress built up from not meeting live that we needed to meet. We needed to have a few meals together and play together and work together to really get to the gist of how we’re feeling today.
As a result of my trip, I will have a better working relationship with a few people for a few months, until we NEED to meet again.
You can coast on a relationship with 140 character sound bites for a period of time, but it is no replacement for going for a walk together or even just sitting together. The online relationship doesn’t replace the offline one; it only sustains it through periods when we can’t be together.
So with my To Do list put aside, I made the time to connect and I am tremendously grateful I did. It’s the people in my life that make me wake up every morning and want to take on the world, and having the chance to clink glasses and hear some personal stories was well worth my time and energy this week.
May your connections in this coming week be meaningful.
We live in The Technical Age. This allows me to do the majority of my work from home, it allows me to record and collaborate with people from around the world without ever having met them face to face, it allows me the freedom to not take on the energy of the world through a tiresome commute everyday, and it allows me time for creativity.
So why did I make the trip? ….because it was time. Even though we can connect on line 24/7 and often do – there was enough stress built up from not meeting live that we needed to meet. We needed to have a few meals together and play together and work together to really get to the gist of how we’re feeling today.
As a result of my trip, I will have a better working relationship with a few people for a few months, until we NEED to meet again.
You can coast on a relationship with 140 character sound bites for a period of time, but it is no replacement for going for a walk together or even just sitting together. The online relationship doesn’t replace the offline one; it only sustains it through periods when we can’t be together.
So with my To Do list put aside, I made the time to connect and I am tremendously grateful I did. It’s the people in my life that make me wake up every morning and want to take on the world, and having the chance to clink glasses and hear some personal stories was well worth my time and energy this week.
May your connections in this coming week be meaningful.