Modern Convenience? Not Really.

Copyright 2006 Melissa Galt

In listening to radio advertising recently it struck me that a bank is offering as its unique selling proposition that it is open on Sunday. While I am sure that many consider this a significant convenience, I don't. All I see is that it enables us to stretch our errands out, our chores become endless and our workweek now goes to a full seven days, since most banks have branches already open on Saturdays, for six day a week service. In addition, how does this truly benefit us if any transactions made on the weekend don't show up until Monday anyway. We seem so interested in a world of 24/7 but don't realize what we are sacrificing by getting it.

This isn't a convenience if it robs us of our already diminished "free time." This isn't a convenience if it encourages us not to slow down, not to recharge, not to take time out and instead just add another day to the mix. Americans are known worldwide for our workaholic culture. Compared to Europeans we don't get nearly the vacations, our normal workweek is significantly longer in hours and stress. We don't enjoy the family time that most other cultures encourage and thrive on. Yet business continues to find new ways not to allow us that time to decompress and revive but instead to work longer and harder.

I actually look forward to the idea that Sunday many businesses are closed. It means that I get a chance to take time out, to slow down, and if I want to work it is for me, not for clients. But experience has taught and continues to teach me that when I truly take a weekend, I approach the week ahead revitalized, recharged and capable of far greater productivity than when I have worked seven days straight. I am not suggesting that deadlines don't occur and overtime isn't sometimes essential, but reconsider if you are making it a way of life.

Really take a look at your schedule and see if there is indeed any balance in it. Is there time for you? Is there time for family and friends? No one has ever regretted not spending more time in the office or at their chosen career when all is said and done. Life is truly about our connections, our relationships, our experiences rather than about the endless quest for the dollar and the uniquely American striving for more stuff. We work so we can have more. Yet few of us have taken the time to assess the incredible abundance we already have and we don't enjoy what we haven't taken time to be aware of.

Be careful of what you consider a convenience, it may simply be enabling you to do more instead of exploring the idea of doing less and being more. Think of the words Human Being, and yet realize that most of us have forgotten how to be and are simply human doings. Which are you? Can you find the path back to balance and look for conveniences that shorten our task driven lifestyle rather than extend it? Take the challenge.

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