Old Ideas Not Working Anymore?

"We aren't forced to follow the old ideas."
- J George Bendorz

On the surface, most people would probably peg me as an old-fashioned kind of guy. I enjoy most of the traditional aspects of life, such as appreciating family, doing what you say you're going to do and making deals face to face with a handshake and a smile. This day in age, however, what used to be the norm is no longer the case. As the quote states above, we aren't forced to follow the old ideas, so if everything around is changing, you'll need to either adapt to the changes or find the environments that are better suited to your beliefs. Naturally for me, I look for a balance of the two by adapting to the way the world works around me without sacrificing my core values.

We live in a world today of 24/7, and I work in the field of always open, or always online. Being a web-based company building websites for businesses, in addition to the availability and convenience of technology and cell phones, it would be easy to get caught up in being available all of the time. This kind of commitment could quickly deteriorate one's quality of life as one man's time shared by hundreds of clients would ultimately dominate their existence. It may be hard to foresee this kind of commitment when you're just starting a business and only have a few clients to manage, but if you value your time outside of work, it's important to never let go of it in the first place. I made it a point very early on in our business that I am available during certain times of the day and certain days of the week, and my clients have respected that. Not everyone works the same in business, so I've sacrificed some of my old fashioned values of a handshake and a smile to do a deal, however, I've protected my personal time so that I can maintain a life outside of work.

The same concepts apply to my personal life. Although my ideals may verbally mimic that of an old Leave it to Beaver episode - dinner on the table every night at the same time, family and friends over every day socializing and carrying on, mowing the lawn on the weekends, etc. - the world around me doesn't operate that way. It seems like there is just more things to do, but not more time to do it. I remind myself often that having to work too hard at creating an ideal, is not ideal at all and sometimes you just have to go with the flow. This certainly doesn't mean that you shouldn't work toward achieving what you want in life, but sometimes a compromise along the way may not feel like a compromise at all. It's important to understand the goal and not always get caught up in the details of achieving that goal - you may just miss what you were after in the first place! For example, having dinner at the same time every night isn't really about always being hungry at the same time, or being fed at the same time, but rather the consistency it provides is just one less thing to think about each day as it eventually becomes routine and second nature. Having dinner a half an hour later one day from the next isn't going to make all that much difference in the day so there's no reason to rush or stress about a detail like that (not that anyone I've ever known has, just trying to make a point).

Consider some of the old ideas you may hold on to and think about whether or not they still work in today's world. If they do, then find a way to find a balance between how it applied in the past, and how they may best apply now. Otherwise, abandon your old ideas altogether, after all we aren't forced to follow them at all!