This Thursday morning, I was just in between a coffee appointment and a hair appointment, going through my typical driving routine: return to car, buckle up, adjust the station, drive out, feel around on the passenger's seat for my phone, wait until I'm driving on a normal, straight road, check missed calls and messages (both office and cell voicemails, text messages and emails), return calls, return messages (at stop lights or if I'm not in traffic), etc. until I get to my destination.
This time, however, I only got to the point of finding my phone, saw that it was vibrating like crazy, wondered who a number was that I didn't recognize, looked up, and YIKES! The car in front of me had come to a dead stop. I slammed on my brakes but still ended up hitting him, not damaging his car, but definitely making my car unsuitable for taking out clients, to say the least. It turned out he had stopped for a crosswalk that I had not seen coming. Luckily, there was no one crossing.
I just wanted to post this on AR as a reminder to be careful out there, because I know I'm not the only real estate agent out there cranking on a blackberry, trying to be as connected and responsive as possible, and I know it's a tough habit to break. Productivity feels good. But even when you look down for a second, something can happen, and the guilt of being responsible is simply not worth it.
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