Life is like call waiting. Call waiting is so annoying.

I seems like it has gotten even more annoying. I think it used to be just two beeps, and that was it. Now it seems to go on beeping forever. Well at least if you have an iPhone or a BlackBerry you can hit ‘ignore’ and not hear the beeping go off.

Life, though, is a lot like call waiting. There is always an option.

Here you are starting to talk to some woman (or man) in a store or at a bar, and there is one person after another coming in and out of left field interrupting. Those people and their interruptions are what I call “human call waiting.” We’ll shorten that to “HCW” for the rest of the blog.

Those people and their interruption are HCW because the person you’re talking to will always feel the need to talk to the HCW whenever they interrupt. The HCW brings their energy in the middle of a great conversation you were having.

So what do you do when a HCW comes over when you are having a conversation? Well it depends whether you are the person that the HCW is coming over to see.

If you are the person that the HCW is coming to see, then you need to tell the HCW “Listen, I’ll talk to you in a few minutes. I’m just in the middle of this great conversation with Mary right now. I really want to talk to you, but I want to finish my conversation with Mary first and give her my undivided attention.”

You need to ignore when other people come crashing into your conversation. You need to do it the way I’ve described, because that shows respect to the person with whom you were having the original conversation.

Think about it. Here is someone who is enjoying a conversation with you and is interested in you (or becoming interested in you). You don’t want to get distracted by HCW. HCW is a distraction you need to ignore.

It is no different than if you are on the phone having a great conversation with someone. HCW is a distraction you need to ignore. Ignore it and continue to give that person on the phone your undivided attention.

It shows interest. It shows attraction. It also shows manners.

You have manners. It’s really important to always give someone your undivided attention.

Life is full of all kinds of HCW. There is always some kind of HCW out there trying to distract you. If you allow HCW to distract you, you are going to miss a lot of great moments in life.