“Y’all kids stop that racket! I can’t hear myself think!” Mama shouted. “Go outside and play,” she sighed. As a young kid I didn’t understand the context of how our racket (noise) stopped Mama from thinking, but as an adult now I get it! There’s a lot of racket, confused clattering unnecessary noise, around us that gets in the way and distracts us.
The thought of unnecessary or distracting noise came to mind recently when I took a small propeller plane from Washington DC Dulles Airport to the Billy Bishop Toronto City airport in Canada. The propellers were incredibly loud, and I was thankful for noise cancelling headsets to block the noise.
In all parts of life there are times and places where we benefit from finding ways to block, cancel, remove, or otherwise ignore the cacophony of noise around us, distracting from what is most important.
Examples of tools or methods we use are noise canceling headsets, listening to music, meditation, practicing mindfulness, and changing physical spaces to find a quieter spot in nature or other locations. The key point, find a method or tools that help you to ignore unnecessary noise and focus your attention on what matters most to you. I use many of these including the headsets, listening to music, and finding a quieter park, garden or out of the way cafe in bustling global cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, London and New York to block out the unnecessary noise so I can focus on what matters to me.
Sometimes the unnecessary noise is actual audible noise and other times it can be different distractions that interrupt our focus on priorities and goals in life. Noise or distractions can take the form of an incompatible location, physical objects that distract like our smartphones or television, a cluttered workspace, or sometimes other people around that unintentionally distract us like we were distracting Mama as little kids. She just needed us to go outside for a little while so she could focus.
There are times when you only need to ignore or remove unnecessary noise for a short time, and there are other types of noise or distractions that may need to be removed or blocked for a longer term. The point being, only you know what defines unnecessary noise for you in your personal and professional life and how you’d like to respond to it in a positive way to remove distractions that prevent you focusing on your goals and yourself.
In this busy holiday season there are often lots of unnecessary noise. As always, I encourage you to reflect on your own stories for how you define and identify unnecessary noise and what tools and methods you use to prevent distractions from what matters to you. I challenge you to reflect because as always, Your Story Matters.
Happy Holidays
