A friend of many years lost his battle with brain cancer during the holidays. As you might expect, his passing is causing me to think about how I am living the latter years of my life.
One of the things I quickly realized was that I am allowing too much noise into my life. This was even further emphasized to me when I visited my wife’s grave on Christmas day. I had to struggle with what I wanted to “tell” her, because there was so much noise in my mind.
So, I am in the process of trying to reduce the noise. I have significantly reduced the number of people I follow on Twitter, and only check it about once a day now, instead of several times per day. I’m thinking of giving it up for a long while, and maybe permanently. And, I am thinking through whether I have too many areas of interest … perhaps it’s time to focus on fewer areas. Also, I am examining my Google Reader feeds to see which ones are really giving me value, and which are just noise. I am finding that a lot of them are just noise.
I’ll have more to say about this after the holidays are over. We’ll look at some ways to manage information influx. It would help me in preparing that article if you would share what works well for you in reducing the noise in your life.
Here’s my follow-up article: Processing Information When There’s Too Much of It.
Like sediment, life’s detritus has a tendency to keep building up until it covers what’s really important. Digging out is instructive, and helps us determine what’s really important.
I’m long overdue for such a digging out. I usually try to do so at least once a year, but missed the last couple due to health reasons. I’ve set aside this week between Christmas and New Year’s to get down to the basics and determine just what is “signal” and what is “noise.”
My deliberations are usually centered around the gifts that have been given me. I feel a definite responsibility to develop them for the good of others. So many of them have lain idle in my life due to my striving and seeking. I am faced with decisions about my current and potential actions (or non-actions), based on whether they further develop the ability to serve others, or whether they are just more noise masquerading as signal. My time is short, and I don’t have any extra to blow on wrong-headed notions.
I’ll be interested to read your article on what you are doing.
Mike,
Setting aside the week to address find the signal that is buried in the noise is a good idea, and probably something everyone should do. It’s probably more important for us “older folk,” but it is important for everyone.
I wish you the best in working your way through this. And, of course, I wish you a Happy New Year (with the same wish to all who reading this).
As I think about past Christmas seasons, I realize that noise grows each year. 24 hour news, web feeds, and information overload from all sources can occupy my time and attention. I find that an information fast (or news fast) can provide a recharge. But it is important to be prepared with reading and writing objectives during the fast. Turning down the noise and using that time to reflect and recharge has worked for me.
I have done this in the past in several different ways:
for an hour once a month
For a 3 hour plane ride (not too exciting a seat companion!)
For a weekend
For an extended period of a week – with time to read and reflect daily
Lowering the noise level and focusing on what is most important seems so logical but has not been easy on a day to day basis. Best wishes with your efforts!
Thank you for sharing, Del. Thank you also for the link to your wiki … I just finished looking through a few months of it. A lot of interesting material. More information for me to get overloaded with, eh?
Thanks again.
45 mins on the treadmill does it for me. I put in my earbuds and listen to some music. That way nobody tries to talk to me. I feel like a different person when I leave the gym. Also playing guitar, not learning something, just pickin. Living by yourself puts you in a different situation than me, I know. Not sure how I would handle that. If you do leave Twitter ,etc, please keep it touch. Take care and just remember sometimes you need to chill and not think so much. But, this is me talking.
Ray, thanks buddy. You are one of the key reasons I have not left Twitter … I enjoy your tweets, and it is always good to hear from you.
You hit on something with living alone … now that I am retired, I can take in information (noise) all day long, and generally do. Doing some things that don’t require information input, like playing the guitar, is a good idea. I certainly need to do more of that.
Back to Twitter, I think I just need to find the right usage pattern for it, so I don’t feel like it owns me, and I need to continue to cut back on people that do not interest me.
Thanks for the comment. See you on Twitter and Facebook.
Hello Bruce,
I recently “stumbled” across your blog and found your thoughts–and instrumentals–to be uplifting and appreciated. Thank you.
In regard to your friend who recently passed on–and, of course, the memory of your wife–following is a “paraphrase” of the 23rd Psalm I thought you would appreciate reading. It was given to me by a friend nearly thirty-five years ago during one of the those “difficult” times in my life and has remained a constant source of encouragement to me all these years–especially when my own son went to be with the Lord.
King David, of course, wrote the 23rd Psalm in the Bible to declare throughout his lifetime his love for the Lord and his trust in Him. But have you ever thought about how God might view this? That is the viewpoint given in this paraphrase. Sometimes looking at something in a little bit different way opens up an entirely new perspective and brings with it greater hope and comfort.
I was told that this was written by an assistant pastor who preferred to remain anonymous so that if any glory came as a result of reading it, that the praise would only go to the Lord. Indeed, much praise and glory have been given to the Lord through the years by me and countless others with whom I have had the privilege to share it. My hope is that it will also encourage and be a blessing to you and to all who may read this on your blog.
With Warmest Regards,
Bruce Jones
The Twenty-Third Psalm
(Paraphrased)
“I am your Shepherd. You will never have need of anything. This I want for you. If you will trust Me, and really allow Me to be the Shepherd of your life, I will give to you such great peace of mind that it will be like lying in the cool green grass of a springtime meadow. And as you learn to deepen your love and trust, a quietness will come over your soul like a serene calm lake. It will be a time of great refreshment to your inner man, thus preparing you to do whatever tasks I set before you to do, as it is for My honor and glory, not yours.”
“There will be times when, because of My great love for you, that it will be necessary to lead you into great darkness…darkness so great that you will feel as though you are standing at the very edge of life with death awaiting you below. But always remember, I am still your Shepherd. In the darkness you may not be able to see Me, but you have My eternal promise that I will never leave you or forsake you.”
“If you will continue to trust Me, even after you have been through a time of darkness, I will again flood your heart with such peace that you could even sit down and eat dinner among your enemies. Your joy will be so great that it will spill over into the lives of others; and as your reward, I will give to you all the truly important things in life. And when you have completed all that I have planned for you to do on earth, I want you to come up and live with Me forever and ever and ever.”
Thank you for sharing this, Bruce.
Best wishes to you.
You express something that is a huge problem in most of our lives. The fortunate ones like yourself, realize it and take some action to correct it. I wish you success with that Bruce.
Simplification brings focus and power. I also need to reduce the noise, though my noise is likely different than yours. Coincidentally (or not), I was just reading an interview with Leo Babauta. He talks about his life and how he simplified it to prioritize the essential and the important. He has a book out now called “The Power of Less.” He seems genuine. It might be a good read.
Best to you,
John
Hi John,
Thanks for mentioning Leo’s book. I saw that it is was out, but haven’t purchased it yet … I have had to make a promise to myself to not buy any more books until I have finished most of the ones I bought over the past couple of months. I have a lot to get caught up on in the reading area.
Turns out that I am in the midst of writing a post on managing the noise. I will likely publish it tomorrow or the next day.
Best wishes for your new year, John.
I am writing as of Saturday, March 17 2012, and this is my story. I was having a regular night, went to sleep and I was dreaming what you could call normal stuff. On my dream there was my mother and my step dad.In the dream we were all watching some kind of Broadway show and during the show I was really pissed off because I had things to do like work, study and all that stuff that I do every single day since I am some kind of work-study-holic. As I kept dreaming, my mom left the show where we were and I am just there with my step dad watching the show and I am still very pissed off about being there and he just tell me relax, don’t worry, just enjoy the moment and share time with us, at that moment I dropped something towards the stage by accident, I get even more pissed off and when I go to pick it up and I am trying to get back to the seating area, it happens that I can’t see any of my family and by some strange reason I can’t go back to the seat and I try and try and It becomes something really hard to do at the time., as I keep dreaming and I keep trying to find my family I just happened to see a bunch of people, telling me omg I am so sorry for your loss , I am sorry your step dad couldn’t make it, all what we know is that his heart stopped working. And at that moment (Still dreaming) I feel lots of pain, I am on denial and I can’t stop thinking in all I had to do was to relax, enjoy the time with my family and have a great time with them. I started to regret all of the things that I could say to my step dad before passing away and BOOM I wake up and I figure out everything was all a dream and suddenly I start crying like a little child. It was around 6 am when I woke up and I am lying on my bed thinking in all the people I love and how much I would like to just call them and tell them I love you man to my friends, I love you mom, I love you step dad and so on. I start to think that there is a lot of noise in our lives and that I can’t miss the opportunity to share and mostly importantly express my feelings to the people I love. I have always being what you could say some type of cold person in the sense that I am not expressing those kind of feeling with anybody. So I couldn’t get back to sleep and I decided to google ” noise in our lives” and in the first position of results I happen to find this story that is some kind of similar situation to the one on my dream. Just as a final note, it was discovered to my step dad a pulmonary illness that the performance of his lungs decreases every day until one day he would not be able to breathe anymore and unfortunately there is not cure for it. And he tells me everyday that it is important to work and study but that I need to relax and enjoy as well and I am starting to understand why he is telling me that. I just wanted to share that.