In this information era , whether you are managing yourself , a brand , or a team , learn to identify your goal and to keep yourself , brand or team focused . Appreciate the noise and its intensity but learn how to insulate from it . How you respond to this raucous environment will determine your success or failure . watchmen , but what changed is the way I relate with them . I deliberately chose to ignore . I learnt to cancel that noise from my life . To be honest , once in a long while , an incident may trigger anger back , but now that I am aware of it , I try as much as possible to manage it .
CROSSFIRE
Reacting To Noise That Distracts Us From Focusing
By Herman Githinji
It is difficult to focus on clear marketing communication in such a politically noisy environment . Noise is the unwanted messages in our space that distract our minds from focusing on what is important .
And in life we have so much noise . In this era of boundless information , much of which is pure noise , we must learn how to identify and cancel noise . In Marketing , ample options and choices are distractors and noise . We constantly need to be conscious of what removes us from our focus , our plans , and budgets .
Having said that , not everything that distracts our thoughts and agenda is bad , but a clear rule of engagement is required to qualify what you entertain and what you don ’ t .
I have joined many WhatsApp groups and there is too much noise in there as well . It ’ s truly a marketplace for divergent views , values , and norms . While you may not control what is shared in those groups , you can control the noise in there . I don ’ t read , engage , or respond to most WhatsApp groups ’ messages . And after a while I would delete all of them .
Besides the WhatsApp groups , I used to get distracted by two other groups of people . One was the matatu drivers and touts . I am sure they get into everyone ’ s nerves . Every morning while driving to work , my focus and my whole day was distracted by how I reacted to matatus on the road . Deep anger took the best part of my emotions and stayed with me for the most part of the day . Until one day I decided , I will never again get emotionally distracted by any matatu . I cancelled that noise and liberated myself .
The other group is that of watchmen . I loathe the way they wait for you to painstakingly park the car and then come to tell you that you should not have parked in that spot . That , and many other watchmen episodes used to work my emotions to a boiling point . That too , I made peace with it . Now they can toast me up and down as they want , but that no longer pricks me as my emotions are firmly tacked in .
In those two examples , nothing changed about the behaviors of the touts and the
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In this information era , whether you are managing yourself , a brand , or a team , learn to identify your goal and to keep yourself , brand or team focused . Appreciate the noise and its intensity but learn how to insulate from it . How you respond to this raucous environment will determine your success or failure . watchmen , but what changed is the way I relate with them . I deliberately chose to ignore . I learnt to cancel that noise from my life . To be honest , once in a long while , an incident may trigger anger back , but now that I am aware of it , I try as much as possible to manage it .
Where I come from , and the way I was cultured , we were taught to react to every invasive situation . That was not canceling the noise . It was reacting to the noise mainly by fighting it . And do you know what happens when you react ? It negatively draws your emotional energy leaving you drained and exhausted . It causes pain and not pleasure . Yet every day we go out there with the objective of minimizing pain while maximizing pleasure . Until you learn how to identify and ignore unnecessary noise around you , you will never maximize pleasure and enjoy inner peace .
The other way I responded to those pain triggers was by avoiding them . Avoidance is not cowardice ; it is choosing a space beneath or above the noise . As much as possible , I keep away from noise and situations that cause me pain . Ignoring and avoiding noise that causes you pain is wisdom .
Wise people learn how to reconcile themselves with their actual environment or situations . Reconciling with a stressful situation does not mean you don ’ t feel the urge to react , but you learn to accept , adapt , and move on . Weak people will always react and respond to painful events and offensive situations . They want to fight and win .
They might win the fight but not the battle . How do you win against the matatu and tout behaviors by confronting them every day ? How do you change the thinking and point of view of all those guards and watchmen ?
6 MAL55 / 23 ISSUE