Clear the Noise from Your Head

I had just settled into my seat on a crowded Amtrak train, when I realized that the public address speaker was uncomfortably close to my head. I discovered this because it was sputtering an annoying static sound.

It seemed like a long time before a conductor appeared, and of course, for every moment that passed, the noise seemed to get louder. Eventually, someone showed up and took care of the problem after I pointed it out.

During the blissful silence that followed, I reflected on how "mental noise" has the same effect. It grows louder the more you think about it, and eventually it can dominate your thoughts.

Consider, for example, the co-worker who inappropriately "called you out", resulting in you spending hours trying to figure out what really happened and how to respond.

Or, when a rude cashier snapped at you for seemingly no reason, and how the irritation from that interaction lingered for the rest of the day.

These situations - and countless other examples - can be as agitating as that static was.

Such noise can fill our heads, if we allow it to do so. And when that happens, it affects our concentration, our productivity and our clarity.

You can't prevent such noise from occurring in the first place, but you can change how you react to it. Take action to minimize or eliminate it, just like I asked the conductor to fix the static problem.