A classic comedy skit is that of a conversation between people in a loud location, that is interpreted incorrectly from not being able to clearly hear each other. I am sure you’ve seen it many times!

I once heard a story of a friend who went on a police car patrol one night. They had the music playing, the air conditioner on and they were talking whilst driving on patrol. Suddenly, the police officer put his hand up and turned everything off and listened to the police radio. Amongst all of the noise that was going on in that car, he heard a call come through on the radio that none of the other passengers heard. He quickly silenced everything and responded to the call.

Just like in those comedy scenes where conversations are misheard, or more importantly the police officer hearing the radio, our lives can often be clouded just the same. So many noises happening in our life, so much stealing our attention, that the important things tend to slip by us.

The fact is that we live and operate in a noisy environment each day. In our life it is not possible to simply turn off the distractions or put them on mute. We need to learn to just focus on the important things. Here are a few keys that can help you with that.

Intentional listening

My mother used to tell me when I was growing up that I had ‘selective deafness’. When something was on offer, or she asked me if I would like something such as a drink, then of course I could hear her. The moment the request came to go and tidy my bedroom, suddenly I couldn’t hear. Just like that situation, we need to have intentional hearing but for the positive. We need to be listening out for the things in our life that are important and make sure that amongst all the noise that’s happening, that we hear them no matter how small the sound is.

Make yourself familiar

We often have friends over to watch a movie, have dinner or just to socialize in our home. Most of our friends have young children, so it is not uncommon for us to be sitting in the lounge room talking while there are 6 or 7 children in the different bedrooms asleep. What always amazes me is that a baby can cry and the parents suddenly know that it is their child. For some of our friends who don’t have children, they look puzzled and ask whose child is crying – but the parent already knows. It is because there is a familiarity with that voice. The child is so important to the parent that they can hear them amongst all the other noise. Get familiar with those important noises in your life, so you can clearly hear them above the clutter.

Turn off the unnecessary noise or even turn down the noise

If you ever been watching television and suddenly the commercials come on, you would have noticed how they seem to be louder than the normal volume. The first thing that we do is to reach for the remote control and hit the mute button so we can talk while the commercials are on.

That it is how it is with our life. Late at night when you are lying in bed, your house can seem so noisy. You hear the fridge buzzing, you notice car doors being closed down the other end of the street or maybe even an insect buzzing around the room. These are sounds you don’t notice during the day because the house is active and noisy. Taking away unnecessary noise, and reducing the volume opens up the space to hear the small noises you don’t normally notice.

In our life, getting control of the things that are important and hearing them above all the noise is sometimes as simple as turning things off. The things that are unimportant, but are making a lot of noise and a lot of distraction. A flick of a switch and your life can be transformed.