I have a concept that I am floating around in my mind and the closest I can come up with is the signal loss that a cellular phone has to a cell tower. As noise increases, the greater the signal loss. This is recorded in a negative number in dbM. The close the number gets to 0, the better the signal strength.
This is analogous to the concept that I am working on. If you are a spiritual person and have a belief in a supreme being, you might equate the cell tower to that entity. The less distance, the less obstructions and noise between you and the source, the more powerful the signal will be.
Spirituality aside, the concept of signal strength or signal intensity has merit. This begs the question, however, is there a right way or the best way to be going about achieving your goals? This way of thinking traces roots back far into our culture. Even as far back as Plato in Greek thought. The believe that there is an optimum path, or the perfect path, or the perfect form. The way of humankind therefore has some standard deviation from the perfect path, the right way, the moral way, or the will of God.
The question is then this. If I get closer to the right way, does the signal strength increase. If I remove the noise, then as a consequence will the way forward seem equally more clear and precise? I ask this question on a deep and personal level. I have goals that I am trying to achieve. There are days when I feel like I am absolutely aligned and heading the right direction. There are other days, when I feel completely out of alignment, cloudy and confused.
So if there is a hypothetical “right way” or “best way” to accomplishing my objectives, then the solution to getting closer to that path is to eliminate as much noise as possible. The reduced noise will cause an increase in signal strength and I will have an easier time getting to my objective.
So if my analogy is close to accurate, then in order to accomplish my goals and to have a clear and straight path for doing so, then I need to eliminate noise. This is a different concept, because most the time, I am trying to figure out a better path. I am trying to perfect what I do, and how I do it. Perhaps a different way to look at the same problem is to instead focus on reducing the amount of noise and the way forward will become easier to see and I will have to spend less time trying to figure it out.
On a practical level, I can then do everything I can to make my routine, my efforts simple without a lot of complexity. Reduce and eliminate noise and keep my focus simple and my execution precise. By doing this, I will begin to see a clear path forward and I do not need to spend so much time trying to “figure out my own way” and realize that as the signal improves the way forward is already defined, quite easy to see and not as complicated as I thought.
The moral of this story is that if you are spending too much time trying to figure out a system, or the way to succeed then what you should really work on is reducing the noise first. Simple execution of a sound plan with little distraction should be the goal moving forward.
Guy Reams
