Happy Sunday Everyone. If you’re like me, you’ve spent part of the morning, mourning the loss of an ENTIRE HOUR of weekend. I am so not a fan of daylight savings time. Even in the fall where we get that hour of weekend back. Just stop playing with time.
Well now that I’ve gotten that out of the way – on with the post.
I am really uncomfortable making noise.
This makes absolutely no sense, if you consider what’s on my current playlist – Arch Enemy and Trivium are pretty heavily in the rotation. However, if you consider that I go to great lengths to keep my day-to-day activities muffled, muted…Inaudible…It starts to make sense, up to a point.
I’ve got noise cancelling earbuds (Really good ones) so I can listen without sound bleeding into the space around me. I don’t want to be a disturbance. And this isn’t just about music. It’s spilled out into other areas of my life. I’ve got a walk that would drive a rogue green with envy. If I’ve got to take a call, I take myself as far away from other people as I possibly can. I even try to do dishes quietly.
Now you might be thinking that’s simple consideration – and a great deal of it is. The problem is that, somewhere along the way, I took it too far. I turned my silence up to Eleven (Bonus points if you get the reference). I’ve inadvertently startled folk who didn’t hear me coming. There is a certain level of stress that comes with constantly monitoring my output levels. I think twice before tooting my own horn – Not good when you’re the head of your own marketing department (As most authors are). Worst of all: I’ve been stifling myself.
After all, you can’t learn to play the guitar without making noise. Learning to play the drums? Forget it. You can’t record a podcast, or do any other vocal work without making sound. You can’t build anything, really, without breaking that sound barrier.
You can’t really be yourself if you’re perpetually smothering parts of you.
It’s time for a change.
Now I’m not going to turn overnight (or ever) into one of those people who drive around with a sound system turned up so loud you can hear me from three car-lengths away, through closed windows. But I definitely need to step out of my comfort zone to build the kind of life I want to live.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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