Signal From (Your) Noise

When you think you’re just about out of ideas…
When you’re judging the result before you even start…
When we’re holding up our best work because we’re not sure it’ll be understood…

When these things happen, we struggle with this tension between wanting a guarantee and our freedom to create. We conflate the effort with our worth, we mix up the cost of development with the idea of making an investment.

We want to avoid contributing to the noise. We want to send a strong signal.

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When it comes to a noisy environment, like social media, you’d think that your only option is to either speak more loudly, or publish better quality.

There’s another option, and that option is to add a signal.

A signal might look like you’re adding to the noise. Except, you’re adding your own contribution. You speak with your values, you seek to serve a specific person’s “from-to” progress arc, you humbly contribute with a certain predictability. You add of your heart, you lend your heartbeat.

To a noisy place with people who can choose who to listen to, your own signal will add a welcome structure to the noise. People with taste will seek you out, and maybe, they’ll tell others.

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We can all add a bit of structure to a noisy environment by merely contributing our own voice.

No need to wait until you have something that will stand out. If you find you’re different than the people who contribute to the cacophony, maybe you’re the person we’ve all been waiting to hear from.