At the core of Heroik Culture is our mantra: Mission Ready For Life. This is an attitude and dedication to both personal and professional growth, and it has many implications. One of the key practices boils down to this: cultivate that which serves you, and proudly hit the eject button on that which does not.  Bruce Lee, the Martial Arts legend, said “Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.”

So, want to make like the lord of kung-fu, empty your cup, and get trigger happy with the eject button? Read on!

This is what we do for a living at Heroik Media. We help our clients filter out the noise in their practice, process, and culture that gets in the way of their performance.  We help our clients empty their cup and free their TEE (time, effort and energy) so they may pour it into meaningful endeavors. And we use this Heroik discipline to create captivating and empowering experiences for our clients and their customers. In this series of posts, we’re going to pass on some wisdom to help you do the same in your personal life.

The ability to focus and be discerning, (to filter out noise in all forms) is important in an age when people have the attention spans of goldfish. There is a great deal of noise in our lives; voices, sounds and imagery of dysfunction, co-dependence and suffering. We want and need to make room.  Ultimately, we want to free our minds and attention spans from distraction, and spend on it on more meaningful and productive activities.

In life, noise in general hinders our ability to live and work mindfully. It disrupts our focus and performance. And there’s a lot of noise out there, on the web, on television, on the radio, on the streets, in meeting rooms, etc. There are many things; thoughts, habits, places, and even people that are not serving you, your business, or your community. This is noise.

It’s important to get crystal clear and down into the nitty gritty about the many things that are probably not serving you, (those things that are adding noise to your life). This is where you start – merely identifying them, will increase your performance, help you clean up your act, and get you positioned to be mission ready for life.

Ask yourself, is letting in all the noise serving you? Or would filtering out more of it serve you better?

The noise weighs us down. Start filtering noise and you will improve your life and make room to attract more of what actually helps you perform at your best. The following tips and examples will help you filter the noise and transform the noisy habits into more positive and creative energy.

We’ll start this journey to rid ourselves of noise with media since a) it’s prolific, (everywhere) and b) it’s easy to filter out. Simply by being more aware, discerning and critical of the media you choose to consume, you can refine your habits, and improve your thoughts, feelings, behavior, and of course performance.

Many different forms of media are fragmenting our attention, disrupting our well-being, growth, improvement, performance, and new endeavors. We channel surf between channels and mediums, from web to phone to radio to TV, and this gets in the way by adding noise. This noise prevents us from resolving personal issues and developing our skills, capabilities, and relationships. It also pulls our attention from the pursuit of higher aspirations, goals, adventures and new experiences.

Here are 5 Super moves that will help you filter media noise regardless of medium:

• Unsubscribe & Switch – out with the status quo in with the better
• Power & Mute – the ability to turn things off or make them silent
• Fast Forward – the ability to skip the negative
• Create a Playlist – the ability to curate something personal and empowering
• Create & Broadcast – the ability to create something and share it with an audience

I will explain how to apply each of these to specific types of media in greater detail in coming articles. Pick and choose which new practices are right for you and your family.

Here are 7 Quick Examples:

• You may unsubscribe and switch your classic cable box for Tivo, netflix and/or Hulu plus giving you less commercials (noise) and more control (awareness)
• You may unsubscribe and switch from traditional radio to mp3, podcast, audio books, and/or satellite radio, thereby killing the commercials and giving you control over the content
• You may learn to mute, fast-forward, or turn off any content that doesn’t serve you on any medium; mute the commercials, fast-forward through them or turn the device off when they bombard you (radio,TV or the web)
• In many areas of your life you can create media playlists for all the mediums of your life, and listen, watch, and read only the things that serve you
• You can unsubscribe & switch from Facebook to more focused attention on actual relationships in the real world
• You may learn to use social media as less of a comparative way to keep up with the Jones’, and more of a personal victory board. You can do this by sharing the real events and things you cherish, enjoy, are proud of and want to cultivate. Switch to a broadcast model and let others be annoyed by how awesome your life is (if they so choose)
• You may learn to create more of your own content, adventures and experiences and share it with the world, refining and reinforcing your beliefs, values and aspirations, while consuming far less of the noise. This will bring you more satisfaction and fulfillment in your life.

Family Moment

Speaking of your family, do them a favor. Help them pick up some of these healthy habits and super moves to eject more of the junk, filter out the noise, and identify and attract what brings them lasting joy and empowerment. These gifts may go under appreciated now, but you’ll be their hero later in life. These habits will help free your life of the clutter and noise, allowing you to become more of the person you want to be, and by leading by example and passing on these practices, they will do the same for your family.

Now, Some Good News

The world of content is competing for your attention, and it changes itself, second by second to appeal to you. You are a coveted treasure. The world wants you to consume what they offer, and to buy what they sell. This starts with their content. The good news is that you are like a celebrity to the commercial world, so you can afford to be picky. Filtering out the noise or negative media habits will liberate some of your time and money for better things. The more aggressive you are at attacking these habits and getting them down to the essential, the more time and money you’ll have to do something more fulfilling. Maybe you’ve been daydreaming for a retreat to wine country, a trip to the great outdoors or some other great place. With some quick fixes, subtle tweaks and small steps, you can reclaim time, feel better, improve your life and have more money saved for that trip. Let’s get started.

2 Steps to Get Started

1) Take an inventory, make a list of all media you consume (TV, web, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, etc). Consider one item at a time and ask yourself, is it (or your current level of consuming it) truly serving you? Is it helping you be more of the person you want to be? Or is it noise? Get trigger happy and start hitting the eject button to dump that garbage and make room to improve your life and performance.

2)  If you lack the will or desire to quit any of these cold turkey, start by simply being more picky and critical about what you watch, read and listen to. Choose to watch things that leave you feeling energized, inspired, and happy. Hit the eject button on the media that leaves you feeling needlessly angry, depressed, or down trodden.

Mindless consumption of noise eats away at your limits, ability to remain sane and mindful, and therefore impairs your performance. We all have our own limits. We have limits on the level of noise we can consume and still keep our sanity. In Heroik culture, we have a saying to always carry our MAP (Mindfulness, Awareness, and Presence). When mindful, aware and present, you are operating at peak performance in your life and work. Not depressed by the past nor anxious for the future, you can dedicate all you’ve got to the moment and task at hand. You can better serve others, your job, and loved ones. You can make better decisions if you can retain your MAP (your flow state). What gets in the way of that flow?  Noise is one notion.

Just as you want to consume healthy foods to keep your body and mind in good working order, you want to do the same with the sights, sounds and information you consume with your other senses as well. If you are looking at magazines, watching TV shows, browsing the web, or listening to programs that disrupt you from loving yourself for who you are in the moment, how does that impact your ability to love and care for others? How can you be Heroik if the garbage is getting in the way of your self confidence, self compassion, emotional intelligence and so on?

The average person watches 5.5 hours of TV per day. How much of that is inspiring or empowering?

• How many programs do you watch that are serving you?
• How many are helping you treat yourself with more compassion and mindfulness?
• How many are helping you help others?
• This isn’t a programming priority in the studios, but it should be one in your life

Start where you are.

Just because you’re not a level 7 Laser Lotus yet, doesn’t mean you can’t make huge improvements right now. Start wherever you are. You can make little tweaks by taking advantage of these 5 super moves, and the ultimate power to hit the eject button that which isn’t serving you. Little improvements bring greater awareness and insight, which helps us.

Getting better is good enough for now.

Applying This to Your Business

Imagine if you applied this same discipline to your practices, metrics, influences, advisors, programs, products and services of your company. Imagine transforming your business to identify, pinpoint, and focus on what matters. Imagine using it to transform your products and how you relate and empower your customers. This is exactly what we do.