Signal to Noise

Technically, the signal to noise ratio is a phrase from radio communications that is useful in many areas of science and engineering.

The signal to noise ratio (SNR) compares the strength of a desired signal to the strength of the background noise around it.

When the SNR is greater than 1:1 – the background noise is — drowning out the signal and you have to do something about that.

Just as The Essential Few post concentrated on vital areas and outputs; we now look at the intensity of your “signals” compared to the background noise.

In this case, the background noise is ANYTHING that distracts you or pulls you away from you doing or being the highest you possibly can be – it could be inner distractions (“You are your own worst enemy”, or refusing to discipline your attention or inner dialogue, allowing yourself to run various mind games and distractions inside which steal, dispel, or otherwise dilute your power and affective force as a human being) or they can be outward circumstances or conditions, or even “realities” you have allowed to pile up around you.

The signal is what you are doing with your life, your energy, your intents and purposes, your work, your loved ones, your hobbies – anywhere where you are expressing your real intent, through purposive activities.

The SNR is the expression of the intensity you are able to bring to your life endeavors. It can be observed in WHAT you produce; it will show up in HOW you overcome the obstacles and address the daily indignities that life throws at you; it will show up in how much you are able to bring to any party you might be invited to – (remember the 5% solution? – it is part of SNR)

Changing the SNR requires you to take a deep, hard and long look at what you are seeking, and looking at The Essential Few elements and digging deeper into what you are seeking through them.

When you are certain about what you are seeking, and what you will do and not do to achieve it; you are then in a position to begin looking at the life circumstances you have allowed to complicate your situation and assess how you are creating noise and diluting the real you, by tolerating what is not really a desired part of you.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but this consideration usually produces a more generous and outward facing desire – some of the me, me, me self-centeredness starts to peel away, and consideration of the desires and needs of others increases.

Why? Because the consideration brings you to the ends of your searching. Once you “get it/do it/express it/own it/be it”… then what?

Of course, there are some folks who are exclusively self-focused… and woe to those around them. But for the most part, when you deeply consider what you are doing, and what you are doing it for (“What does this do for me, get for me or give me?… and then what? What is the next step AFTER that?”); the results are first, liberating but then they require a response – a real embodied gesture that expresses these higher values and purposes.

“If all you’ve done is all you could do; then the least you can do is up the ante.”

When your purpose is clear, you can then restructure just about any part of your activities that you please; make decisions that were previously difficult easily; but more importantly be free to use your focused capacities with great strength and potency.

It is a lifetime’s work, with a lifetime’s worth of gaffs and giggles and errors and corrections and always… an increasing sense of ability to do.

May it be so.

To begin:

1. Choose a major project you are involved with where you apply these prosperity habit methods.
2. Review your written goals, desired results and any other written tracking materials you have in relation to the project.
3. Imagine the goals of the project as totally fulfilled and you have succeeded in every way, and every other area of life you had hoped would benefit has been benefited. Spend some time at this.
4. Ask yourself:
   “With all of this being so; what does it do for me or get for me or give me?”
   Whatever response arises, add that response back into your goal and end-state writings.
   As a shorthand example, if the project is “to run my own profitable graphic design company… etc., etc.” and the response to the question was “a sense of freedom”, then the new goal writing would be: “to run my own profitable design company… to create a greater sense of freedom… etc.”
5. With the results of the question in #4. and the new goal statement (which can be as long and detailed as necessary – shorter is NOT better); ask the question AGAIN but including the newly added material.
   “With all of THIS now being so; what does it do for me or get for me or give me?”
   Whatever response arises, add the new response back into your goal and end-state writings.
   Rewrite it again but in an expanded version including the new material.
   Repeat this until you seem to feel complete, or happy or whatever it is that’s at the top for you.
6. With the results of that, ask “And then what…?”
   This should not be easy to answer, and it might require much thinking and considering. That is good. That is how it should be.
   This is the key question as it next leads to…
7. Take what’ve discovered and apply it to your project. You now have much higher criteria for the project and a much, much bigger canvas to paint on.

Use the power and strength that you’ve discovered to power up the project.

Start to clear your inner noise in relation to the greater project. Begin eliminating your own non-sense and blocking before accusing others.

Clear your own stuff first, then deal with the outside world.

You will need to remind yourself daily, weekly, and forever of what your projects and work and life are really all about.

Make the world around you conform more to your higher values. Do so by opening to what others want. Then, let the dance begin.

As Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek, the Next Generation would say:

“Make it so, #1”