Thereās a JLG lift at work near my office. If you donāt know what a JLG lift is, itās basically a fancy ladder on wheels. Itās a boom lift like you would see on a linemanās cherry picker truck - except minus the truck. And it beeps. And beeps. Every time the boom moves, it beeps. Which means background noise for me.
Try as I may, it shows up in my zoom calls, my podcasts, my phone conversations. Everything.Ā
While we were getting off the phone the other day, my wife said,Ā āI hope that beeping stops for you.ā I honestly hadnāt heard it in a bit. It just was in the background. I wasnāt conscious of it at that time.Ā
Thereās this thing called the Johari window that breaks up our awareness into 4 categories:Ā
1. Iām aware and youāre aware
2. Iām aware and youāre not aware
3. Iām not aware, but you are
4. Neither of us are aware
What background noise is in your background that youāre unaware of but other people can hear? What can you hear in the background of other peopleās lives that they canāt hear?