Who and what we listen to will affect our lives. If the voices that have our ear are encouraging us and inspiriting us to live a life of excellence–in our character, in our attitudes, in our work—and not to settle for mediocrity, we will be the better for it. But there are other voices out their that don’t call out our best, but rather urge us to compromise our ideals, to fit in at all costs, to take the easy road, to avoid being challenged or pushed. And there are still other voices our there that are just noise. They don’t really say anything meaningful at all, but just preoccupy our time.
These voices are around us all the time, and we have a choice of who we will listen to. Whether it be though what we watch, what we read, what we listen to, or who we get to know, we have a choice of which messages will have our ear.
And sometimes the biggest threat to our growth are the voices that merely take up our time and attention without imparting anything of significance. They don’t call us to do anything bad, but they steal our focus and keep us from investing our time in listening to those voices that could actually be of benefit.