Broken headphones can SPEAK! A simple little lesson.

As many of you know, I host the morning breakfast show on RainbowFM 90.7 daily from 6-9am.  I enjoy every minute on air with my two crazy co-hosts but it doesn't come without some challenges. 
Waking up early is still the hardest part for me and most mornings I am thankful that it is radio and not TV.

 



A Real challenge we experienced recently was one that affected our show more than we realised.  One of the knobs that controls the headphone volume at one of the seats was broken and resulted in one of us not being able to hear when we were 'On AIR'.  It was extremely frustrating for whoever ended up at that seat because that person was expected to just "make do without it".  We tried to turn the knob differently, or increase the in studio volume in attempt to have some of the sound bleed through but it was more trouble than it was worth and we eventually just resorted to getting by without it until it was fixed.  Technicians would come and have a look at it whenever they could. There was no urgency from their side.

I would occasionally pick the phones up and hope for a miracle but it just wasn't happening and so I made peace with it and forgot about using it too. And so for about a week or two they just lay there on the counter and we all just pretended that those headphones were not even there.

But then last week, something amazing happened... I tried the phones again and ... IT WORKED.  I could hear clearly. And I could turn the knob again to control my volume. 
I was so excited and couldn't wait to announce to the rest of the team that it had been fixed, but they were hardly even moved by my emotion.  Thato's response was "Oh ja, it's been working for like two days already... it's been fixed."

AND THEN THE LESSON HAPPENED. . .

I had just missed out on about 2 days worth of good quality sound because I had become so used to a certain other "noise".  I had settled for the mediocre "sound" and had started accepting the negative report the situation had presented us with.  I had given up on checking the progress of the repairs, or checking for an improvement and had stopped expecting a change. 

How often don't we do that in life?  We stop putting on our "LIFE HEADPHONES" to hear more.  We become so used to all the noise and voices coming at us.  We used to be able to filter the good ones from the bad ones in order to hear what we needed to, but after a while everything just sounds so overwhelming that we just STOP LISTENING ALTOGETHER.  And that's the dangerous part...

By being apathetic we miss out on some important things we need to hear.  We don't hear reminders of some of the promises we'd already received.  We don't hear the alarms signalling time to take action for some important things we need to do.  We don't hear the cries for help from those who may be standing right in front of us screaming at the top of their lungs; and we even stop hearing the still small voice that gives direction, peace and instruction. 

I have found myself having to put my headphones back on recently.  I have had to do that in order to drown out some wrong background noise again in order to focus on hearing correctly so that I can be 'On Cue' all the time and bring my 'A-Game'.  I have needed to turn up the volume when I replayed some of those previous promises.  I've had to hear them LOUD & CLEAR again in case I had forgotten.

Although some of the sounds are the same as before, you'd be surprised at how you might just hear some new details for the first time...

TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN AGAIN...

Be Encouraged.
D