Learning to Separate Noise from Direction

Jaret B Barron
Dec 21, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Dec 24, 2025

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” - John 10:27

When I think about this topic, I think about being a people please.

For a long time, I said yes to everything.

And saying yes to everything had me doing a whole lot of everything, but not always the right things.

To be fair, saying yes did build relationships. It put me in rooms I wouldn’t have entered otherwise. I did work nobody else wanted to do, and that mattered. Some of those yeses opened doors.

But when it becomes a habit, when you’re everywhere, drained, and seeing no fruit, that’s when yes turns into noise.

What I started noticing was this: I was pouring my best energy into other people’s visions while my own stayed boxed in. I could see the results I could be getting if I fully unleashed my own gifts without limitations, but I kept choosing comfort over the vision.

Jasai Enterprise was the first time I truly leaped.

No outside partners. No borrowed vision. Just my family, our values, and our work.

That’s when I realized something important: you have to say yes intentionally.

Noise often sounds like encouragement.

People say things like:

“When are you dropping another play?”
“When’s the next show?”
“When are you releasing another album?”

And it feels good, because it feels like demand.

But most of the time, that’s just noise. People asking because they know what you do, not because that’s what you’re called to do next.

If you chase every question, you’ll never hear direction.

When I followed noise, the feeling was always the same: confusion.

Anxiety can happen in growth. Pressure can happen in progress.

But confusion? That’s the signal.

God is not the author of confusion. So when confusion shows up, it’s usually because I’m listening to too many voices.

Direction feels different.

Direction comes when you slow down. Direction comes when you trust. Direction comes one step at a time.

I call it the Billie Jean effect, the square doesn’t light up until your foot hits it.

You don’t see the whole path. You move, then clarity follows.

I’m still learning this. Every season. Every opportunity.

The noise gets louder. But the direction gets clearer.

And the moment I truly started separating the two, everything shifted.