“Never miss an opportunity to shut up.”
Will Rogers
Listen. Look. Be aware. Observe. Pay attention. Be present. Hear what
is to be heard. Stay curious. Communication is talking, listening, and
seeing, mostly listening, intently. Cultivate keen awareness. We must
always work on listening. Try to talk with people. Communicate with
people. You will always learn something. Listening helps the other
person. They just want to be heard. Just wanting someone to listen
to them. Respect them. Show respect by listening. Listen to the water
flowing in the creek. Listen to the wind. Listen to the birds. Listen to the
tone of the other person’s voice. Listen to body language. Listen to the
message behind the words. Listen to the choice of words. Slow down
and listen. Pay attention. Show a genuine interest in what the other
person is saying. Be engaged. Spend the time. Be curious and you will
learn something or help someone because you listened. Awareness.
Observance. Perception. Point of view. Heightened awareness of what
is happening around us. Pay attention. Life is about where you choose
to place your attention. There are things to be seen, heard, or soaked
in that may pass us by. Be careful not to judge, just observe, just listen.
Just be. Let emotions flow. Feel, listen, observe, ascertain the intent of
what is the message behind the message. Words are just words. Where
is the hidden truth? Listen to it. Look for it. Be open. Be transparent.
Stop, look, and listen for life’s beauty. It is there. Not always in plain sight.
Sometimes you must look closer for it. Sometimes it is blindingly obvious.
Listening to learn. Listening to learn is the highest level of listening.
The most helpful type of listening, both to ourselves because we truly
learn, but also to the other person because it allows them to be heard
on a deep-down human level passing on their knowledge. Connection.
We must fight our urge to listen to argue. Always be right. To take over.
To just tell the other person what to do or think. How about we just
listen? Pause, reflect, be curious. We will be more helpful and may learn
something ourselves. Look for the message behind the message. It is
there. We just need to look for it. Listen. Body language. Tone of voice.
Hidden messages, but not really hidden, right there in front of us. If we
just listen. Pause. Reflect. State curious. Listen to learn. The less we talk
the more we learn. The less you talk the more you will be heard. Talk,
talk, talk, and people tune you out. Blab on and when you actually have
something important to add to the conversation no one will hear it. Like
the boy who cried wolf, your insights will be diluted into your blabber.
Never talk over people, it is rude. You cannot listen if you are talking.
How often do we keep babbling on thinking we are really driving
our point home? Make a point or points, make them with strength,
confidence, and conviction then sit down and shut up. There is great
power in that. Short, sweet and to the point. The reason so many of
us cannot do that. We are not prepared. We do not put in the work
to make it simple. We have nagging doubts about ourselves. We are
trying to convince ourselves. We think we are prepared, but like Mark
Twain said, “if I had the time, I would make it shorter.”
You can get the International bestseller The Shi*t I Wished I learned in College here:
No comments:
Post a Comment